Sixty years ago, Mary Moore walked onto the historic Yankee Stadium diamond, the stands packed with anxious baseball fans. She met Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto, now all members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As she stepped to the plate — part of a Women’s League baseball game before the Yankees played that night — she had no idea that she and her teammates would one day join those historic baseball names in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Moore, born in Lincoln Park, Mich., was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was started by Charles Wrigley in the 1940s as an alternative to Major League Baseball, temporarily defunct due to World War II.

Moore and some of her teammates were honored Thursday at the Ypsilanti District Library’s unveiling of a new exhibit, “Linedrives and Lipstick: The Untold Story of Women’s Baseball”, in Ypsilanti until Aug. 11.

The small, mostly female crowd gathered around the retired ballplayers to hear stories about the league, and even Dolly Niemiec Konwinski’s rendition of the Grand Rapids Chicks’ fight song.

Moore told the story of a high school English teacher approaching her, asking if she’d be interested in playing professional baseball.

“I’d only played on the old field with the boys,” she said. “Back then, I had a paper route, so I could afford all the equipment — the boys needed to come to me if they wanted to play.

“But soon, I took a train down to South Bend for some training … and then we were touring the country. We played 77 games in 21 states and Canada that first season.”

Her story and hundreds of others are chronicled in the exhibit’s artifacts and pictures, which were carefully chosen by exhibit curator John Kovach, who owns one of — if not the — largest collections of women’s baseball regalia in the world.

Kovach, a women’s baseball coach, historian and college archivist at Saint Mary’s in South Bend, Ind., was the first man honored by the Women’s Baseball Hall of Fame and has been heavily involved in the sport for almost 20 years.

“Linedrives and Lipstick” includes 45 images and artifacts, such as a uniform from 1910, mitts and action figures. It has been touring the nation for about a year. Its popularity has slowly built, and it’s currently booked solid through mid-2012.

Kovach’s idea for the exhibit started when, perusing a museum catalogue, he saw an interesting touring exhibit on the old Negro Leagues. A long-time advocate and coach of women’s baseball, he knew its story needed to be told — in further detail than the famous movie A League of Their Own explored.

“When I ask people what they know about women’s baseball, the most common response is always, “Well, there was this one movie…,” Kovach quipped. “They give you this 12-year timespan of professional women’s baseball. But what if I told you that women have been playing baseball since just after the Civil War? And what if I said that, right now, Team USA is compiling a squad for the Women’s World Cup?”

According to “Linedrives and Lipstick”, women first played organized baseball in 1866, when girls at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., split into two teams and played a game. And for the last 144 years, women have been barnstorming with men’s leagues and creating their own teams.

The exhibit also explores the divergence of baseball and softball; how and why girls were pushed toward the one and usually away from the other. With his knowledge and collection of women’s baseball history, Kovach hopes to open young girls’ minds to the idea of playing baseball, traditionally a male-dominated sport.

“As a girl playing baseball, the older you get, the more people try to discourage you from playing baseball, or steer you towards softball, which is a totally different sport,” Kovach said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the same story from someone: ‘I love baseball, but when I was 12, I was told I couldn’t play it anymore'.

“That’s just not true. Some of these girls are phenomenal ballplayers, and it’s a shame they can’t showcase their skills.”

Kovach is going to give some girls that chance this summer — he’s managing a squad at this season’s Cooperstown Dreams Park summer baseball tournament, the only of 104 teams that will boast an all-female roster.

But last night, he was too excited about his exhibit to worry about the tournament.

“I’ve seen the exhibit at a lot of venues, and they all have the flexibility to set it up how they want,” Kovach said. “Here, they’ve just done a tremendous job. It’s just perfect.”