The Hall of Fame is in Great Hands with Jane Forbes Clark at the Helm

“It’s incredibly gratifying to see more and more women making a difference in our national pastime, on and off the field. The strides we have made in leadership roles are significant, and will lead to a brighter future for the game as we strive for greater inclusivity.”

— Hall of Fame Chairman, Jane Forbes Clark

photo of Jim Thome and his son with HOF Chairman Jane Forbes Clark & HOF President Jeff Idelson — Jim Thome and his son Landon present the future Hall of Famer's 600th home run baseball to Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark and now-retired Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson prior to the 2014 Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO Milo Stewart Jr., National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

As Baseball’s doors to inclusivity continue to swing open, there are women in leadership roles who are a substantial part of the game’s fabric. There’s a growing number who are in senior executive positions, but there is only one who serves as her organization’s ultimate visionary, and that’s Jane Forbes Clark, who leads the world-renowned National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

The Board chairman’s great-great-grandfather, Edward Cabot Clark, established roots in Cooperstown in the mid-19th century while working as Isaac Singer’s patent attorney and co-founder of the Singer Sewing Machine company. Two generations later and born into a culture of philanthropy, Jane’s grandfather, Stephen C. Clark, built three world class museums in the quaint, central New York village: the Fenimore Art Museum, New York State Historical Association, and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“If you build it, they will come” is the mantra whispered from the skies above to Ray Kinsella in the 1989 classic baseball film, Field of Dreams. That same slogan must have also run through Stephen Clark’s mind a half-century before the film’s release, as the Museum has welcomed more than 17 million visitors since opening its doors on June 12, 1939.

Museum Chairman Jane Forbes Clark in the famed Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery, Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO: Emma Tannenbaum

“When my grandfather founded the Hall of Fame, he did so because he loved the game — the beauty of the game on the field and the beauty and the depth of its place in American culture,” Jane reminisced. “He shaped his vision for the museum from that love, as do I.”

Babe Ruth — one of the first five players elected — spoke from the Museum’s front steps on that Monday afternoon 84 years ago. “I hope some of you kids will be in the Hall of Fame. I’m very glad that in my day I was able to earn my place. And I hope youngsters of today have the same opportunity to experience such feeling.” For young ballplayers like Yogi Berra, Duke Snider and Robin Roberts who were teenagers, and eight-year-olds Ernie Banks and Willie Mays, Ruth’s words proved prophetic.

One of Jane’s first experiences with the Hall of Fame came in 1966 while she was in grade school, when her father introduced her to Ted Williams and Casey Stengel, who were being inducted that year. “They autographed a baseball for me,” she recalled fondly.

She’s been at the helm for 23 years, providing substantial museum expertise, philanthropic insight, and strong management. Her tenure as Hall of Fame chairman, which began in 2000 after eight years as a director, has been punctuated by her acute ability to build consensus, guide with a steady hand, and assure that one of America’s cultural beacons remains relevant and accessible to the hundreds of millions of baseball fans around the globe who revere the game and its long history.

“Jane is a compassionate and principled chairman who leads the Hall of Fame and museum with class and style,” said Paul Beeston, president emeritus of the Toronto Blue Jays, and a Hall of Fame director since 1998. “When a tough decision needs to be made in the Board room, she listens, considers, and leads the directors through the process that best reflects the Board's position, while maintaining the integrity of the institution. Through her drive and compassion, she has made it the best Hall of Fame in the world, without question.”

Clark has lent her vast array of skills to other organizations, serving as the vice chairman of the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal Commission and as a trustee of the Little League Foundation. She’s also spent substantial time helping the United States Equestrian Federation, with whom she currently serves as a trustee and is past president and CEO; and to the United States Olympic Committee, where she sat on its Board of Directors.

“Jane’s experiences as the leader of United States Equestrian Federation and as a Board member of the United States Olympic Committee enhanced her understanding of global sport,” said Hall of Fame Board member Harvey Schiller, who served as executive director and secretary general of the United States Olympic Committee. “The intricacies of the Olympic Movement exposed her to the realities of international politics in dealing with performance drugs, security, and the media. Each added to her continued effective leadership of the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Two-time MVP and 14-time All-Star Johnny Bench, who has been a Hall of Famer for 34 years, added, “Jane is one of the most intriguing and interesting people I know. Her interests range from equestrian to bucking bulls to real estate to a multitude of charitable activities, but her real love is the Hall of Fame. I’m never sure she will even be given enough credit. She should be honored with the Medal of Freedom.”

photo of Cooperstown Diner, Main Street by Jean Fruth — Cooperstown Diner, Main Street, Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO: Jean Fruth

Cooperstown is home to 1,800 year-round residents and has one stoplight. Visiting the charming village feels like stepping back in time, perhaps into the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting. With baskets of colorful geraniums hanging from old-style streetlamps that line Main Street and prevalent 19th century architecture, Cooperstown offers tourists a generous slice of Americana. When you walk through the front doors of the stately red brick building at 25 Main Street, its exhibitions and programs take you on a journey back to your childhood.

Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, Main Street, Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO: Jean Fruth

“Baseball and America have grown up together,” Clark opined. “In fact, the game is such an integral part of our culture that we often take for granted its deep day-to-day significance in our lives. As fans around the globe make the pilgrimage to Cooperstown to see the Hall of Fame, we learn more about ourselves as a people who possess a shared set of values, as reflected through our national game.”

The venerable institution houses three entities under one roof: a museum and library to chronicle the game’s rich history; an education hub where school children and adults learn how baseball shapes culture through music, art, science, math, economics. language and history; and a Hall of Fame to honor the game’s greats. The overriding mission is to preserve history, honor excellence and connect generations.

“Visiting Cooperstown and the Museum is off the charts,” said 13-time Gold Glove shortstop Ozzie Smith, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves on its Board. “Jane’s connection to the game, forward thinking and commitment to excellence set the tone and help assure that the Museum is always relevant, and the visitor experience is second-to-none.”

The lifeblood of the Hall of Fame is its unrivaled collection which totals some 65,000 historical artifacts from baseball’s beginnings until present day. Its archive includes more than three million books, periodicals, documents, photographs, contracts and recorded media, as well as a file on everyone and every subject that touches the game. In many ways, the Library and Museum are Baseball’s version of the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, rolled into one.

Hall of Famer Hank Aaron in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO: Jean Fruth

However, what sets Cooperstown apart from other cultural institutions and allows it to deepen its connection to baseball fans around the globe, is its living history makers — the Hall of Fame members — who define excellence. Only one percent of those who have played the game have a plaque in Cooperstown. It’s a very exclusive fraternity.

The crown jewel on baseball’s calendar each summer comes in late July when Induction Weekend takes place. Scores of the game’s living legends readily return to their home away from home to reminisce and welcome the electees into their fraternity. Annually, it’s the largest gathering of Hall of Famers in one place at one time, and an opportunity for the fans who make the pilgrimage to see their baseball cards come to life, experience the innate beauty of New York state, and fully enjoy the aura of a time not forgotten.

“Jane has been the driving force in Cooperstown,” 1995 Inductee Mike Schmidt told Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. “She has done amazing things with infrastructure that affect everything Hall members enjoy.”

“I think it’s important for fans to see all of the Hall of Fame members, and it’s important to the members because the Hall of Fame is a huge part of their lives.” said Clark. “They know how special it is to be a part of that elite fraternity. And that’s exactly what it is. I wanted the fraternity coming back and spending time together.”

Broadcast legend Tom Brokaw who was in attendance for one Hall of Fame Weekend was in awe. “As an American Legion shortstop who couldn’t get his girlfriend to a game, much less a scout, I was Walter Mitty all weekend,” he said, referring to novelist James Thurber’s fictional mild-mannered character who lived a life of fantasy. And there’s not a Starbucks within miles of Cooperstown, but its founder, Howard Schultz, made the trek with his son Jordan as Induction Weekend guests of Tony La Russa in 2014. “You look across the room and see Sandy Koufax AND Al Kaline. Meeting them was humbling.”

Doubleday Field, Cooperstown, NY. PHOTO: Jean Fruth — Doubleday Field, Cooperstown, NY / PHOTO: Jean Fruth

George Brett, who won batting titles in three decades on his way to earning Hall of Fame election in 1999, loves returning to Cooperstown and has a profound respect for Clark’s guiding hand. “Induction Weekend is very special and always memorable both for baseball fans and Hall of Famers, thanks to Jane. She knows that our fraternity likes to spend time together and she makes sure that happens. She also has her finger on the pulse of the fans and understands the importance of making sure they have a chance to connect with Hall of Famers in different ways. I love coming back to Cooperstown every summer to be a part of something truly special. Baseball and the Hall of Fame are fortunate to have Jane — a passionate visionary — at the helm.”

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Jeff IdelsonJune 20, 2023

Alta Weiss “The Girl Wonder”

A Turn of The Century STAR PITCHER, A FUTURE AAGPBL STAR, AND AN AUTOGRAPHED BASEBALL

Image of Lois Youngen holding autographed baseball

“Would you like a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth?” “My eyes lit up and I said, “yes!” And then she said, “would you like me to sign it?” and I said, “yes!” She took out her pen — there were no ballpoints in the 1940s — and she signed it.”

This conversation took place around 1946 between two very unusual baseball players. One was a 13-year-old girl, growing up in isolated Ragersville, OH, with baseball as one of her only entertainment options. “There was no television and I didn’t want to read. I guess there was a radio, the only real good thing to do was get out and throw the ball around, and my dad would play pitch and catch with me,” recalled Lois Youngen, now 89 years old.

Across the street, Alta Weiss, a 56-year-old retired doctor and one of the most accomplished female baseball pitchers of all time, sat on the porch of the house in which her father, Dr. George Weiss, had delivered Lois 13 years earlier, observing the scene. She got word to Lois’s dad, Elden Youngen, who had pitched at Kent State back in the 1920s, and invited Lois over for a visit.

“I’m 12 or 13. I didn’t know that Alta Weiss was a great pioneer baseball player, but I said I would go to visit her for lemonade and cookies. At the appointed time I walked up the street, knocked on the door, and Alta opened it. She was probably in her late 50s, quite heavy set, probably 5'8" or 5'7". I got invited in, sat on the edge of the sofa and I was nervous. She mostly asked me questions about my ball playing, who I played with, how long I had been playing, and, what I liked and didn’t like.

“I regret being at the age I was because I wasn’t dry behind the ears. All I wanted to do was to play ball. I didn’t know her history. I regret that I wasn’t older so that I could have asked her the questions. I now have a million questions. If I had a chance to do it all over, I would ask her many questions about her playing, how travel was, and how it was being with her sister, Irma. Did they play every night? Did you hit since they didn’t have a designated hitter in those days?”

For historians of women’s baseball, there is an almost eerie, twilight-zone quality to this meeting. Each of these women were born nearby — Alta in 1890, and Lois in 1933. Each played baseball with the local boys from a young age, in a town with no more than two or three hundred people — which created opportunity for girl players that did not exist in bigger places.

Each were encouraged by their fathers, and each were very good baseball players who would play professionally for several years. But as they sat together in the house, neither knew of the other’s baseball accomplishments, past or future.

Each also used their experiences playing baseball as young women to generate income, and then invested that income in education in similar careers, one as a doctor, and the other with a doctorate in health and physical education. Alta earned her M.D. from Starling Medical College, known today as Ohio State University — which is where Lois earned her doctorate in physical education in 1971. Readers today are not surprised to encounter a female doctor or college professor, but in their respective generations, both Alta and Lois — interesting that their names sound like “high” and “low” broke barriers on the field and in their fields. (There is no truth to the rumor that one had a secretary named Lincoln and the other had a secretary named Kennedy…)

Lois’s many accomplishments on the field are well portrayed in a fun series of four short video interviews, as well as several good websites with biographical information

Let’s take a closer look at Alta Weiss. (For the historical record, two notes on pronunciation. “Alta” is pronounced closer to the sound of “altitude,” rather than “ultimate.” And “Weiss” is pronounced just like “wise,” according to Lois).

George Weiss should get an award for being the father who did the most to encourage a baseball-playing daughter. At age two, he noticed her ability to chuck corn cobs with startling accuracy at a cat who was stalking birds. They started playing catch, and he found her to have a powerful and supple arm. He encouraged her to play ball with the local boys, and even went so far as to construct a “gymnasium,” a barn with a woodstove inside, so she could enjoy throwing year-round.

He hired one of her teammates as a farm hand, with the understanding he would serve as Alta’s catcher. Alta went on playing in local games, and got pretty good.

As if building a gymnasium and hiring a catcher for your daughter wasn’t enough, Dr. Weiss went so far as to establish a high school in town, so that the school could have a baseball team, and his daughter could play on it. George Weiss took supporting his daughter’s baseball dreams to a whole other level.

The summer of 1907 was hot, and there was no air conditioning back then, so the Weiss family headed north to the shores of Lake Erie in Vermilion, Ohio, for swimming and cool breezes off the lake. 17-year-old Alta brought her glove.

One morning she found a couple of local boys playing catch on the beach, and asked if she could join in. They permitted this pretty young woman to play, and carefully lobbed her the ball. She zinged it back, making a glove pop and a hand sting. Before too long, one of the boys ran off to get Mayor H.P. Williams, who was immediately enthused at her ability.

Williams lobbied Charles Heidloff, the manager of Vermilion’s town team, to give Alta a chance to pitch for the local nine. Artist and historian Gary Cieradkowski sets the scene in his 2018 booklet “Alta Weiss, the Girl Wonder,” part of his “Infinite Baseball Card Set:” “Like virtually every town in America in 1907, Vermilion had their own baseball team that played other villages in the area. Back then, these semi-pro teams weren’t just for recreation – they represented civic pride and coveted bragging rights. Stakes were high, and washed up former pros and moonlighting college players were actively recruited to bolster the local talent.”

The Vermilion town team was a little short on pitching, as Labor Day and other crucial September games approached. Heidloff wanted to win, but initially couldn’t feature the idea that a teenage girl in a blue, ankle-length skirt was the ticket to success.

The mayor set up some sandlot games so Heidloff could see Alta pitch, and eventually persuaded him to put her on the mound for just the first inning of the big Labor Day game against the archrival team from Wakeman, OH. Wakeman’s Redcaps were a famous semi-pro baseball team from that glorious era of “town ball,” as baseball at the grassroots level was known back then. Founded in 1889, the Redcaps would play for local glory and host barnstorming teams of the highest level well into the 1950s. Wakeman is a true baseball town, and a scrapbook covering the years 1928-48 is housed in the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. During that 20-year span, Wakeman hosted barnstorming teams including the Chicago Union Giants and the Mohawk Colored Giants of the Negro leagues, as well as a barnstorming team led by Eddie Cicotte, former ace pitcher of the Chicago White Sox, who was banned from baseball for his participation in the 1919 “Black Sox Scandal.” Wakeman, as an opponent for Alta Weiss in 1907, was no small potatoes team.

“I was instrumental in getting Miss Alta Weiss to pitch her first game of ball in Vermilion. I consider her a wonderful player, and think our boys would do well to emulate her as to deportment on the ball field as her actions were always ladylike.” Mayor Williams was quoted on a beautiful barnstorming broadside, proudly displayed in Lois Youngen’s home.

The Redcaps came to Vermilion’s Crystal Beach ballpark for the big game on Labor Day, Monday Sept 2, 1907. Alta retired the side in the first inning, essentially calling the manager’s bluff. Would he be able to think outside the box, and leave her in the box? Perhaps the crowd of over 1200 curious fans helped to convince him, but Alta stayed in the game. Various sources report that she struck out 15 that day, which would mean that she was perfect through her five innings, but Cieradkoswki has dug up the real stat line.

She pitched five innings, giving up just four hits and one run, and catching a scorching liner along the way. Vermilion won the game in 11 innings. Alta Weiss was now a member of the team. She belonged, and would pitch the next game the following Sunday.

She pitched well that day also, and went the distance in the final scheduled game of the season, earning her first official win, 9-3. Word travelled fast, and newspapers all over the Midwest were buzzing with stories about “The Girl Wonder.” Vermilion scheduled two more games, in order to capitalize on the opportunity to sell a lot of tickets, and she was also hired by nearby Millersburg to pitch another game. Though these three starts were not as good as her first three, people kept coming, and extra trains were hired to bring fans from Cleveland.

The natural next step was to schedule a game in Cleveland, so Alta Weiss pitched in League Park, the big-league park which housed the then-called “Naps,” named after player-manager Napoleon Lajoie. On October 3rd, she started against the Vacha All-Stars before 3,100 fans. Alta’s team led 7 to 6 going into the ninth, but Vacha scored twice, and supportive fans rushed the field, demanding the game be called due to darkness. Had the umpire complied, the score would have reverted back to 7-6, and Alta would have earned the victory. Sensing that it might be in his personal safety interests not to let her lose, he compromised and called the game a 7-7 tie.

Alta returned to League Park on a frigid October 20th for a final game against a semi-pro team sponsored by Mahon & Roth, a clothing store. Among the fans in the crowd that day were Nap Lajoie and his wife, Myrtle. Alta must have liked the cold weather as she won 4-2, giving up one run on five hits, striking out three and walking just one. Lajoie said “She looked to me to have as much as many men pitchers, but I hardly think I will release Addie Joss or Heinie Berger to make room for her. But really, I was surprised to find that she could pitch so well.”

So how did she pitch? Cieradkowski quotes her from an off-season newspaper profile: “Throwing curves and sending a ball swiftly across the plate is as much a fine art to me as dabbling in paints or modeling sticky clay. I get as much enjoyment out of a game well played as a musician does out of a successful concert.” Weiss was a musician as well—she played guitar, violin, ukulele, banjo and piano.

“I have seen Miss Alta Weiss pitch on several occasions and for a girl I consider her a wonder,” said J.W. Spaulding, sporting editor of the Lorain Daily News. “She handles herself with all the movements of a man while on the mound; has speed, a good curve and good control. She knows the game and knows how to pitch winning ball.” Henry P. Edwards, sporting editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer added that she “fields her position well in addition to having a good baseball ‘noodle.’ ”

In a 2003 booklet called “You Can’t Play Ball in a Skirt,” authors Susan Brewer and Bette Lou Higgins credit her with having a fastball, curveball, knuckler, sinker, and even a spitball as part of her pitching repertoire. “She threw a good spitball — chewed a big wad of gum to keep up a good chunk of spit. She had control over every pitch except the knuckler and the spitter — she claimed she never knew how they would break.”

Cieradkowski produced a baseball card of Alta in 2018, as part of his “Infinite Baseball Card Set”, a never-ending set of cards honoring “baseball’s forgotten heroes” — and a few heroines as well. In addition to beautiful artwork, impressive writing and research, he totaled up her 1907 stats on the back of the card: 7 games, with a 5-2 record, 3 complete games and 44 innings pitched. She struck out 21 and walked nine, while picking up five doubles and 7 stolen bases on offense.

Alta Weiss Baseball card (from) — **Gary Cieradkowski / Gary Cieradkowski Applied Art & Design**

Alta is featured on three other baseball cards. Ken Burns created a card set which included Alta and several other women in conjunction with his 19-hour “Baseball” series on PBS in 1994. On the back of that card, Burns quotes Alta: “I found you can’t play ball in skirts. Now I always wear bloomers.”

A second card was produced in 2003 in conjunction with Brewer and Higgins booklet “You Can’t Play Ball In A Skirt.” A third card of Alta was issued by the Minnesota Girls Baseball Association, as part of a fundraising set featuring great women in the game from the present day as well as across the more than a century of women’s baseball history. Weiss has also been covered in a 2003 children’s book, “Girl Wonder, A Baseball Story in Nine Innings,” written by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Terry Widener.

For the 1908 and 1909 seasons, Alta’s father purchased the Vermilion team, renaming it the Weiss All-Stars. The players wore old Cleveland Naps uniforms, with their new name stitched across the front. Alta would be the literal center of attention, wearing a full-length, maroon dress that is now on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Later on, she donned bloomers, making it easier to play. The Weiss team toured the Midwest, playing in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, often against high level semi-pro and barnstorming competition. Alta was paid as much as $100 a game. She brought her sister Irma along, for female companionship, and to protect her reputation. A woman travelling alone with a men’s baseball team, playing against other men’s teams, was not considered proper at the time.

Alta enjoyed the travel and all the hoopla, but she had an overarching goal — saving money for her college education, which she started after the 1908 season at the University of Wooster.

A poster from 1909 shows two photos of Alta at the top, one in her baseball uniform and the other is a portrait of a young college student. “Base Ball! Miss Alta Weiss, the Girl Wonder, will play as a member of (fill in the blank) team and will pitch (blank) innings and play first base (blank) innings. Game called at (blank time). One side of the poster features quotes about her baseball ability and the other side portrays her as a student: “On reading of her prowess on the diamond, one naturally expects to see a strong, masculine, daring personage; but they are happily disappointed in Miss Weiss, for she is a sensible, great hearted, earnest young woman with an intense interest in all that goes to make an ideal student. She has been one of the most studious girls in the institution.”

After noting that she “has taken no part in college athletics among the young women, but has given her entire thought to her studies,” the essay goes on to describe her further:

“Miss Weiss is but 18 years old, with a splendid, hearty laugh, and an open-faced demeanor that at once wins her friends; she is splendidly built, sings beautifully, and is also quite skillful at the piano.”

“Miss Weiss does not court notoriety, and it is safe to say that if all the men who play ball conducted themselves so absolutely beyond reproach as does Miss Weiss, there would be no ground for criticism. All preconceived notions of a woman ballplayer vanish to the wind when one becomes acquainted with this young woman, and any who expect to see anything that is unwomanly in her conduct are disappointed.”

After Wooster, Alta went on to Starling Medical College, a precursor to the medical school at Ohio State University. She went on to practice medicine in small Ohio towns, and married John Hissrich in 1926, separating in 1944. She continued to pitch the occasional baseball game, often to support local charities, up into the mid-1920s.

Grassroots Baseball correspondent Tim Wiles is a long-time advocate for women and girls in baseball, and the former director of research for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. He is the author of two baseball books and dozens of articles. Catch his “Let’s Play Too” blog posts here at grassrootsbaseball.org.

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Tim WilesApril 19, 2023

We Were the Only Girls to Play in Yankee Stadium

“We Were the Only Girls to Play in Yankee Stadium” is an essay from the forthcoming book “Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America’s First Modern Ballpark.” The book, being published by SABR in 2023, was edited by Tara Krieger and Bill Nowlin.

AAGPBL 1950 Chicago Colleens/National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum

Between 1923 and 2008, Yankee Stadium hosted 6,746 major league baseball games, including 161 postseason games and 4 All-Star Games.[i] On August 11, 1950, the stadium hosted its first and only game between two teams of female professional baseball players, when the Chicago Colleens and the Springfield Sallies of the AAGPBL played a three-inning exhibition prior to that day’s contest between the Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics.[ii]

The New York Times called the game “a spirited exhibition,” noting that the “Colleens, managed by Dave Bancroft, famed Giant shortstop of thirty years ago, won by a score of 1-0.”[iii] The New York Herald Tribune saw the game differently, noting that the Colleens won 3-0. “Umpires were provided by the Yankees: Ralph Houk at home plate. Gene Woodling at first, Ed Lopat at second and Allie Reynolds at third.”[iv]

At present, we do not know who got on base, scored, or drove in runs in this historic game, as no box score, scorecard, or narrative game account has yet been found. We do know the name of the first woman to throw a pitch at Yankee Stadium, though: “No other woman had ever pitched off that mound before me,” said Gloria “Tippy” Schweigert, the 16-year-old who started that day for the Colleens. This source credits her with throwing a no-hitter in the start, though no game account confirms that.[v]

For this story, I spoke to all three of the surviving players who took the field that day: Joanne McComb, Mary Moore, and Toni Palermo. All expressed difficulty recalling much beyond the honor of playing in “The House That Ruth Built.” “I played first base, I know that,” recalled McComb. “I was more impressed with the surroundings. The game itself, to me, was just another game.”[vi] Mary Moore played second base, and recalls hitting a ball into the infield and running toward first base, where she took a dive on wet grounds after veering off to the right, muddying her bright white uniform. She can’t recall if she was safe or out, but “I would think that I would remember, if I was safe.”[vii]

Toni Palermo played shortstop, recalling that Phil Rizzuto loaned her his glove—and she used it in the game. She also cannot recall game details, but notes “I just know that I really enjoyed it, that I had his glove and I felt like a star out there. I was a confident player. I wanted every ball hit to me, no matter what the situation, and with his glove, I felt even more powerful.”[viii] Palermo also recalled Casey Stengel working with her on double plays before the game, teaching her to time the approaching ball, get it on the hop she wanted, and to just kick the corner of the bag. “And it made a difference,” she recalled.[ix]

Beyond the lack of a box score, another intriguing loss for history is the fact that, according to Merrie Fidler, the Yankee organization wrote an enthusiastic letter to the AAGPBL after the game, which included the sentence "The game was carried in its entirety on television and there has been a great deal of interesting comment around the city since."[x] This footage has not survived.

Playing in Yankee Stadium was a source of pride for many of the players that day, as they have often given that as their favorite memory, when asked on questionnaires, by reporters, and at panel discussions.

“Imagine, if you will, back then, being a girl and playing professional baseball on the field at Yankee Stadium. Think what it must feel like to us, walking and running around the outfield, standing in the same batter’s box where the likes of Babe Ruth, Phil Rizzuto, and Joe DiMaggio had stood. It was truly amazing and exciting for us,” recalled pitcher Pat Brown in her autobiography “A League of My Own.”[xi]

The Yankees and A’s players were friendly with the female players, and there was much interaction on the field and in the dugouts. Jane Moffett: “I…found myself in the dugout with several of the Yankees ball players, I was with Yogi, Whitey Ford, Casey Stengel, and others. Casey and Yogi were very friendly and stayed with us in the dugout talking baseball. I went out and warmed up the pitcher, and we played our three-inning game. Then we stayed for the game. I have been a devoted Yankee fan ever since. All in the life of a rookie.”[xii] Joanne McComb recalled Johnny Mize: “He was a character. He sat on the bench with us during the game, and offered to trade us chewing tobacco for bubble gum.”[xiii]

AAG Joanne McComb/National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum

Joanne McComb listed the game as her favorite baseball memory, and recalled “The Yankee players acted as our bat boys in the dugout with us.”[xiv] Mary Lou Kolanko mentioned that “I warmed up playing catch with Phil Rizzuto.” [xv][xvi] Barbara “Bobbie” Liebrich, who along with Pat Barringer, was one of the two player-manager-chaperones on the touring teams, remembered that “After the game I and the other manager (Barringer) were on Paul and Dizzy Dean’s TV show.” Liebrich and Barringer were also the keepers of the excellent set of three tour scrapbooks and a photo album documenting the annual tours, which is housed at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown. “I’m just sorry I broke my ankle, because after that, the teams went up and played at Yankee Stadium, and I missed that game,” lamented Shirley Burkovich.[xvii]

“I remember the game at Yankee Stadium,” said Jacqueline “Jackie” Mattson, “What a thrilling experience it was to meet Yogi Berra. His offer to let me use his bat was hilarious. What a club it was! It had a thick handle and was very heavy at the end. I was 5’5” tall and weighed one hundred pounds. If I had swung Yogi’s bat, it would have spun me in a circle, once or twice around.

Needless to say, I used my own evenly balanced bat with its nice thin handle.”[xviii] “We were the only girls to play at Yankee Stadium. That was an experience in itself. The stadium was the hugest thing that you’d ever seen.”[xix]

Pat Brown, who was in the A’s dugout, said: “We were all talking to the (A’s) players who had come into our dugout, and, at the same time, we’re cheering for our team playing out on the field. Suddenly everyone became very, very quiet, and we all looked toward the entry to the dugout. A tall thin man with white hair and a nice smile had just entered the dugout. We all knew who he was, and we respectfully waited for him to speak. It was Connie Mack, the manager of the Athletics, a man who was indeed a legend in baseball.”[xx] “Everybody was in awe,” she said [xxi] “It turned out that this was to be his last year managing. In 1956, when I read in the paper that he had died, I remembered him as that very special person who took the time to come into the dugout and say hello to some women professional players. Some things you can never forget.”[xxii] “What a thrill! We even met Mr. Connie Mack, wearing his customary vested suit and his straw hat,” recalled Pat Courtney.[xxiii] “I was so impressed with Connie Mack—his demeanor, and always so well dressed,” remembered Joanne McComb.[xxiv]

“We did play in Yankee Stadium which was a great thrill,” recalled player Mary Moore in a 2004 interview with AAGPBL historian Merrie Fidler. “Walking onto that field was like in a movie. It just was so beautiful — manicured. It was — I mean words just can’t describe it, actually. We played very good ball at the time and you could just hear the crowd “oooh” and “aaah” and It was just awesome.

It’s really — you can’t even describe it. You know, when we were touring around the country, we played at some nice places and then some of them they were almost like cow pastures.”[xxv]

AAGPBL Springfield Sallies/National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum

The game in Yankee Stadium came roughly midway during the 1950 travelling exhibition schedule conducted by the two teams. From 1948 to 1950, the Colleens and Sallies toured through much of North America, in order to promote the league, generate revenue, and recruit new players.[xxvi] The Colleens and Sallies were also considered farm teams, not just scouting the available talent at their many stops, but also refining the skills of those players already on their rosters, in preparation for call ups to the established, fixed location teams in Midwestern cities like Rockford, South Bend, Peoria, and Kalamazoo.

“We had good, good crowds because half the proceeds would go to some local charity. Murray Howe, our public relations guy, he was always ahead of us and he had press coverage and we had to take turns giving interviews on radio in each town that we went into. So we did have good advance publicity, noted Mary Moore.[xxvii] The Liebrich-Barringer scrapbook collection reveals fundraisers to raise money for swimming pool construction, the Fresh Air Fund, a high school band, which needed funds to pay expenses to Chicago to play at the Lions International convention, a scholarship fund for a young pianist to the New England Conservatory, polio benefits, police and fire departments, Boys Club Building Fund, Optimist Club’s Boys Work program, funds for needy families, Community Chest funds and a city playground fund.[xxviii] Admission was usually one dollar for adults and fifty cents for children. A few locations had discounted bleacher seats, and at least one Southern venue, Duncan Park in Spartanburg, S.C., offered “Colored Bleachers” for fifty cents.[xxix]

Between June 3rd and September 4th, the players travelled by bus through Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia and to points southward, including Roanoke, Asheville, Macon, Knoxville, and Hazard, KY. Then it was over to Hagerstown, MD and then up through New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, then back south for games in Washington D.C., (Where they played two games at Griffith Stadium) Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Then it was New York again, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and games in Sherbrooke and Montreal, Quebec. They finished up by working their way west across New York and Ohio.[xxx] The teams scheduled 95 games in that stretch, playing 83, with twelve rainouts.[xxxi]

The players were mostly in their late teens or early twenties, and only one, Canadian center fielder Joan Schatz, was married at the time.[xxxii] The bus rides were long, often conducted overnight, with players assembling on the bus after their post-game showers. ““The bus driver, Walt, loved to sing along with those songs, he had a beautiful voice, we travelled at night, and Wimp (Baumgartner) would stand up in front of the bus with him, and we’d sing songs all night. We had good singers on those teams!” recounted Isabel Maria Lucila Alvarez de Leon Y Cerdan, also known as “Lefty” Alvarez: “The days were ours to do with whatever we wanted. We had to do laundry, and catch up on our sleep, and do letter-writing. But in a couple of places, like New York, we went to Radio City Music Hall and Coney Island. It was a beautiful experience to get to do that and travel all over. We played through all the South, the East, the New England States and Canada, so there are places I would have never gotten to see, to do all this and get paid for it was really nice.”[xxxiii]

Speaking of the 1949 tour, Jane Moffett reminisced: “We traveled 26,000 miles that first summer in a bus. We played every day and prayed for rain because that was the only way we got time off. We could play a game and the next stop could be 200 miles away. A lot of police departments, fire departments and organizations would sponsor us as a fundraiser and we got called frequently to be on radio shows.”[xxxiv] Anna Mae O’Dowd added: “there was a lot of singing and a lot of jokes on the bus. It was fun. Of course, you got very tired too. I remember that well.”[xxxv]

Mary Moore, who led the Sallies in games played (77), hits (75), total bases (96), home runs (3), runs scored (65), and RBI (48), in 1950, recalled “We toured 21 states and Canada that first year. On the farm team level, we got $25 a week and $21 for meals that wasn’t taxable, plus all of our travel and housing expenses taken care of.”[xxxvi]

Many of these young women had never been away from home, and the opportunity to see the country, and Canada, was educational. Massachusetts native Pat Brown was surely not the only player whose eyes were opened to segregation: “I learned a lot that summer of 1950 while traveling through the segregated South. I had never seen such signs before as “Colored Only,” or “White Only.”

Even some of the posters announcing our games advertised separate seating for “Colored.” I was only a teenager, but after what I had seen, nobody had to tell me that segregation was wrong; I just knew it. Those images and other situations stayed with me, and I became a firm believer in civil rights and equality. Even today, I cannot erase those images from my mind”[xxxvii]

A week before the Yankee Stadium game, the AAGPBL made national news when former Yankee star Wally Pipp called 26-year-old Rockford Peaches first baseman Dottie Kamenshek, a perennial All-Star who was hitting .343 at the time, the “fanciest-fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.” Shortly thereafter, Both Kamenshek and AAGPBL President Fred Leo were contacted by officials with the Fort Lauderdale team and the Florida International League, offering to buy her out. Both Kamenshek and Leo turned down the offers. Dottie thought the offer was not sincere, and Leo said “Rockford couldn’t afford to lose her. I also told them we felt that women should play baseball among themselves and that they could not help but appear inferior in athletic competition with men.”[xxxvii]

When asked about Pipp’s comments, Bancroft replied that “Kamenshek was ‘an extraordinary player,’ but leaned against any woman being able to play in the major leagues. But he also added ‘Remember, it was only a short time ago that most major league players, managers, and sportswriters rejected the idea of Negroes ever playing the big top. Time marches on.’ ”[xxxix]

Of managing the women’s teams, Bancroft told Will Wedge, “It’s fun here, mixed with the usual headaches of a second division skipper, and it pays better than the minors. And it sure comes under the head of new experiences, and even at 57, and as gray-haired as I am, I can be attracted by novelty.

But don’t get me wrong. This girls’ baseball is more than a novelty, because it is good brisk baseball, and we give the customers a fast show, the games running only about an hour and a half. And I’m telling you that the adeptness of 99% of these dolls simply amazes me and their sport has caught on well in the Midwest.” “These girls just can’t get enough baseball. They want to bat for an hour before the game, but after twenty minutes on the mound, I’ve had more than enough exercise.”[xl]

Historian Merrie Fidler has also discovered that the AAGPBL planned, but apparently never held, another game in Yankee Stadium that season. “The (Kenosha) Comets and (Racine) Belles are scheduled in a nine-inning exhibition as a preliminary to the regular American League scheduled contest between Chicago and the Yankees…considerable interest has been evidenced throughout the East in the game played by the AAGBL after barnstorming tours by farm clubs last year. The two teams will fly by a chartered airliner to New York, and will return by air in time to resume their scheduled games at Fort Wayne and South Bend,” according to an article she found in the Scranton, PA Times Tribune.[xli]

In myriad interviews conducted over the last 30 years, since “A League of Their Own” was released, a trope emerges that these young women used their high salaries and newfound freedom to blaze new trails for their gender, which often involved higher education — at that time, not at all common for young women. Pat Brown’s autobiography repeats that pattern.

In a related article, Brown sums up, as no other player has done, the value of playing in the AAGPBL. This is the list of “Lessons from Pat Brown’s Baseball Life” that she wrote about: “Toughness, assertiveness, teamwork, belief in self, independence, broader perspective, acting under pressure, and courage.”[xlii] One quality she did not list was confidence. But she addressed it elsewhere: “I myself was only 17, 18 when I went out there to play. I was very shy, quiet through high school. The league changed me. It gave me confidence, it built me up. I finally realized that I wasn’t a freak because I was athletic. Before I started playing, people said to me ‘It’s wrong that you want to play baseball. It’s okay when you’re a little kid, when you’re a tomboy. Once I became a professional baseball player, I felt vindicated.”[xliii]

Pat would go on to earn not just her Master’s in library science, but also her law degree and a Masters in divinity.[xliv]

The entire tour was a rare opportunity for young women to expand their horizons through travel, athletic achievement, and making good money, while enlightening crowds and opening eyes all across North America. We’ll give the last word to Mary Moore: “Playing and getting to see the country like that and getting paid for it was more than you could ever dream of—I mean it was a dream come true—what else? You loved to play ball and you’re seeing the country and you’re traveling and everything and you couldn’t ask for anything more.”[xlv]

The author is grateful for research help from Dr. Merrie Fidler, Official Historian of the AAGPBL Players Association, Cassidy Lent and Rachel Wells of the National Baseball Hall of Fame library, former players Joanne McComb, Mary Moore, and Toni Palermo, Adam Berenbak of the National Archives, and historians Carol Sheldon and Ryan Woodward.

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FOOTNOTES

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Stadium_(1923), retrieved October 31, 2022.

[ii] John Drebinger, “Yanks Bench DiMaggio, Stagger to 7-6 Victory Over Athletics,” The New York Times, August 12, 1950.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] No title. New York Herald Tribune, August 12, 1950, retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[v] W.C. Madden, “The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 1997, 220.

[vi] Joanne McComb, telephone interview, November 22, 2022.

[vii] Mary Moore, telephone interview, November 6, 2022.

[viii] Toni Palermo, telephone interview, November 6, 2022.

[ix] Ibid.

[x] Merrie A. Fidler. “The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2006, 110.

[xi] Patricia I. Brown. “A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2003, 66.

[xii] Kat D. Williams. “Isabel ‘Lefty’ Alvarez: The Improbable Life of a Cuban American Baseball Star.” Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2020, 59.

[xiii] Joanne McComb, telephone interview, November 22, 2022.

[xiv] Joanne McComb. Hall of Fame Questionnaire, 1997. Need citation format.

[xv] Mary Lou Kolanko. Touching Bases, the newsletter of the AAGPBL Players Association, January 2005, 27.

[xvi] Retrieved from her biographical file at the Hall of Fame library.

[xvii] W.C. Madden, “The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 1997, 148.

[xviii] Patricia I. Brown. “A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2003, 173.

[xix]“Brewers, ex-Comet preserve the legacy of the AAGPBL” by Andy Horschak. Undated clipping, likely from the Kenosha News, retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xx] Patricia I. Brown. “A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2003, 67

[xxi] Dennis Daniels. “Move over Cobb, Ruth & Williams!” Boston Herald, October 12, 1988. Retrieved from her player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. Sept 30, 2022.

[xxii] Patricia I. Brown. “A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2003, 162.

[xxiv] Joanne McComb, telephone interview, November 22, 2022.

[xxv] Mary Moore. Interview with AAGPBL historian Merrie Fidler, conducted by phone in March 2004. Interview transcript provided by Merrie Fidler.

[xxvi] https://www.aagpbl.org/history/league-history. Retrieved October 21, 2022

[xxvii] Mary Moore. Interview with AAGPBL historian Merrie Fidler, conducted by phone in March 2004. Interview transcript provided by Merrie Fidler.

[xxviii] Numerous articles retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xxix] Ibid. Numerous newspaper game advertisements.

[xxx] Tour schedule and results, retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xxxi] Typescript of schedule and results, retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xxxii] Mary Hayes. “Yank Stadium to Queen City: Diamond Damsels Hit With Patrons,” News (City Unidentified) retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xxxiii] Jim Sargent. “We Were the All-American Girls.” Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2013. 281.

[xxxiv] Jessica Driscoll. “Former Pitman Resident Honored as Baseball First,” Gloucester County Times, Woodbury, NJ, July 5, 2010.

[xxxv] Katie Sartoris. “Annie O’Dowd recalls time spent in All-American Girls Professional Baseball League,” The Villages Daily Sun, The Villages, Florida, May 31, 2013.

[xxxvi] Pat Andrews. “Female Star Returns Downriver: LP grad depicted in ‘A League of Their Own,’” Heritage Newspapers/The News-Herald, Taylor, Michigan, October 25, 1995, 4-C.

[xxxvii] Patricia I. Brown. “A League of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.” Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 2003, 70-72.

[xxxviii] Ed Sainsbury. “Florida Nine Tries to Sign Woman Player. Unknown newspaper, August 3, 1950, retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xxxix] Tom Alesia. “Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century,” Chicago, IL: Grissom Press, 142-3.

[xl] Will Wedge. “Setting the Pace. (Substituting for Grantland Rice)” Unidentified Newspaper, August 5, 1948. retrieved from Liebrich-Barringer AAGPBL Tour Scrapbooks, (MSS 10, 1-D-2) National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, N.Y., September 30, 2022.

[xli] “Girl Ball Teams in Stadium Game: Jean Marlowe to Play in New York July 17,” The Times Tribune, Scranton, PA, May 31st, 1950. 41.

[xlii] Patricia I. Brown and Elizabeth M. McKenzie. “First Person… A Law Librarian at Cooperstown.” Law Library Journal, Volume 93:1. Winter, 2001.

[xliii] Liz Galst. “The Way It Was: A Real Professional Ballplayer Looks at League.” Boston Phoenix, Arts section. July 3, 1992. 7.

[xliv] https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/patricia-brown-pat/219 retrieved November 1, 2022

[xlv] Mary Moore. Interview with AAGPBL historian Merrie Fidler, conducted by phone in March 2004. Interview transcript provided by Merrie Fidler.

Tim WilesMarch 29, 2023

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.

Historical newspaper clipping of Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson & Connie Morgan of the Negro Leagues. — 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

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Jeff IdelsonJanuary 28, 2023

Kelsie Whitmore: One of the Game’s Rare Two-Way Players

Babe Ruth, Shohei Otani... and Kelsie Whitmore

Kelsie Whitmore was the only woman playing professional baseball on a men’s team in North America this season. The 24-year-old native of Temecula, CA has played baseball all her life.  She is devoted to the game and has played at every level, from tee ball to “men’s” professional baseball.  She has a relentless work ethic, an inexhaustible drive to play, and a deep love for the game. She’s building a path for herself and others, one step at a time. She signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League on April 8, and played with them for the entire season, with a brief July hiatus when she joined the U.S. Women’s National Team in a friendship series vs. Canada.

While she is currently the most accomplished woman playing professional baseball, she is not the first, and if she has her way, she won’t be the last. She’s part of a groundswell of women and girls playing the game not just in America, but all over the world. For example, there are seven women currently playing college baseball in the United States, including pitcher Skylar Kaplan of St. Mary’s College in Maryland. Kaplan is not the first woman to play at St. Mary’s — she’s the third. When first baseman Julie Croteau made the team as a freshman in 1989, she was a true pioneer, and it can certainly get lonely being the only female member of a men’s team.

Croteau, along with pitcher Lee Anne Ketcham, went on to play for the Maui Stingrays of the Hawaii Winter league, an MLB-affiliated league, in 1995. They may have inspired Ila Borders, then pitching at Southern California College, who went on to a four-year professional career, becoming the first woman to start—and win—a minor league baseball game, pitching for the Duluth-Superior Dukes. There were also three women, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, Connie Morgan, and Toni Stone, who played in the Negro leagues in the 1950s. When Hank Aaron left the Indianapolis Clowns for the Braves farm system, Stone was his replacement.

When I worked as the director of research for the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, I was part of an eight-person curatorial team that developed Diamond Dreams, an exhibit on women in baseball. As we studied the game’s history we noticed that from the 1860s on, there were dozens of women who were credited as “the first” to achieve particular milestones in baseball history. Sensationalized for a brief moment, they were later forgotten, and then decades later another woman would be credited as the first to do the same thing. We noticed that every time a woman (or girl) pushed through a door in baseball, the door would swing shut behind them, and when the media spotlight diminished, these women were forgotten.

“I want to be able to create opportunities,” she says. “I want to continue playing this game, but hopefully girls don’t have to go through all those things that I had to go through. I’d like to make their lives easier.”

The current world for women and girls in baseball feels different, as groups and individuals are building critical mass to earn their place in the game. Kelsie Whitmore would like to be a part of that. “I want to be able to create opportunities,” she says. “I want to continue playing this game, but hopefully girls don’t have to go through all those things that I had to go through. I’d like to make their lives easier.”

Helping her achieve that goal is the fact that, like Babe Ruth then and Shohei Otani now, Kelsie is a true two-way player. She racked up a number of firsts for Staten Island this year. She made her debut as a pinch-runner, becoming the first woman to play in the MLB-affiliated Atlantic League. Her pitching debut was dramatic: Manager Edgardo Alfonzo called on her with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth to face former Cardinals and Angels big leaguer Ryan Jackson. Her first pitch was a ball, followed quickly by two called strikes, before Jackson flew out to end the inning.

I had a chance to catch up with Kelsie as the calendar turned from August to September; and two days later she made history yet again, by banging out her first Atlantic League hit, a two-out, bases empty line drive single to left field. All in all, she pitched in 11 games for the FerryHawks in 2022, while playing in 30 others.

TIM WILES: You have a unique perspective on baseball and softball, having played softball in college, and baseball for the rest of your life. Why is baseball your preference and how are the two games different?

KESLIE WHITMORE: I’ve always chosen baseball. Growing up, it was always what I would do with my brother and my dad in the front yard or playing wiffleball inside the house with my brother. Once you fall in love with it, it’s hard to fall out of love with it. That’s just how the game has always been for me. Growing up it was one of those things that I enjoyed physically doing. As I got older, I began to really enjoy the mental side of it, how hard it is, and learning the IQ of the game — the behind-the-scenes parts — and the strategies behind everything. Also, the biomechanics, whether I’m hitting or pitching, and all the little technical details. It just becomes something you’ve done for so long that it’s like, ‘How could you live without it?’

TW: When you were switching back and forth between baseball and softball during your college years, did that affect your swing, your mechanics, or your mental approach?

KW: Mechanically, no. I didn’t really think the mechanics of pitching or throwing were any different. It was more the timing of pitches and the movement of the pitches that were different. I didn’t really play much softball other than in college. At the end of the day, you still gotta put the ball in play, score runs and hustle. The field dimensions and ball size are different, and pitches come in a little differently.

TW: A female baseball writer once complained that a lot of schools and municipal sports programs consider baseball and softball to be equivalent sports, for the purposes of Title IX. She scoffed at the notion and said that they are the same sport, just like tennis and ping pong are the same sport. Have you run into that comparison before?

KW: I don’t believe they’re the same sport. If they were the same sport the dimensions would be the same. The balls would be the same size and would be thrown the same way. I’d say there are similarities, but they’re not the same sport. The concept is the same. I experienced them differently. I get a different feeling playing one versus the other.

TW: Can you recall the first time you saw the movie “A League of Their Own,” how old you were, and if it affected you?

KW: I was around 12-years-old when I first saw that movie and I absolutely loved it. I’d heard about the League, but hearing things is different than seeing things, and it was really cool to see it. Even though I knew I wasn’t watching the real players — it was just a movie —it was based on true events. It was cool to be able to relate to that and feel it and know that there were women before me that played baseball. It was a great movie, and it inspired and motivated me. I loved seeing the parts that showed the grind of playing baseball. I liked that they showed women dealing with adversity. I almost had a sense of jealousy, seeing them being able to play as a group of women. That feeling is how I feel when I’m with the National Team — a group of women playing baseball. There’s no better feeling than that. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and it never gets old.

TW: I assume you’ve had the chance to meet several women who played in the AAGPBL?

KW: I’ve been able to meet a few of them. One with whom I’m the closest is Maybelle Blair. She’s awesome. She’s a baseball lifer and it’s so cool to know someone who grew up with the same passion, the same love for the game and to know everything that she’s been through. She’s never let it fade. Even to this day she is still involved. She’s probably more involved now than she was then. I’ve had conversations with her and we’re able to relate. It just shows you how baseball is timeless. It stays the same game and people who love it have the same love for it. It’s awesome that those women who are still with us are still a part of it.

TW: Do you have any favorite players who are role models for you, whether male or female?

KW: Growing up, Jackie Robinson was a player that I loved. I’ve always admired him, with all the things that he had to go through and the player that he was. He was seen as someone different and he didn’t allow that to stop him from doing what he loved. He just pushed through and that was inspiring to me. I’m a big fan of Michael Lorenzen who is with the Angels. He was a two-way player for a while in college and he went to the same school as me (Cal State Fullerton). Mike Trout is someone that I also look up to, as a player, as a role model. He’s so humble and he competes. Mookie Betts. I just love the way he plays. He grinds and is super athletic.

TW: What did you study in college? Knowing you, you used your studies to further your approach to baseball?

KW: I was a kinesiology major and I applied it to baseball all the time. I loved learning about the human body, how it works and how it moves. One of my favorite classes, also one of the hardest, was biomechanics, seeing how the body works. That was during the time that I really started to study the game a lot more. After every class I’d have practice and it was crazy how I was able to relate what I learned in class to how I was moving on the field, or when it came to injuries. We had classes on motor control and the mental side of how an athlete thinks, the psychology of things. It was really cool to apply it to my sports. And recently I got my master’s in instructional design and technology, and I was able to apply that to baseball by creating a learner’s program on the biomechanics behind baseball pitching. It was really awesome that the faculty at Fullerton allowed me to make my subject baseball-related. So yeah, almost all the subjects I took in college, I was able to relate to sports and baseball.

And recently I got my master’s in instructional design and technology, and I was able to apply that to baseball by creating a learner’s program on the biomechanics behind baseball pitching. It was really awesome that the faculty at Fullerton allowed me to make my subject baseball-related. So yeah, almost all the subjects I took in college, I was able to relate to sports and baseball.

TW: In this and other interviews you have mentioned “growing your I.Q. of the game,” and it makes me wonder if you have read The Mental Game of Baseball by Harvey Dorfman.

KW (laughing): I read The Mental Game of Baseball, third edition. It was two years ago and I remember taking notes and highlighting the book. My college coach gave me that book and I studied it. I read it throughout the season. I ended up having my best season that year too. I loved it. I’d like to read it again.

TW: Some players with great physical gifts might not need to read it, but even if you’re Barry Bonds, you can always get better, right?

KW: I believe that. It took me so long to realize that, but I’m glad I did while I am still playing. I believe full-heartedly that practicing mentally is just as important as practicing physically. If you’re playing the game and you’re going through stuff mentally, and you’re struggling, those are opportunities for you to practice how to get out of that and find things that help you be better focused, to help you get past things. If you had a bad outing, and you want to kind of let it eat you up and maybe give up on something, those are times where you can practice. What can I do to get past this and move on, so when I’m out there the next time, I’m not holding on to that anymore? That’s what I believe.

TW: What should pro baseball do to encourage more females — girls and women — to play?

KW: Man, no one has ever asked me that before. I think there’s been more support for women in baseball lately. I’ve been seeing so many major league teams that are starting to be supportive by having a women’s sports day, or having groups of female athletes come to the games. I’ve been seeing younger female travel baseball teams that are able to get opportunities, play on the fields and have camps. To make it simple, I would say whatever the guys are having is what the girls should have. Whatever opportunities the guys have in baseball — events, camps, clinics, whatever — it should be the same for the women as well. Women need to see support. It would be really cool to see professional managers hold clinics for young girls who are trying to continue playing. It’s great seeing more of that for young girls, but what about the girls who after college just want to play baseball? That’s where I was. How do they know where to go? How do they know what to do? Are we just trying to get them opportunities up until high school, or are we trying to develop them throughout high school? That’s where I feel there could be progress and change. Let’s target different age groups — the same groups that are being targeted for the guys. There may not be that many girls playing after high school or college. To answer your question: support. Support is a good start. After support, I’d say opportunities: events, clinics, etc. And not taking away opportunities — growing them.

TW: In your life playing baseball, do you have a favorite moment on the field or off? A transcendent moment for you?

KW: Tough question. Moments like after you win a game or you make a great play and your teammates are happy for you. Or if something you’ve been working on ends up happening and your team’s just happy for you. For pro ball, this might sound weird, but after a long bus ride we’re just beat, mentally and physically, and you just look at each other and think “We really love this game.” We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t love this game. We’re all on the same page, all doing the same thing, no matter how hard, how tiring, how tough, and we’re all just doing it. Just being part of it and being teammates — just the grind of it all.

TW: So, what’s next for Kelsie Whitmore? After the season and long term?

KW: The offseason grind. Training. Trying to get stronger, faster. I like to live in the moment, one day at a time. Working on myself physically and mentally. Just like every off season, it’s the training and the grind. I’ll be going to the facility that I train at and working for five months or so: working to improve on aspects from this season, picking what I need to get better at and then working on that so I can come back next year with whatever opportunities I get, and get after it.

TW: You’re going to be in baseball your whole life, aren’t you?

KW: That’s definitely the goal! I want to play the game for as long as I can and be part of the game somehow. I’m so focused on right now, right here, and being a player and playing as long as I can.

I want to be able to create opportunities. I want to continue playing this game, but hopefully girls don’t have to go through all those things that I had to go through. I’d like to make their lives easier. Maybe all they will have to do is focus on playing and not worry about the other parts of it. I want to be the one that does it. It’s not going to be easy, but someone’s gotta do it. That’s what pushes me through and keeps me going.

TW: In an interview with Grassroots Baseball co-founder Jean Fruth, she asked you to tell her who Kelsie Whitmore really is. One part of your answer was really touching to me. You said you want to create change in order to impact others’ lives more than to impact your own. Were you aware that Jackie Robinson said basically the same thing: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives?”

KW: He’s somebody who inspires me. I know a lot of players today are inspired by him. Lots of players of color are inspired by him. And he didn’t even realize that he was doing that for them. He’s opened up so many opportunities because of what he did, because he put others first, above himself. I want to be able to create opportunities. I want to continue playing this game, but hopefully girls don’t have to go through all those things that I had to go through. I’d like to make their lives easier. Maybe all they will have to do is focus on playing and not worry about the other parts of it. I want to be the one that does it. It’s not going to be easy, but someone’s gotta do it. That’s what pushes me through and keeps me going.

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Tim WilesOctober 26, 2022

Leveling the Playing Field

Imagine being a 6th grader who loves baseball so much that you have played on teams since your rookie year of T-ball in kindergarten. At the ripe old age of 12, or maybe 13, you are told by your coaches, teammates, parents, and friends, that your career is over — not because of your talent or interest level, but because you are a girl. Instead, you are directed to the softball diamond. Why? Because that’s what girls do.

Not so fast.

Baseball For All has sought to change the paradigm since becoming a national organization in 2015. The program’s mission is to build gender equity in the national pastime by giving girls opportunities to play, coach, and lead. It functions as a support system, providing a strong community that ensures that no girl or woman in baseball feels alone. Baseball For All empowers girls to believe in themselves and to keep participating in the game they love.

The fledgling organization was the brainchild of Justine Siegal, who graced the diamond through high school. She planned to continue playing — for a small college with a “no-cut” policy — but after her try out, the coach informed her that she was the only one who had been cut, because of a lack of uniforms.

Refusing to be shut out of the game because of her gender, Justine persevered in becoming the first woman to coach baseball professionally, in 2009 with the Brockton Rox, an independent league team outside of Boston. She later became the first woman to throw batting practice in the majors, putting on a baseball uniform for six teams, including her hometown Cleveland Indians, now called the Guardians. In 2015 she fulfilled a lifelong dream by becoming the first woman to coach for a major league franchise, spending two weeks as a guest instructor with the Oakland A’s Instructional League team in Arizona.

In its inaugural year, Baseball For All staged a tournament in Florida for more than 100 pre-teenage girls. Today the program has more than 1,000 players, ages 6-19, who participate in regional tournaments, clinics and events across the United States. This year’s BFA Nationals was held at the Ripken Experience in Aberdeen, Maryland. The organization’s umbrella extends to girls in more than 40 states and five countries who play in 30 programs across America, six of which are based in California, including the Los Angeles Monarchs.

In its inaugural year, Baseball For All staged a tournament in Florida for more than 100 pre-teenage girls. Today the program has more than 1,000 players, ages 6-19, who participate in regional tournaments, clinics and events across the United States

The guiding light of the Monarchs is Gillian Pierce. She became involved after taking her Little League daughter to that first BFA Nationals in the Sunshine State and quickly saw the impact that playing on an all-girls team had on her. She noticed how fast she bonded with other players, how excited her daughter and her new friends were in the new environment.

On her hometown team, she was “the girl” on an otherwise all-male roster. At the tournament, she was just another player. As Gillian recounted, “There’s a big contrast between being the only girl on a boys team, to a team with just girls. At home, some coaches forgot that my daughter existed. At the tournament, the players smiled, laughed and picked each other up. It was very natural.”

The experience in Florida was the impetus for Gillian to start the Monarchs in 2016. She began canvasing the community, reaching out to parents who might be interested. “We started with six girls,” she said, laughing. Today, she is the general manager of three Monarch teams of different age groups.

“There’s a big contrast between being the only girl on a boys team, to a team with just girls. At home, some coaches forgot that my daughter existed. At the tournament, the players smiled, laughed and picked each other up. It was very natural.”

Gillian’s philosophy is to give girls the opportunity to play baseball “for the love of the game,” she says. She also has a ready answer to the oft-asked question from parents, players and coaches, “When is she going to switch to softball?” Gillian’s reply is, “They aren’t.” The Monarchs play with both skill and joy. There are soulful bonds among the girls who no longer have the spotlight of being “the only one.” They play with the same intensity as the boys, but the atmosphere is much more relaxed.

As the Baseball For All program grows, Gillian is hopeful that more California teams will follow the San Diego Mustangs, a 13-U team formed earlier this year. “I’m hopeful we will have a Freeway Series one day,” she said.

Three years ago, Robb Hittner, whose daughter, Arden, plays for the Monarchs, was searching for additional opportunities for her to play outside of the Santa Monica Little League season, where she was the only girl player.

Arden was invited by Gillian to join the Monarchs and play in her first all-girls tournament as an 11-year-old. When she arrived, she encountered 400 other young ladies who were just like her: they shared a love for baseball, excelled at playing, and had no desire to play softball or any other sport. Arden was hooked.

“As soon as she joined the team, it seemed as if she had known the other kids for her entire life,” her father says. “That’s how immediate and strong the bond was. There’s no judgment. There’s no pressure. It’s not ‘the girl who is at bat,’ or ‘the girl on the mound’ – it’s ‘the baseball player.’ The sense of acceptance and then euphoria is very strong and noticed by all of us who are parents.”

Arden told me that she was nervous at first: “I had only played on teams with boys. I met my new teammates ,and we became friends pretty quickly. The nerves went away.” She returned home to Southern California after the tournament and has been a mainstay with the Monarchs for the last three seasons, while also continuing to play on boys’ teams.

“I love playing with the Monarchs because we have so much fun,” she says. “We take the game seriously, but not ourselves. We have a lot of fun practicing and playing in tournaments, but we are also out to prove that girls can play baseball, too.”

The experience for the parents involved has been as enjoyable as it’s been for the hundreds of players on all-girls teams. They see first-hand the differences between being a player who sticks out like a sore thumb, and one who’s part of a team.

“The biggest difference is how I connect,” says Arden. “When I join a new team with boys, I acknowledge them, but it’s all business. I fit in with them, but often feel out of place being the only girl on the team. I feel like I have to work doubly hard. With the girls, we are all going through the same thing. We’re not trying to out-do each other. Girls are more willing to open up and make friends.”

Because the girls have a shared story, there’s an inherently high level of camaraderie and cheering for the opposition. Through Baseball For All, they learn to become leaders and develop self-confidence. With a growing number of regional tournaments and events, there are more opportunities for girls to play as a team.

“The biggest difference is how I connect,” says Arden. “When I join a new team with boys, I acknowledge them, but it’s all business. I fit in with them, but often feel out of place being the only girl on the team. I feel like I have to work doubly hard. With the girls, we are all going through the same thing. We’re not trying to out-do each other. Girls are more willing to open up and make friends.”

“We want every parent who has a girl playing baseball to know there’s a place for them to play the year-round with other girls who are just like their daughter,” says Rob, who sits on the Baseball For All Advisory Board. He’s had a front-row seat view of the organization’s early success stories. Four of the seven women who are rostered to play varsity college baseball next spring are program graduates. Others have returned to help coach in their home towns, and, some have started programs of their own.

circle of smiling young women baseball player

With an expanding presence and footprint, Baseball For All is pushing the boundaries and truly moving in a direction that will make their organization’s name a reality.

“There will definitely be a girl playing in the majors one day,” said Arden, a Chicago-born Cubs fan who plans to try out for the Santa Monica High School baseball team in the spring. “I am not sure when, but one day it will happen. We are too powerful not to get there one day. Baseball should not be just a man’s sport.”

The Vikings baseball program at Santa Monica High has produced six major leaguers, including Conner Greene, who made his major league debut with the Orioles in July. Who knows? If Arden makes the team, she may not be far behind.

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Jeff IdelsonDecember 11, 2021

Opening Day Magic in Baxter Springs

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” How true.

Those were the words spoken by Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1936.

When I was a growing up in Newton, MA, those long days of winter could not disappear fast enough. I’d pore over Red Sox Spring Training Box scores in the Boston Globe. I pined for Little League registration, counting down the days. I could not wait for my season to start. A half-century later, I still remember getting up early, long before the ceremonies, to put on my wool uniform and cap, and my Converse sneakers, waiting to start the season.

That feeling never faded. During my 33 years in baseball with the Red Sox, Yankees and the Hall of Fame, I wore a green tie with butterflies on it for virtually every opening day. Opening Day butterflies.

When Grassroots Baseball traveled to Baxter Springs, Kansas for Opening Day of Little League, I felt like a kid all over again: A sea of smiling families and fans, bunting on the railings, the smell of popcorn, and an elevated level of giddiness among the players.

Baxter Springs is a town of 4,000 residents situated along the 13-mile stretch of Route 66 that shoots through the southeast corner of the state, serving as the elbow connecting the arm of the Historic Highway from Missouri to Oklahoma.

The town’s residents eat, breathe and live baseball. Nearly a quarter of them were crammed into picturesque Wayne Metcalf Field during the late afternoon on the final Saturday in April as Little League belatedly kicked off its season, with a national pandemic finally starting to slowly fade like a Christy Mathewson curveball.

The small, pristine ballpark at the corner of 14th and Grant streets is what you’d call cozy. Since the 1960s, the field has been meticulously-maintained by Wayne Metcalf, a devoted volunteer who served as league president for 36 years and still today, at age 84, is the Little League District Administrator in Kansas. There’s a small press box that’s perched atop a concession stand behind home plate, and a museum beyond the first base grandstands recounts the history of youth baseball in Baxter Springs, the town where Mickey Mantle was discovered by Yankee scout Tom Greenwade while playing in a semi-pro league in 1948 at the age of 15.

The festivities began with close to 200 players marching out of the first base gate with their coaches as their teams — from T-Ball to the Majors — filled the infield and then the outfield.

The public address announcer called off the names of the players from each age group who raised the most money for the league during the winter, and each trotted in to home plate to receive a gift card. A drawing was held and one of the Little Leaguers was presented with a color television that was bigger than him.

I was asked to deliver opening comments and let the players and crowd know just how special a community Baxter Springs is. I reminded the players to try their hardest, but to enjoy the experience and have fun.

I was given the honor of throwing the ceremonial first pitch, and even though I’ve known how to throw a baseball since I was 5 years old, I still get nervous. I harkened back to the sage advice that the late Hall of Famer Robin Roberts gave me, when I once told him about my nerves.

“Just relax, kid,” he said. “When you walk out to the mound as they are introducing you, toe the rubber and wave to everyone in the stands who will be cheering. Walk down in front of the mound to the flat surface. Throw your pitch, aiming high, and as the ball is traveling to the catcher, start to jog to him so that when the ball bounces short of home plate, the amount of time the fans have to boo you is condensed.” Sage advice from the ace of the Whiz Kids’ rotation.

My catcher, Riley, was introduced and trotted in from the outfield. As he joined me at home plate, I put my arm around him and asked him, tongue in cheek, how he was at blocking pitches. “Pretty good, sir,” was his response.

I went to the mound and thankfully delivered a sinking, sinking, sinking, low strike that landed softly in Riley’s mitt. You would have thought that former Pirates pitcher Rip Sewell, the master of the eephus pitch, was my pitching coach.

The short ceremony was followed by three games, the last of which was umpired by Flora Stansbury, a native of Seneca, MO who 20 years ago became the first female umpire to call a Little League Championship Game in Williamsport, in 2001. What a treat to be in the presence of not only a solid home plate umpire, but a pioneer, as well.

Opening Day is special, no matter who or where you are. And for me, the tradition never gets old.

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Jeff IdelsonJune 4, 2021

Margo Price: Miracle Worker

The late, great Henry Aaron was renowned for his five-tool ability on a baseball diamond. But he was also a deep thinker who spoke words of wisdom. During his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1982, the slugging outfielder paid homage to Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, saying, “A man’s ability is limited only by his opportunity.” 

Margo Price understands opportunity too. In 2002, in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, she made it her mission to assure children with disabilities had the opportunity to play baseball.

The mother of three boys, she learned that her youngest, James, was autistic when he was 2 years old. She knew he would grow up to be different than his older brothers. As James was finishing grade school, the Miracle League’s first field was being christened in Conyers, Georgia. The purpose of the organization was to bring the game to kids who might otherwise be left behind because of their limited abilities.

“James was 12 years old and loved sports,” Margo recounted. “He loved watching his brothers play baseball and basketball and asked himself, ‘Why can’t I do that?’”

After reading all she could about the Miracle League, Margo traveled to Georgia to attend meetings and do the necessary homework to start her own league in Edmond. She began her quest by finding a baseball field where James and other children with disabilities could play on Sunday afternoons. She spent countless hours raising awareness, building consensus and soliciting funds. With the help of the Edmond parks department, she not only found a field but also a community that would support her dream.

Miracle League playing surfaces, made from recycled tires, are built for accessibility, safety and durability—they must be level, with no holes that might trip up the players, and they must accommodate wheelchairs, both on the base paths and in the dugouts. The whole purpose of baseball is to go home, and that’s exactly what Margo provided for the players: a haven where they could enjoy this great sport.

Margo’s vision became a reality in 2006 when Edmond’s first Miracle League field was christened. “It’s a happy place,” Margo told me. “I can’t recall one bad experience. It’s always been very positive.”

She wanted the people of her community to see what a miracle baseball was for these youngsters, so she sent flyers to the special education departments in the area and rounded up volunteers to coach and staff the organization. She didn’t have to look too far for two of her first disciples—both of James’ brothers raised their hands. She reached out to players on local high school baseball teams to come and coach, and she convinced some members of the University of Central Oklahoma baseball team to lend a hand. She also found a corporate partner in Chesapeake Energy, whose employees volunteer at the games. “They help them play,” she says, “but they also establish personal relationships that extend beyond the field.”

One of her goals was to give the parents of the players an opportunity to be able to sit back and enjoy the games, because in many cases, they were doing everything else for their children the rest of the time. Parents of children with disabilities share the common thread of raising their special needs children and making life joyful for them. She wanted them to sit in the stands, get to know each other, and watch their children play.

Margo, too, can now sit back and watch the fruits of her labor.

The first team she put together was the Cardinals, named for the team in St. Louis that was her dad and brother’s favorite team. “I grew up listening to Harry Caray,” she remembers fondly. When the Cardinals’ roster was filled, she added the Red Sox, dividing the group of players between the two teams by age. Eventually, the league grew to 10 teams and 200 players, with players never aging out – they could play for as long as they wanted.

The Cardinals have been coached since Day One by Jeff Wedel. His son, Mark, plays on the team and Jeff pitches to him and all of the other players every game. “You can see it in his rapport with them,” says Margo. “When he learned there was a league for Mark, it was a dream for Jeff. He’s so happy being on the field and pitching to them, even 20 years later.”

By her own account, Price has loved every minute of building the program—ordering the jerseys, convincing sporting goods companies to donate bats and balls, watching the shed fill up with enough equipment to ensure that everyone who wants to play will be able to do so.

She has welcomed children as young as age 4 and encouraged them to continue playing well into adulthood. The league today has players as old as 60.

“Most of the players see through people,” Margo says. “They see what’s in someone’s hearts. They don’t care if people have black, white, green or purple hair, tattoos, or earrings. If someone says Hello to James, he says Hello back. Special needs kids don’t know danger or have any fear about life. They have taught me a lot.”

The league has provided people with disabilities the opportunity to play sports they otherwise would not have thought about it. According to Price, those who develop the most are low-functioning children, because the concept of sports once seemed so distant to them.

“I saw one little guy who needed his dad to lead him around the bases,” says Margo. “His dad wanted him to play so badly, and the young boy didn’t really understand what was going on. By the next season, the little boy had it figured out and was really enjoying himself. You see the light bulbs go on with these kids, once they have a chance to experience being on a ballfield. There is no scoring, or winning, but everyone cheers if a ball goes over the fence. It’s pure joy.”

For nearly 20 years, Margo had been at the field almost every night. She loved getting to know everyone in the community. A few years ago, she determined that it was the right time to pass the program along and spend more time with her grandchildren. She approached the people at the Edmond YMCA about taking over the program, and they readily accepted. But she’s still an active volunteer. It is, after all, her child.

And James, now 32, is still a kid at heart. He’s 6-3, 210 and still loves to wear his uniform and eye black. On game days he will put on his Cardinals jersey in the morning. Margo does not foresee him ever quitting baseball. He still loves to hit the ball over the fence and interact with the other players.

Margo call James the “Mayor of Edmond” because he knows everyone and will never forget a name. He loves his teammates. He’s a kind soul who hugs and high-fives everyone on his team—and the other teams, too.

And as long as he continues to play, Margo will be at his games, cheering alongside the other parents who only needed an opportunity for their children.

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Jeff IdelsonMay 13, 2021

Restoring a Treasure in Amarillo

Route 66 in Texas runs from Shamrock to Glenrio, 189 miles in all as the horse gallops. The midway point is Amarillo, also known as the “Yellow Rose of Texas,” given the Spanish origins of the city’s name. 

It’s where you’ll find the Big Texan Steak Ranch, which promises that if you can eat their 72-ounce steak in under an hour, you get it for free, as well as the Cadillac Ranch, an artistic outdoor installation of 10 wildly spray-painted Caddies on end and all in a row. It’s also home to a vibrant grassroots baseball community.

For decades, the centerpiece of the amateur game in Amarillo was Potter County Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1949 just a few blocks from Route 66. It’s where fans saw the Amarillo Gold Sox play until 1983, except for three seasons when major league franchises moved their affiliates.

The Gold Sox played in the Class D West Texas-New Mexico League, Class A Western League and the Class AA Texas League. Fans saw young prospects from within the Orioles, Yankees, Cubs, Astros, Giants and Padres organizations. Future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn both wore Gold Sox uniforms along their journeys to the big leagues.

After the Padres moved its AA affiliation from Amarillo to Beaumont after the 1982 season, the venerable ballpark became home to independent and wooden bat leagues for 34 years until the American Association’s Texas Air Hogs left town in 2016.

Suddenly, Potter Stadium became very quiet.

Enter Mike Fuller, a coach, father, grandfather and visionary. One of Amarillo’s native sons, he grew up going to Gold Sox games with his parents, brother and friends. He’d see so many people he knew when he went to the ballpark that it felt like one big family picnic.

After graduating from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Fuller worked in construction and coached youth baseball until he had children of his own. “I was good enough to catch at Caprock High School, but that’s as far as my ability took me,” he said.

Fuller and his wife Diana had four children, all boys. As his sons grew older, he felt the urge to return to coaching. They all attended San Jacinto Christian Academy, and because two of them were playing baseball at the time, Fuller approached the school about starting a baseball team. The Academy agreed, and in 1995, with the help of Scott Tankersley, Fuller began to build the program.

“I thought it was important to teach the kids to play hard and to the best of their abilities. When they stepped out on the field, I wanted them to play the right way, and respect the game and their opponents.”

No one took the Patriots’ baseball program seriously at first, but with time, it began to blossom. “We won a lot of games and we sent a lot of kids to college. We got to a point where we had built respect for the program. Once that happened, recruiting kids to play became much easier.”

After the 2015 baseball season, the program was looking for a new home field and Fuller knew of a vacant site—Potter Stadium. The initial reaction was, “Oh no,” because of how rundown and filthy the stadium had become. But Fuller and the school convinced the county to lease Potter Memorial for the cost of rehabilitating and maintaining it.

“I was just looking for a place for our team to play. Once that door opened, I understood how much work and money it was going to take. When I started talking with folks in the community about our idea, I realized how much Potter County Stadium meant to the people of Amarillo. I had lost sight of it until then.

“They were very generous and many didn’t care about recognition—they were thrilled just to help. They told me they loved what we were doing. I had a great sense of pride when I realized there was a bigger picture; this was about community. It was immensely satisfying.”.

With financial support and in-kind donations—a scoreboard, for instance—from community members, and sweat-equity from his players and a legion of volunteers, work began. Dumpster after dumpster filled with garbage were removed. The field was hard as concrete, but soon truckloads of dirt arrived to completely revamp the infield. The outfield was seeded and mowed, and grass began to grow again. They completely rebuilt the dugouts. With a lot of hard work, they had a place to play, one with a rich history.

In 2017 the Patriots played their first game in a new home with a coach who used to be a teen-ager like them, sitting in the stands watching the next generation of major leaguers. “There was great satisfaction in taking a place where I spent much of my childhood, bringing it back to life, and then coaching there.”

Two years later, in Fuller’s final season before leaving high school coaching, the Patriots posted a 29-1-1 record and won the TAPPS Division 4 District 1 State Championship. Because of their success, and because of the 349 games he had won over 25 seasons, Fuller was recognized by the Amarillo Globe-News as its Baseball Coach of the Year.

“Baseball has opened some incredible doors for me. I felt like my involvement, even though I wasn’t very good, got me a seat at the table. I’ve met some great people who passed through Amarillo because of baseball—former Astros owner Drayton McLane, hitting coach Kevin Long, Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, to name just a few.”

Even though he’s coaching in a college prep league, you’ll still find the former San Jac coach at Potter Memorial. He’s the one with the keys to the place and still takes personal pride in its upkeep. You might even see Mike Fuller there with one or more of his 13 grandchildren, many of whom he has coached.

“From the time I was a little kid, I’ve always been around the game in one form or another. For a guy who wasn’t a great player, the game allowed me to nibble around the edges of baseball, which is really, really cool.”

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Jeff IdelsonDecember 29, 2020

The Heart of the Game in Baxter Springs, KS

If you want to find the roots of the game in Baxter Springs, head to the Little League field at the corner of 14th and Grant. That’s where you are more than likely to find Wayne Metcalf. 

Thanks to his care, passion, energy, and unwavering commitment, the kids in his community have been provided with joy and opportunity for more than half a century. He’s the man who has dusted off this wonderful home for so many young ballplayers.

Wayne moved to Baxter Springs—a town of 4,000 residents along the 13.2 mile-stretch of Route 66 that travels through rural southeast Kansas, in 1955. After graduating from high school in Crane, Mo., and then barber school in Texas, he opened a barbershop in Baxter Springs. He and his bride Mary ultimately bought a house a block away from the ballfield.

It had been months since my last haircut. I called Wayne and made an appointment to get my ears lowered and reminisce about baseball in Baxter Springs.

Now 84 and still spry, Wayne recalls that his involvement in amateur baseball began when he became an umpire in 1966 when the first of Mary and his five children decided to play Little League. Three years later, he became league president, a position he would hold for 38 years. He’s quick to credit Calvin Mishler, who in 1954 developed and managed the first youth baseball team in Baxter Springs. Mishler remained committed to helping kids learn the finer points of the game for 50 years.

With keen vision, hard work and considerable help from the community, Wayne has transformed what was once a non-descript sandlot into an intimate ballpark experience with infield and outfield seating for 1,000 fans. With the exception of the original center post of the backstop, every element of the ballpark has been upgraded during his tenure. Those 1,000 seats are often filled with the very neighbors who built them.

As part of the presidential duties he assumed 51 years ago, Wayne became the groundskeeper, cutting the Bermuda grass twice weekly in the summer and once a week in the spring and fall. He still edges the infield every week and makes sure that the red clay infield is always nicely raked. He’s a professional barber, after all.

“The local kids always helped me with the upkeep,” Wayne says. “They worked hard with me. It taught them something and kept them out of trouble.”

Today the field is held in such high regard that it’s reserved for games only—no practices allowed. Players warm up on the grass alongside the ballpark and take their cuts before games in an indoor batting cage, which Wayne built in a large storage shed.

In 1980, with the financial support of the community, a small museum dedicated to the history of Little League in Baxter Springs was built behind the first base grandstand. The museum displays many of the 20 state title banners won by Baxter Springs, as well as uniforms, photos, newspaper clippings, and trophies. Who is the curator, exhibitor, and tour guide? Yes, it’s Wayne.

Bill Russell, the Dodgers shortstop who grew up in nearby Pittsburg, Kansas, donated one of his jerseys after a visit. Dick Green, who played second base for the A’s, also came to see the museum. But the most esteemed visitor was Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, who grew up 12 miles away in nearby Commerce, OK and was signed by the Yankees after playing a game for the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids in 1949. There’s a ball with his name on it in the museum.

Wayne added Little League District Administrator to his responsibilities in 1973, a position he still holds today. His district encompasses the entire state of Kansas. He also served on the Board of Little League Baseball for three years in the early 1980s. He has fond memories of meeting Carl Stoltz, founder of Little League in Williamsport in 1939, and also remembers the reverence for a former presidential candidate when he spoke at Board meetings. “The big voice on the Board when I served was George McGovern. When Mr. McGovern spoke, everyone listened.”

Hall of Famer Tom Seaver signed a baseball for him at a Board Meeting in the early 1980s. Wayne proudly displays the ball in his barbershop below a photo of himself with Davey Lopes, whom he met in Williamsport. He treasures his baseball memories, just as the kids of Baxter Springs treasure the memories he’s provided them.

Wayne realized just how much he was beloved in Baxter Springs when the Little League community named the ballpark after him in 2016.

“I’m so proud of our field,” Wayne told me, as he wrapped up my haircut. “I wanted to see a field that was the nicest one around, something I wished for when I was a kid. I grew up playing in a cow pasture.”

Wayne got his wish. The diamond in Baxter Springs is every Little Leaguer’s Field of Dreams.

And the haircut? I left Wayne’s barbershop as well-manicured as the field a block away.

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Jeff IdelsonOctober 20, 2020

From the Road

The fabric of grassroots baseball is laced with volunteers who make the game go, and those who put on the uniform. Read about some of the incredible people who are involved in the game at the grassroots level.

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A Turn of The Century STAR PITCHER, A FUTURE AAGPBL STAR, AND AN AUTOGRAPHED BASEBALL

“Would you like a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth?”

“My eyes lit up and I said, “yes!” And then she said, “would you like me to sign it?” and I said, “yes!” She took out her pen — there were no ballpoints in the 1940s — and she signed it.”

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Babe Ruth, Shohei Otani... and Kelsie Whitmore

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Watch Kelsie Whitmore tell her story.

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“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” How true.

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Route 66 in Texas runs from Shamrock to Glenrio, 189 miles in all as the horse gallops. The midway point is Amarillo, also known as the “Yellow Rose of Texas,” given the Spanish origins of the city’s name.

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If you want to find the roots of the game in Baxter Springs, head to the Little League field at the corner of 14th and Grant. That’s where you are more than likely to find Wayne Metcalf.

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