There was no crying in baseball — or in life — for Margaret Wigiser.

That's because Wigiser was a fighter.

Besides being a champion on the playing field as a member of the Rockford Peaches — one of the teams featured in "A League of Their Own" — she also was a champion for young girls who wanted to be just like her. Way before Title IX, Wigiser won the battle to allow girls in New York City schools to play interscholastic sports, just like boys.

Wigiser, who lived in Hobe Sound for 30 years, died Jan. 19. She was 94.

"She left a real legacy of sportsmanship, citizenship, comradeship," said Lynne Kahn, of Stuart, who was Wigiser's close friend for almost 60 years. "She was very admired and mentored many, many young women."

Wigiser, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, played centerfield for the Peaches — the winningest team in the history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — and was instrumental in helping the team win its first league championship in 1945. The Peaches went on to win three more championships in 1948, 1949 and 1950.

The 1992 film "A League of Their Own," directed by the late Penny Marshall, is a mostly fictionalized account of the league and its beginnings during World War II.

"Wiggie" — her nickname on the playing field — saw the movie but told Kahn it had "many inconsistencies," but she was glad the program got publicity.

Even in retirement, Wigiser kept busy. She won several club championships at Heritage Ridge Golf Club, where she lived, and was an avid bowler and tennis player. She loved playing poker and traveled extensively, too.

"Her whole life was centered around sports," Kahn said.

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Play ball!

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which existed from 1943 to 1954, was founded by chewing gum manufacturer Philip K. Wrigley. Several major league baseball executives decided to start a new professional league with women players to keep baseball in the public eye since men joined the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

While Wigiser was a student at Hunter College in New York City, she saw an ad in the newspaper about tryouts for the AAGPBL. Wigiser and a few of her friends — each of them contributed $2 for gas — traveled to New Jersey for the tryouts.

Wigiser was selected.

Then, she had to tell her parents.

"Her father said absolutely not," Kahn said. "Her mother said, 'I always wanted a chance to be somebody. Let her go.' And so she went."

Wigiser entered the AAGPBL with the Minneapolis Millerettes, according to her profile on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League website. She was considered one of the earliest sluggers in the league. While playing with the Millerettes, she recorded the longest home run ever hit at Rockford Park. After the Millerettes folded, the Rockford Peaches picked up her contract.

According to the AAGPBL website, Wigiser played 86 games during the Peaches' championship season in 1945, batting .249 with 77 hits, 35 RBIs and two home runs. She also racked up 24 stolen bases.

Wigiser only played from 1944 to 1946, so she could return to Hunter College.

More than 40 years later, Wigiser, and the rest of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, were honored with a permanent display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

"Margaret always said (playing in the AAGPBL) was a great experience," Kahn said. "It was the first time she was out of Brooklyn. Most young girls didn't leave home until they got married."

The AAGPBL Players Association shared the news of Wigiser's death Jan. 24 on its Facebook page:

Fighting for girls to play sports

Wigiser began her career as a physical education teacher at a middle school in the Bronx, Kahn said. Eventually, she became a high school teacher and then a department supervisor.

"She was leaving school one day and she looked out at the playing fields and it was full of boys playing soccer, football, tennis, baseball, so she says, 'I got mad,' " Kahn said. "She got mad and decided to go to war."

Wigiser recruited a few young teachers, including Kahn, and went to the New York City Board of Education to petition for girls to be able to participate in interscholastic sports, years before the passage of Title IX.

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Kahn recalls the reason the school board did not want girls to participate in sports: If girls lost, they would cry.

"We, as young people, had played sports in college," Kahn said. "We recognized the value of participating as a team member, or testing yourself or pushing yourself, challenging yourself."

Eventually, Wigiser's fight for equality paid off.

"Margaret said if you have the ball in your court, you control the game," Kahn said. "Sports is a real part of the culture. It reflects the culture of the time. And Margaret absolutely changed the culture."

Kahn, now 76 and retired, was a teacher and coach and eventually became an athletic director in White Plains, New York.

"(Wigiser) was kind of like my mentor. She was very influential in my life," she said. "I kept moving up in the scale of things and (Wigiser) was very proud of that. We maintained this very long friendship."

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Wigiser also introduced leadership programs to students at New York City high schools.

Every spring, three top students from each school would be invited to a leadership weekend that involved games, activities and discussions about what it meant to be a leader.

"It was really very motivating, inspirational, and I have to say it was exciting," Kahn said. "And as a result, a lot of the kids went to college and became coaches and teachers. So, (Wigiser) certainly made her mark."

Wigiser worked as a physical education teacher from 1948 through 1969, directed the PSAL (Public School Athletic League) from 1969 to 1982 and helped pave the way for additional funding of girls sports. She led coaching clinics and set up programs to train women to become sports officials.

By the time Wigiser retired, more than a dozen sports were available to girls, including basketball, volleyball, cross-country, tennis, gymnastics, softball and golf.

Even though she never verbalized it, Kahn said Wigiser believed when you come into this life, you have to leave it a better place.

"And she obviously did," Kahn said. "She was very influential and a real mentor and that's one of the reasons we remained friends all these years."

A funeral mass for Wigiser will be 2 p.m. Feb. 6 at St. Christopher Catholic Church, 12001 S.E. Federal Highway in Hobe Sound. Donations in her memory can be made to Girls on the Run International, 801 Morehead St., Suite 201, Charlotte, NC 28202.

Maureen Kenyon is TCPalm's trends reporter, keeping Treasure Coast residents updated on hot topics and happenings. Do you have a story to tell? Want to start a conversation? Send an email to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com, call 772-221-4249 or follow her on Twitter @_MaureenKenyon_.