‘Pepper’ Paire-Davis, women’s baseball player, ‘League of Their Own’ inspiration dies at 88

Lavonne “Pepper” Paire-Davis, a star of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and an inspiration for the central character in the movie “A League of Their Own,” has died, her son said Sunday.

Paire-Davis died of natural causes in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on Saturday, her son, William Davis, told The Associated Press. She was 88.

Paire-Davis was a model for the character played by Geena Davis in the 1992 hit “A League of Their Own,” which also starred Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna and Tom Hanks as the crusty manager who shouted the famous line, “there’s no crying in baseball!”

In 1944, Paire-Davis joined the league, created out of fear that World War II would interrupt Major League Baseball, and played for 10 seasons.

She was a catcher and shortstop, and helped her teams win five championships. She chronicled her baseball adventures in the 2009 book “Dirt in the Skirt.”