In memoriam: Baseball pioneer Edith Houghton
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
North Philly native Edith Houghton had enough talent as a 10-year-old to play shortstop alongside teenage girls on the Philadelphia Bobbies factory baseball team. At 13, she traveled with the team on a tour of Japan, then returned home to later sign with the New York Bloomer Girls, the top women’s team. After serving as a Navy WAVE, she app-roached the Phillies management and was hired as the first — and, according to several sources, only — full-time female scout in Major League Baseball history. She scouted hundreds of players and signed 16 prospects to pro-fessional contracts. “You look for the natural ability,” Houghton said about studying talent. “The rest comes with training.” Houghton died in Sarasota on Feb. 2, eight days shy of her 101st birthday.
