Sport: Baseball
Born: May 15, 1933
Died: January 11, 1997
Town: Midland Park, New Jersey
Carol Habben was born May 15, 1933 in Midland Park, NJ. She was one of two girls in the family; her sister’s name was Jane. Carol played baseball on the sandlots of Rahway and, at 14, was invited to join the Garfield Flashettes. She also played softball for Pompton Lakes High School after the family moved to Passaic County.
In the spring of 1951, Carol took a train to Chicago along with Joan Berger and Jean Ventura—all teammates on Toots Nusse’s Linden Arians—and tried out for the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Carol was offered a $250 contract to play for the Rockford Peaches. She was a rising senior at the time, so she took (and passed) her final exams early and joined the Peaches in time to play in 10 games as an outfielder that summer.
Carol played her way into the starting lineup in 1953 and batted .194 in the pitching-dominated AAGPBL. The Peaches made it to the playoffs but lost in the opening round to Grand Rapids. In 1954, the final season for the AAGPBL, Carol played for the Kalamazoo Lassies. The Lassies were basically a .500 team, but they had a power-packed lineup. Carol had 15 homers in 95 games. Catcher Jean Lovell led the club with 21 homers. Carol and another slugger, Chris Ballingall, were known as the “Home Run Twins.“
The Lassies caught fire in the playoffs, defeating South Bend in the first round and Fort Wayne in the finals to win the final league championship. Carol homered once in each series and stole home to score the final run in league history.
After the AAGPBL folded, Carol returned to New Jersey and played fast-pitch softball, mostly for the Ariens, for the next 20 years. She also made a few dollars as a softball umpire in men’s and women’s leagues. Carol was also a terrific golfer; she once made a hole-in-one on the golf course in Paramus.
Carol worked for Merck beginning in the late-1950s and retired in 1994. She was on hand at Cooperstown in 1988 when the AAGPBL exhibit opened up. Carol passed away at age 63 in Ringwood. In 1998, a field in Midland Park was named in her memory.