“Crystal Baker, bat girl”. (Identified in team photo of Fontenelle Bloomers Girls Team. Omaha Sunday Bee, September 10, 1916, p7-D
“Lizzie Waller, the Cubs bat girl, was off duty with a bad case of croup.” Ring Lardner, The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1918,p12
- NOTE: Crytal Baker is listed as her team’s mascot, in a 1917 article. I could not find any other reference to Lizzie Waller
“In every branch of the game the Heath players outclassed and excelled their visiting Quaker City opponents, from Miss Catherine Davis, of Taylor, star hurler down to the shy, blushing little bat girl who found it impossible to refrain from shedding tears when told by C.D. Heath, popular and well-liked owner of the mill, to hustle the bats back to the dug-out when she earnestly pleaded for an opportunity to join her sister players in swooping up fast grounders and dropping the pill for doubles and home runs.” The Scranton Republican, September 8, 1920, p10
- NOTE: Many more references to bat girls with girls teams in the 1930s.
“And let it be duly recorded here that the last strong hold of youthful ball players has been invaded by a girl—the job of being bat boy, pardon, bat girl, for a ball club.” Appleton [WI] Post-Crescent, August 18,1933, p13
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1942. “She’s the only batgirl in major-league baseball” (Baseball Magazine, June).
