During World War II, it seemed that the end of Major League Baseball was eminent.
The United States was in a recession, and young men who would typically be out on the baseball diamond entertaining the crowds (that couldn't afford the tickets anyway) were needed to fight in the war.
At the same time, there was an air of disgust toward the sport, as the remaining high-paid sports stars were continuing to play a child's game while their loved ones were being killed on the battlefield.
Americans were so busy preparing for food, clothing, gas, and other daily items to go into shortage and rationing, they couldn't be bothered to spend time relaxing in a ballpark.
Philip Wrigley (who owned the Wrigley chewing gum factory) was the owner of the Chicago Cubs at the time and was concerned for the future of baseball.
The president of the professional league himself wanted to shut down the sport, thinking that the league would begin losing money due to lack of interest.
However, President Roosevelt convinced him otherwise.
With new jobs opening up in factories where men had to leave the workplace to enter the Armed Forces, women were left to fill the positions.
Seeing their ability to pick up where the men left off, Wrigley decided that women could play baseball (instead of their usual softball).
Seeing that there was already an interest in women's softball, they created a mixture of the two sports for the women to play, with an underhand pitch with a 12-inch ball being used with a standard baseball rule book.
The girls wore skirts (to appear as ladies) and were well paid.
Wrigley himself invested $100,000 of his own money to fund the league, paying each of the first four teams $22,500 for the first season and using the remaining $10,000 to run the league office in Chicago.