The Merry Widows Baseball Club

I discovered this team several years ago. The name of the team, and their jauntily styled caps instantly made them my favorite baseball team of all time. The more I dug into the team name, the more I became convinced that it’s the absolutely perfect name for a women’s baseball team.

There was an opera called The Merry Widow which was quite famous at the time. But more salient to the symbolism of the name, was the Merry Widow hat. Quite simply, men hated and despised the Merry Widow hat. It was a large hat. It took up space in public. It was generally awesome. In fact, men hated the hats so much they began suggesting that they be banned, or that women wearing them purchase two tickets on public transit and two tickets to any events they may attend wearing the hat.

The Merry Widows baseball team does not appear to be a Seattle-based team. They are referenced in the newspapers here in 1908 because they played a Mikado (Japanese immigrant) team. The newspaper writers were generally derisive of their baseball playing, but it’s difficult to tell if this is because the Mikado team was truly superior, or because newspaper writers will never turn down an opportunity to disparage women.

One article refers to the team as the “Daughters of Columbia”, which likely means they were from the Washington D.C. area, and there are a number of ads run in the District of Columbia that back this up. There are also references to Merry Widows teams in Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

I periodically fire up the ole newspapers dot com and search for any new information about the Merry Widows, but I’ve been stuck with everything I’ve shared for a while. They seemed to be around for several years, so I can only hope I someday find more. For now, I can still savor the image of gleeful women, whose husbands are dead and hats are taking up public space, playing baseball.