Professional Baseball Player. A second baseman in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), she is remembered as perhaps the most prolific base stealer at any level of the game. Raised in the industrial city of Flint, she manifested her athletic talent early and was a high school star in the pentathlon and in basketball. Forced to drop out early to help support her family, she heard about tryouts for the AAGPBL and after impressing to scouts at the Wrigley Field auditions was assigned to the Racine Belles for the 1943 season. Sophie quickly became a star and a feared base runner of such prowess that she was called "Tina Cobb" in deference to Detroit Tigers' legend Ty Cobb. She helped the Belles to the circuit's inaugural championship and remained a respected player both offensively and defensively. Spurring Racine to a second league crown in 1946, Sophie enjoyed her finest campaign, taking Player of the Year honors and earning the first of her four straight All Star selections while batting .286 and stealing 201 bases, at her death still the all time professional record, with Rickie Henderson holding the Major League record of 130. Staying with the Belles throughout her career, she and several of the other girls were displeased when the team moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, after the 1950 season. After sitting out 1951, Sophie returned in 1952 but after 17 games retired due to injuries, her 1,114 stolen bases remaining the professional record until Henderson broke it in 1994 while she also set league marks for runs scored in a game (5), season (117), and career (688). Her lifetime batting average was .260 while her 859 hits and 522 walks place her third on the all time lists; she went on to play professional softball for four seasons and spent many years with a Racine, Wisconsin, machine parts manufacturer, rising from secretary to vice president before her 1972 retirement to Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1988 she was part of the mass induction of the AAGPBL and its players into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the league's story is told in the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own". Sophie remained active into advanced years, lived out her days in Scottsdale, and died of surgical complications.