February 13, 2025

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Growing up in Prince George, B.C., future Women’s National Team mainstay Amanda Asay was a big fan of “A League of Their Own,” the 1992 movie directed by Penny Marshall that chronicled the early days of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Decades later, Asay – who died tragically after a skiing accident in 2022 at age 33 – will be posthumously inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame alongside Canadian AAGPBL star Arleene Noga, who consulted on and appeared in the beloved film that introduced new generations to the pioneering women’s baseball league.

Noga, who died in 2017 at age 93, was scouted out of Regina, Sask., as a Senior A softball player and signed with the AAGPBL in 1944. She played 15 games for the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1945 before a trade to the Muskegon Lassies the following year.

In Michigan, Noga became a star at the hot corner with the expansion Lassies. Her .942 fielding percentage set a league record for third base and the Lassies won the pennant in 1947.

Known as the “Iron Lady” for playing in over 300 consecutive games, Noga ended her AAGPBL career in 1948 after 354 games, ranking among the top 10 among Canadian players in at-bats, hits, runs, RBIs and stolen bases.

At a Feb. 12 press conference announcing this year’s inductees, Noga’s daughter, Carol Lee Scott, said her mother rarely spoke of her exploits on the diamond, focusing instead on the people who made her time in baseball special.

“A lot of reminiscing about the friendships. She didn’t tell a lot of ball stories as much as people (stories),” Scott told reporters.

“But I know that she was proud of her achievements. She always tried to take the focus off of her and talk more about the league, and the honour of playing in that league, even though it was short-lived.”

Back in Saskatchewan after her stint as a trailblazer south of the border, Noga stayed on the field as a player and coach for nearly 30 years, winning nine provincial softball championships and five Western Canadian titles.

Scott said she spent her childhood being “toted along” to softball games, baseball clinics, and school assemblies around Saskatchewan and across the country, watching her mother share her talent and love of the game with waves of younger players.

“It was amazing, just seeing her do it with the passion that she did. She never turned down an opportunity to appear at a clinic,” Scott said, likening her mother’s dedication to that of Asay’s several generations later.

“Like Amanda’s parents said about Amanda, mom just did it for the love of the sport,” Scott said. “Playing was her passion.”

Noga’s experience in the AAGPBL made such an impression on her that she spent 12 years on the board of directors of the AAGPBL Players Association, serving as a spokesperson for the Canadians who had suited up for the league. That involvement brought her to Hollywood to act as a technical advisor for “A League of Their Own.”

“On set, she worked with many of the actors and taught Rosie O’Donnell the nuances of playing shortstop and Madonna how to slide,” the Hall of Fame said in a press release.

Noga also appeared as an extra in the film, which opened Scott’s eyes to her mother’s early career.

“Mom never talked about her playing while I was growing up, and I really didn’t know much about it until the movie came out. Then it started being talked about,” Scott said.

Including in the Asay household, where young Amanda watched the hit movie on repeat while growing into the two-way star she would become during her 15 years playing for Canada on the world stage.

“Oh yeah. I think it’s on her playlist on her hard drive,” said George Asay, Amanda’s father, of “A League of Their Own.”

“And it was interesting to hear about Arleene, because there’s a lot of parallels there. The love of the game. Giving back to the game,” George added, mentioning his daughter’s burgeoning love of instructing and coaching as she neared the end of her playing career.

“That was going to be her next big triumph, for sure,” he said.

“Amanda did camps in Cuba, in Toronto, in Prince George, in Nelson. And she was one who’d never say no. She’d say, yeah, why not? I could go to that. I don’t know how she was able to do as much as she did in the short time she was around, because she seemed to be always available for whomever.”

“That’s baseball,” Amanda’s mother, Loris, said with a smile.

Asay, Noga and the rest of the Class of 2025 will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in St. Marys on June 7.