Baseball For All

By Lucy Rose Davidoff on 03/07/2011 @ 02:00 PM

Did you know? On Monday, February 21, 2011, Justine Siegal became the first woman to pitch batting practice to a Major League baseball team.

Born and raised in Cleveland, it seemed only right that Justine Siegal make history by pitching to her hometown team, the Cleveland Indians. Over a decade ago, Justine Siegal started an organization called Baseball For All that works to promote baseball globally with a special focus on girls and women. As their website says, “Baseball For All is changing the gender landscape of our national past time - ensuring that baseball really is for all.”

Although today women are not allowed to play in Major League baseball, it wasn’t until the 1930’s that women were officially banned from the sport. From 1890 to the 1930’s, women baseball teams were commonplace in America. Referred to as “bloomer girls,” female baseball players were widely respected and their games were well attended.

Although there have sporadically been women pitchers breaking barriers of their own, such as Ila Borders, the first woman pitcher to start a college level baseball game, and Eri Yoshida, the first woman to play in the independent minor leagues in over a decade, the grandmother of female pitchers is unquestionably Jackie Mitchell. When she was just 17, Jackie Mitchell pitched at an exhibition game against the Yankees in 1931, striking out not only Babe Ruth, but Lou Gehrig as well. One Library of Congress researcher wrote that this embarrassing episode led the Major League Baseball commissioner to ban women from the game.

Justine Siegal says she hopes her stint in pitching batting practice for the Major Leagues will help inspire young girls to take up the sport that she calls “the greatest game on earth.”

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