Mary Dobkin

Mary Dobkin (August 30, 1902 – August 22, 1987) was an American amateur sports coach and advocate for children.

Early life

Dobkin was a tiny child when her father died; soon after, she left Russia in the care of an aunt and uncle, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. That domestic arrangement was also short-lived, and ended when Mary was found alone and unconscious on a winter night, with no shoes and severe frostbite, when she was six years old. She spent much of her remaining childhood in hospitals, enduring a long series of operations, including the amputation of both feet and part of one leg. Dobkin used a wheelchair or crutches for most of her life.

By 1910, Mary resided with and had been adopted by Anne and Harry Dobkin. (1910 census and family history as retold by Mary's niece, Bessie Pearlman Cohen.)

Dobkin remembered hearing the crowds at Baltimore Orioles games from her hospital room, and that sparked an interest in baseball. She also remembered learning to speak English from a radio in the hospital, and learning to read from deciphering the sports pages in newspapers.

Coaching and advocacy

Having spent most of her childhood in hospitals or other care homes, and without any family connections, Dobkin lived in relative poverty as an adult, in public housing in Baltimore. She believed baseball could encourage the children in her neighborhood as it had done for her, so she raised funds for equipment and uniforms, and started a team, the Dobkin Dynamites, which she coached.