Women in Baseball
Celebrating Women in Baseball Around the World
Since the mid-19th century, the door to baseball for women has alternated between open and shut, the signs encouraging and discouraging. But nowadays, that door has been blown off its hinges. Grassroots Baseball is committed to telling the stories of trailblazing women, past, present and future, on and off the field and around the globe — their fight for equality, recognition and acceptance in the sport they love.
Grassroots Baseball is sharing the stories of the past, present and future of girls and women in baseball, on and off the field, around the globe.
On International Women’s Day in 2022, Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. and pioneering journalist Claire Smith joined Grassroots Baseball to announce its intentions to devote the next three years to promoting girls and women in baseball.
Women in Baseball Gallery
Jean Fruth’s third book, See Her Be Her!
Companion book to the See Her Be Her documentary
Now shipping! The companion book to the See Her Be Her documentary is the third book in the Grassroots Baseball series, following the success of 2019’s Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin and 2022’s Grassroots Baseball: Route 66.
See Her Be Her celebrates the women of baseball, from the glorious past of the players made famous by Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own, to the ongoing exploits of the most talented females in the game today, to the very real possibility that a woman will one day make her major league debut.
Photographer Jean Fruth traveled the globe, shooting on three continents and assembling the over 250 strikingly beautiful photos that illustrate this book. Also shining a light on both the constant struggle for equality and the joyful passion of baseball are profiles of pioneers like Lois Youngen, players like Kelsie Whitmore and Ayami Sato, and such women of influence as Justine Siegal and Veronica Alvarez.
Lending their perspective are Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King (Foreword), Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken (Introduction), baseball writer Claire Smith (Preface), the first female to be awarded the Hall’s Career Excellence Award, and Maybelle Blair (Afterword), a one-time pitcher in the All-America Girls Professional Baseball League.