| In 1866, Dr. Webster, the school's female physician advised the freshmen girls at Vassar College that playing baseball would be great exercise, which is essential for good health. The freshman formed two teams, the Laurels and Abenakis. In looking over old photos of the teams, we note that the girls played in full-length dark-colored gowns, but wore regular baseball caps. Other women's colleges soon started playing baseball. Then one day everything came to a halt at Vassar- as one of the lady players wrote and explained in a letter- 'One day a student, while running between the bases, fell with an injured leg. We attended her to the infirmary, with the foreboding that this accident would end our play of baseball. Dr. Webster said that the public would condemn the game as too violent, but that if the student had hurt herself while dancing, the public would not condemn dancing to extinction'. Signed Sophia Richardson The teams were disbanded after complaints from disapproving mothers. In 1880, the girls again tried forming baseball teams at Vassar College - but the girls were rebuffed and told the game is just too violent for ladies and were forced to disband. Baseballhistorian.com archives Research Dept. Green Boxes | 
