Cubs Coach Rachel Folden – SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee

On the Chicago Cubs’ annual stockholders assembly in December 1926, the board of administrators handed a decision that formally modified the identify of their house ballpark from Cubs Park to Wrigley Discipline, gave first-year skipper Joe McCarthy a vote of confidence, and promoted company secretary John Seys to a newly-created second vp place. Margaret Donahue, who had labored for the membership as stenographer and workplace supervisor since 1919, was tapped for the secretary function—changing into the primary girl (who was not an proprietor) to carry an government place in Main League Baseball.

Sarcastically, Donahue by no means needed to work for the Cubs, “I needed to work within the loop, not out at Wrigley Discipline.” She even turned down the job provide at first, till Cubs president William Veeck satisfied her to affix the group.

Acknowledged as having invented season tickets, promoting tickets at off-site areas, and providing discounted entry for kids underneath 12, Donahue is remembered as a real innovator. She was even featured within the Cubs’ picture packs bought on the ballpark within the Nineteen Thirties, believed to be the primary girl to be recognized by identify on her personal baseball “card.” Donahue was finally promoted to vp in 1950 and retired from the membership in 1958, after serving almost 40 seasons with the workforce. She has since been enshrined within the Cubs’ Corridor of Fame and had a playground close to Wrigley Discipline named in her honor.

Practically 100 years after Margaret Donahue joined the ranks of Main League executives, one other Cubs pioneer was honored together with her first Topps baseball card.

A four-time All-American catcher for Marshall College, Rachel Folden received the Triple Crown as a sophomore (.386 BA/18 HR/56 RBI), was Convention Participant of the Yr Award as a senior, and was inducted into Marshall Athletics Corridor of Fame in 2019. After faculty, she was the seventh-overall choose within the 2008 Nationwide Professional Fastpitch (NPF) draft by the Chicago Bandits and 2008 NPF Rookie of the Yr. Folden received league championships with the Bandits in 2008 and 2011, referred to as one among Jennie Finch’s good video games, and ended her skilled profession on NPF all-time top-ten lists for doubles, house runs, runs batted in, and walks. She additionally dealt with teaching duties for Holy Names College and Valparaiso in 2009 and 2010.    

In 2019, Folden was named to the Cubs minor league teaching workers and as lead lab tech, the primary girl to carry a training place in franchise historical past. At the moment Cubs Minor League Hitting Coordinator and proprietor of Folden Fastpitch LLC, Folden has been instrumental in serving to Cubs farmhands hone their craft for half a decade.

In 2024, Topps produced a five-card “Ladies in Baseball” insert set distributed with its second collection that included Folden. She described the sensation as “a fairly unimaginable second for me, to see myself on a baseball card. As a child, I all the time needed to play Main League Baseball (professional softball ended up being the case), however that meant additionally being featured on a baseball card, too. One out of two isn’t dangerous. Fairly superior.”

Topps first approached Folden in 2023 with an thought for the cardboard (and a contract), so the turnaround was fast for the manufacturing of her card. Given enter into the {photograph} for use on the cardboard, Folden rejected the picture that Topps first needed to make use of. As an alternative, she reached out to photographer Wealthy Biesterfield, who despatched her a couple of choices that he had taken through the years:

Biesterfeld turned occupied with pictures after faculty and shortly turned the “household photographer” capturing household occasions and trip reminiscences. A lifelong Cubs fan, Biesterfield was first drawn to baseball pictures as a child, “I loved wanting on the baseball photographs in newspapers and magazines the place the picture captured the motion and sometimes instructed the story with out phrases. It impressed me to attempt to seize these moments by means of my digicam as I attended video games.”

After he retired from an IT job, Biesterfield started to pursue pictures extra significantly and have become a daily on the Cubs’ camp in Arizona. Former Cubs minor leaguer Bryce Windham as soon as instructed Biesterfield that his photographs “allowed [Windham] to remain extra intently linked to his household whereas he was distant from them.” This resonated with Biesterfield and since then, he has gotten to know many gamers, coaches, and households who’ve expressed the identical sentiment.

The picture in the end used on Folden’s card was one taken by Biesterfield. Folden selected the picture as a result of it “confirmed me working and doing what I really like probably the most, which is throwing BP to our hitters. As a lady in male-dominated sport, I believed it was vital to point out me doing my job, and never simply posing for a photograph. There’s nothing flawed with posing or displaying our faces up shut and what we appear like, however I believed it might be vital to point out us doing the job as nicely.”

Folden didn’t have a hand within the biographical particulars on the again of the cardboard nonetheless, and Topps tousled. She by no means coached for Vanderbilt—however had labored at Valparaiso, “so I’m assuming they received their wires crossed there.” Accordingly, the cardboard consists of an uncorrected error!

Though she assumed she could be given a number of the insert playing cards, Folden was instructed she ought to have requested for these within the contract. (One thing to bear in mind while you signal your subsequent contract with Topps!) Fortunately, members of the family, buddies, and followers have given her a bunch of the tough-to-find insert playing cards, together with a /50 card by a household of Knoxville (née Tennessee) Smokies followers and others from the beneficiant clubhouse attendant.

The most important collector of Folden’s playing cards, nonetheless, might be her mother, who has had Folden signal a bunch of her playing cards as items for household and buddies. When her mother visited Folden in Tennessee final yr, she “introduced a whole bunch for me to signal.”

Nevertheless, Folden remains to be on the hunt for a sure card, “if anybody on the market finds my 1/1, I NEED THAT CARD. Let’s make a deal.” (You’ll be able to contact her on Instagram @rachelfolden25.) Whereas Biesterfield is additionally making an attempt to get as most of the variations of Folden’s card as doable, he would step apart for her if the platinum 1/1 have been to floor!

THANKS

Particular because of Rachel Folden and Wealthy Biesterfield for sharing their experiences relating to the manufacturing of the cardboard from idea, to deciding on the {photograph}, to attempting to find copies of the issued card and parallels. Additionally, because of Jason Schwartz and Tim Wiles for his or her experience in verifying the particular significance of Margaret Donahue’s Cubs picture pack playing cards.

NOTES

2024 Topps “Ladies in Baseball” Insert Guidelines

• WIB-1 – Veronica Alvarez (Oakland Athletics)
• WIB-2 – Jessica Mendoza
• WIB-3 – Ronnie Gajownik (Arizona Diamondbacks)
• WIB-4 – Alyssa Nakken (San Francisco Giants)
• WIB-5 – Rachel Folden (Chicago Cubs)

Rachel Folden 2024 Topps card variations

Wealthy Biesterfield baseball card picture credit

• 2021 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Version – Prospects Aqua #BCP-171 Cristian Hernandez SN99
• 2021 Onyx Classic Prolonged #EAWI Jordan Wicks
• 2022 Bowman – Chrome Prospects #BCP-66 Cristian Hernandez
• 2023 Bowman Chrome – 2022 AFL Relics #AFLR-MMS Matt Mervis MEM, SN150
• 2024 Topps – Ladies in Baseball – Rachel Folden #WIB-5

Margaret Donahue playing cards

• 1931 Chicago Cubs Image Pack #NNO
• 1932 Chicago Cubs Image Pack #NNO
• 1933 Chicago Cubs Image Pack #NNO
• 1936 Chicago Cubs Image Pack #NNO

Interview with Wealthy Biesterfield, January 22, 2025

Irving Vaughn, “Administrators of Cubs Have Busy Season,” The Sporting Information, December 9, 1926.

“Cubs’ Margaret Donahue to Stop After 39 Years Service,” Argus-Chief (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), February 9, 1958.

“Former Cubs’ Exec Margaret Donahue Dies,” Chicago Tribune, January 31, 1978.
John Owens, “Feminine Cubs Exec Modified the Ballgame,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2013.

Mark Gonzales, “Former Bandit a Pioneer for Cubs,” Chicago Tribune, November 24, 2019.

Madison Williams, “Rachel Folden, Cubs’ First Feminine On-Discipline Coach, Hopes to Encourage Women,” Des Moines Register, Might 15, 2021.

http://www.tcdb.com

Creator: John Racanelli

JOHN RACANELLI is a Chicago lawyer with an insatiable curiosity in baseball-related litigation. When not rooting for his beloved Cubs (or working), he’s most likely studying a baseball e book or weblog, planning his subsequent baseball journey, or having fun with downtime along with his spouse and household. He’s most likely the world’s foremost photographer of triple peanuts discovered at ballgames and likes to suppose he has some of the full collections of classic handheld digital baseball video games identified to exist.

John is membership director for the Emil Rothe (Chicago) SABR Chapter, founder and Co-Chair of the SABR Baseball Landmarks Analysis Committee, and a daily contributor to the SABR Baseball Playing cards Analysis Committee weblog. His collection of articles “Loss of life and Taxes and Baseball Card Litigation” was a 2023 McFarland-SABR Baseball Analysis Award winner. On August 25, 2023 John was honored to gave the keynote handle at a dedication ceremony for the historic marker positioned in honor of Lewis Robert “Hack” Wilson in Ellwood Metropolis, Pennsylvania.
View all posts by John Racanelli