Helen Callaghan: Her Maybe-Probably Unique Mother-Son Duo

Helen Callaghan and her son, Casey Candaele, are very, very probably a truly unique duo in professional baseball history.

Father-son MLB duos aren’t quite a dime a dozen, but they might well be a dozen for a quarter. Many fans could probably even name the two sons of very distinguished MLB retirees working their ways through their first seasons this year. Last season I discovered by accident one such duo in Baltimore, when Cam Bedrosian, son of Steve, took the mound for the Angels.

However, how many people can name professional baseball’s only real mother-son duo? Notice: “MLB” changed to “professional baseball” there because there never really was any women’s major league baseball. Or there sort of wasn’t since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) did exist, but, well, it was a wartime thing, and it didn’t last long.

As we all know, however, Tom Hanks and Geena Davis starred in a fictionalized film about the league that’s much beloved, and if Tom Hanks goes for it, that “it” is probably pretty major league. And arguably, the highest profile mother-son baseball duo resulting from a player in the AAGPBL comprises Helen Callaghan and her son Casey Candaele, who came into the majors with the Montreal Expos.

You would be hard-pressed, though, to firmly establish the Callaghan-Candaele duo as the only mother-son pro baseball duo to emerge from the AAGPBL. SABR.org’s article on Marge and Helen Callaghan, both AAGPBL players, does not make the claim Helen and Casey were the only mother-son duo. Wikipedia does make the claim – on Casey Candaele’s page.

One Facebook group makes the claim – Baseball in Pics – and other Facebook groups have passed that declaration on. A Twitter feed dedicated to Expos history – @ExposBlog – makes the claim. Is that a consensus? Maybe.