Grassroots Baseball Women
VASSAR COLLEGE RESOLUTES
©National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum
Women have been at home in baseball for as long as men, but unfortunately, a “grass ceiling” has prevented them from participating in a sport that they too love. It seems that every time a female pushed open a new door to the game, it has swung shut behind her before others could follow. Change is finally in the air.
Since the Vassar (NY) College Resolutes formed the first all-women baseball team in 1866, when higher education for females was a new idea, let alone playing sports, the game in America has experienced a slow trickle of women becoming involved in the game. Meanwhile, girls and women’s baseball outside of the United States has developed much more rapidly, with success stories in Canada, Japan, Australia, Korea, India, Indonesia, Uganda and parts of Europe.
Recently, though, a growing number of girls playing in the U.S. and women working in professional baseball — on and off the field — has become evident. Grassroots Baseball will tell the stories of women around the globe who have assumed such on-field roles as players, coaches, managers and umpires, as well as those who have excelled off the field, be they decision-making executives, groundskeepers or influential members of the media.
We will also share the journeys of the pioneers upon whose shoulders the women in baseball today now stand. There were the Resolutes, and other “Bloomer Girl” teams. Lizzie Arlington pitched a shutout inning for the Reading (PA) Coalminers of the Atlantic League in 1898, and nine years later, 17-year-old Alta Weiss pitched so well for a team in Vermillion (OH), that special trains were chartered to bring fans from Cleveland to see her pitch. Olympic gold medalist Babe Didrikson pitched in three Spring Training games in 1934 and later toured with all-men’s teams.
TONI STONE, MAMIE JOHNSON & CONNIE MORGAN, NEGRO LEAGUES
©National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum
Then there were Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson and Connie Morgan, who played on Negro Leagues teams in the ‘40s and the highly-successful World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Just this past March, history was made with the inaugural women’s collegiate club baseball championships played in Compton, California.
We’ll explore the developing youth movement around the globe, as well as Baseball For All, an organization that is building momentum here and abroad. Seven years ago, Justine Siegel, the program’s founder and a retired player and minor league coach, staged a tournament for which 100 young girls showed up. Today Baseball for All serves more than 1,000 players, ages 6-19, who participate in regional tournaments and clinics around the world.
Rewind for a moment to 1972 when 12-year-old Maria Pepe sued for the right to play Little League and came to embody the movement behind Title IX, which prevents high schools and colleges from excluding women from varsity sports and youth baseball on the basis of gender.
RACHEL BALKOVEC, TAMPA YANKEES
©Jean Fruth • @jeanfruthimages
Today, there are more than a dozen women in uniform in professional baseball, including a number of coaches. Rachel Balkovec of the Tampa Yankees is the first female manager, and Alyssa Nakken returned for a second season in the San Francisco Giants dugout.
Today, there are more than a dozen women in uniform in professional baseball, including a number of coaches. Rachel Balkovec of the Tampa Yankees is the first female manager, and Alyssa Nakken returned for a second season in the San Francisco Giants dugout. Grassroots Baseball will tell their stories, as well as those of such executives as the Marlins’ Kim Ng, the first female general manager in baseball, and Janet Marie Smith, who has re-defined the fan experience as a stadium architect, and Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. They stand on the shoulders of pioneers like Effa Manley, who co-owned and operated the Negro League’s Newark Eagles and is thus far, the only woman to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
HALL OF FAMER EFFA MANLEY
©National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum
The paradigm is finally changing, and there is literally nothing that women — and girls — in baseball cannot do, if given the chance. Not only are the females involved in baseball around the globe making their own marks on the game, but they are also, by example, helping to develop gender equality in the sport. In doing so, they are empowering the next generation to believe in themselves and demonstrate that they have a role to play in the game they love. What was once a dream is now a reality.
The golden age of baseball for women is fast approaching. Armed with the rich 150-year history of their efforts to integrate the game and form their own leagues, women are writing one of the most compelling chapters in baseball history. Grassroots Baseball intends to tell what was once their untold, inspiring, story to a hungry audience that loves this great game.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS COACHES ALYSSA NAKKEN & RON WATUS
©Jean Fruth • @jeanfruthimages