Peaches & Paylines
Hard Rock Casino Rockford Unveils Slots Dedicated to City’s Historic Women’s Baseball Team
By Sean Chaffin
Management at the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, IL, sought something different with three underperforming slot machines. The industry has a wide variety of themes and narratives from pop culture to mythology to classic Vegas and more. But Hard Rock officials were hoping for something that resonated more with locals and began working with slot developer IGT on finding something that might be a nice fit.
That soon led to a bank of three Rockford Peaches slot machines positioned right in the middle of the 175,000-square-foot casino. The game pays homage to the hometown professional women’s baseball team that played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from 1943 to 1954. The league was founded during World War II to keep baseball alive while many men served in the military.
The women’s league was featured in the 1992 film A League of Their Own based on the Peaches and featuring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. The league also inspired a 2022 show on Amazon Prime. The Peaches won four league championships and three pennants. Hard Rock Casino Rockford President Geno Iafrate was pleased to bring a unique slot representing that history to the casino floor.
“We want to do everything we can to support women’s baseball and the efforts that are underway to pay tribute to these amazing women and the history of the game and make sure our community recognizes it,” he said. “Hard Rock Casino Rockford had an opportunity to do something special by creating a slot machine to pay tribute to the Peaches and to the history of the game.
“Those women were phenomenal baseball players and I’m just glad I didn’t have to play against them—they were incredible. The slot machine brings back all that nostalgia and raises awareness among those who enter the casino and maybe haven’t thought about women in sports.”
Something Old Becomes News
Seeing the idea come to fruition meant plenty of work. The process took more than six months from concept to completion. The process of production and approval in a highly regulated environment is actually very difficult and expensive, Iafrate said. It’s common to take an existing game platform and reskin it into a new theme and that’s effectively what happened with the new Rockford Peaches.
“It’s an old S2000 slot machine that you change the reel strips on, and you change the top glass and the belly glass and you make it a unique-themed game,” he said. “There are fewer and fewer of these machines out there. It’s a lot less expensive and a lot quicker than trying to develop your own from the ground up. It’s very nostalgic and popular and very fitting for the Rockford Peaches.”
The Peaches apparently put on those rally caps compared to the previous incarnations, and the performance of the three slots really turned around. The local angle and fun theme have attracted plenty of slot players hoping for a home run of their own in the form of big payouts.
“The slot machines that used to be in that location in the casino were among the worst performing machines on the floor, and I can tell you the new Rockford Peaches machines are far from the worst on the floor,” Iafrate says.
“They’re doing great! I think people love the fact that we’re paying tribute to the Peaches and to women’s baseball. They like taking photos with the machines, and they like to spend some money and try their luck. It’s been a great draw.”
98-Year-Old Former Player Attends Slot Unveiling
As part of the celebration involved in unveiling the machines, 98-year-old former women’s professional baseball player Maybelle Blair was part of the festivities. Blair, who is a slot player herself, played for the Peoria Redwings in the league’s inaugural season and went on to play professional softball as well. While she didn’t play for the Peaches, she was pleased to see the casino keep the spirit of women in the game alive.
“I still can’t believe it,” she says. “It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world that the Hard Rock Casino Rockford honored us with those machines. I love it!
“There’s nothing I like better than playing the slots. I can just keep hitting that button and I love it. People don’t realize it’s really the most relaxing thing in the world. I forget about everything when I’m sitting at that slot machine.”
What has the overall experience been like seeing the slot unveiled for someone who actually played in the league almost eight decades ago?
“Oh my gosh!” Blair says. “You have no idea! I don’t have hardly any hair on my body but every hair I did have stood straight up when I saw it. I’ve never been so thrilled to see that somebody recognized that us women could play baseball, and it was just a thrill that Hard Rock Casino Rockford recognized and gave us the opportunity to have our own slot machine.”
Blair even won a solid $300 on the new Peaches machine, adding: “Batting 300 isn’t bad!” Life on the baseball diamond was a wonderful escape from normal life for the women who made the cut to play in the league.
“It was a life we never even dreamed of,” Blair says. “In those days, you had to be a secretary, a schoolteacher, or a nurse. Those were the only opportunities we had until the baseball league opened up due to the war. It was the most wonderful thing in my life. You just couldn’t believe it.”
The bit of nostalgia appears to be well-timed. The new Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) is planning to launch in the summer of 2026 with six teams. Co-founded by Justine Siegal, the first female coach in Major League Baseball, and businessman and Toronto Maple Leafs’ owner Keith Stein, the 
league already reported 500 players registered for tryouts by late June.
The WPBL is set to be the first professional women’s baseball league in the U.S. since the AAGPBL shut down in 1954. The Hard Rock’s head of merchandising is even looking to feature some co-branded Peaches merchandise in the casino’s Rock Shop. As the new league takes shape, Blair loves seeing more opportunities opening up for female players.
“There are girls’ clinics all over the United States, a mixture of girls’ softball and hardball players learning that if you’re playing one game, you can play the other,” she says. “It was just announced the Women’s Baseball World Cup will be hosted in Rockford, Illinois in 2026, only the second time to be hosted in the United States. I’m going to be there as long as I stay on this side of the dirt. I’m going to be there even if they have to spread my ashes out there!”
The former player is hoping the casino has a hotel on site by the time she turns 100. The property plans on hosting a birthday party for her in 2027.
“It’ll be spectacular,” Iafrate says. “And we’ll do our best to give Maybelle a Hard Rock Hotel here for her 100th birthday.”
