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 North Carolina shooting suspect once walked the red carpet. The gunman who killed 4 at a Michigan church was an ex-marine. 'We heard a big bang,' says churchgoer in Michigan Skydivers leap from plane 2 minutes before fatal crash. Report an error