In 1897 the Boston Bloomer Girls debuted their new star, seventeen year old pitcher and notable 3rd baseman, Maud Nelson. From 1899-1902 at the beginning of baseball’s silver age, she played for the Chicago Bloomer Girls where it was noted that the “pitching skills of Maud Nelson attracted attention, and some men found to their chagrin that they couldn’t get a hit off her” despite this however she was “never asked to major league tryouts” (Berlage 35). 1903 saw her playing for the sexually integrated Star Bloomers Baseball Club of Indianapolis team which consisted of six women and three men. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century she starred for the all male Cherokee Indian Baseball Club at age 27, where she would meet her first husband John B. Olson Jr
In 1897 the Boston Bloomer Girls debuted their new star, seventeen year old pitcher and notable 3rd baseman, Maud Nelson. From 1899-1902 at the beginning of baseball’s silver age, she played for the Chicago Bloomer Girls where it was noted that the “pitching skills of Maud Nelson attracted attention, and some men found to their chagrin that they couldn’t get a hit off her” despite this however she was “never asked to major league tryouts” (Berlage 35). 1903 saw her playing for the sexually integrated Star Bloomers Baseball Club of Indianapolis team which consisted of six women and three men. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century she starred for the all male Cherokee Indian Baseball Club at age 27, where she would meet her first husband John B. Olson Jr
By 1911 Maud Nelson and John Olson were married and had founded the Western bloomer Girls together where Maud served as a manager and scout, while continuing to pitch and play third base. Their team barnstormed from Nova Scotia to Florida. It’s unclear how many teams they owned at a single time but it is known that they also owned the American Athletic Girls in 1914 which Maud also played for. Mr. Olson passed away in 1917, during which time Maud took up touring with the Boston Bloomer Girls again and managed the Chicago Athletic Club. In 1922 at age 41 Maud Nelson retired from playing at the dawn of baseballs Golden Age; though she would make guest pitching appearances for the Boston Bloomer Girls a year later. She also met and married Constante Dellacqua, and in the ensuing years raised her stepson Joe Dellacqua while continuing to manage teams until the 1930’s when the depression made it difficult to keep a team going. Maud Nelson passed away in 1944, in Chicago, IL, supposedly just a pitchers throw away from Wrigley field. In 2001 she was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. |