A chat with 'Salty' Sands

Sarah Jane “Salty” Sands and some of the other original players of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League were a little concerned when Madonna was cast for the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.”

“She didn’t have such a good reputation,” said Sands during a break in signing autographs last Saturday at an event that featured five of the original women players at the Days Inn in Horsham.
The event, sponsored by the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society, which has a museum and gift shop in Horsham (www.philadelphiaathletics.org), was the second such autograph show the society has had in as many years featuring the professional women baseball players.
Sands, from Orangeville, PA, played two seasons for the Rockford Peaches as an outfielder and catcher. She got her nickname as a child from her father, who said she dressed like another “Salty,” one of the town’s more eccentric residents.
“A League of Their Own,” which stars Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell and was directed by Penny Marshall, reintroduced the nation to a part of baseball history that had been forgotten during World War II and brought renewed attention back on the women who played.
Sands did appear in the movie as herself, at the end during the movie’s credits where some of the original players are scrimmaging on Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y.
As for those concerns about Madonna and her reputation: “She did a wonderful job in the movie,” said Sands.
I just love listening to ballplayers tell their stories.