Gloria Ruiz

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Gloria Ruiz, nicknamed "Baby-Face," was born on June 25, 1928, in Havana, Cuba. She is a former outfielder who batted and threw right-handed. Ruiz played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) for the Peoria Redwings from 1948 to 1949.

She was one of seven Cuban women to play in the league during its 12-year history. The other Cuban players were Isabel Alvarez, Isora del Castillo, Luisa Gallegos, Migdalia Pérez, Mirtha Marrero, and Zonia Vialat.

In 1947, Cuba hosted AAGPBL spring training as part of an effort to create an International League of Girls Baseball. Cuban and American teams, the Cubans and the Americans, toured Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, playing exhibition games. After these events, Ruiz and the other Cuban players were signed by the AAGPBL.

Ruiz joined the Peoria Redwings for parts of the 1948 and 1949 seasons, serving as a backup to Josephine Lenard, Mary Reynolds, and Eilaine Roth.

In 1988, Ruiz and the other Cuban players were honored during the opening of Women in Baseball, a display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The story of the AAGPBL was popularized by the 1992 film A League of Their Own. In 2011, Ruiz and her Cuban teammates were honored at a ceremony in New York City during the Cuban Baseball Congress.