A League of Their Own

Credit: AP; Everett

Lavonne 'Pepper' Paire-Davis, Baseball Player Who Inspired League of Their Own, Dies at 88

Originally posted 02/05/2013 01:15PM

Lavonne "Pepper" Paire-Davis, a 10-season All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player who inspired the character portrayed by Geena Davis in 1992's A League of Their Own, died of natural causes on Saturday in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 88.

Her death was reported Tuesday by the sports blog Big League Stew.

"I know what it's like for your dream to come true, mine did," the Los Angeles-born Paire-Davis told the Associated Press in 1995, when she was 70. "Baseball was the thing I had the most fun doing. It was like breathing."