Sports | Dorothy Kamenshek League of Their Own Inspiration Dead at 84 Dorothy 'Dottie' Kamenshek was a star at first base By John Johnson Posted May 22, 2010 1:12 PM CDT Copied The Geena Davis character 'Dottie,' at left, is based on Dorothy Kamenshek. (Columbia Pictures) A baseball legend is gone: Dorothy Kamenshek—the inspiration for the Geena Davis character Dottie in A League of Their Own—is dead at age 84. The Los Angeles Times leads its obit with this quote from Yankees first-baseman Wally Pipp: She "was the fanciest-fielding first baseman I've ever seen, man or woman." No wonder: Kamenshek sometimes jumped 3 or 4 feet into the air to snag throws or did the splits, making her a fan sensation in the old All-American Girls Professional League. Kamenshek, who played for the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches, made Time's 1999 list of the 100 best female athletes of the century. Read These Next A family hike took a tragic turn in Arkansas on Saturday. White House makes Hegseth put his polygraph away. A new book argues the Sacagawea legend is all wrong. A New Zealand neighborhood is being stalked by a feline laundry thief. Report an error