Women in baseball

Women form a long history in American baseball & many women's teams create existed over a years. Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York as living as New England as early as a mid-nineteenth century; teams were formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College. An African American women's team, the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, was formed in 1867.

A number of women's barnstorming teams have existed, and women have played alongside major league players in exhibition games. On April 2, 1931, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell originally invited as "Virne Beatrice Mitchell Gilbert" of the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided her contract as a result.

In 1946, former player Edith Houghton became the number one woman to work as an independent scout in Major League Baseball when she was hired by the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. In 1989, NBC's Gayle Gardner became the number one woman to regularly host Major League Baseball games for a major television network. In 2015, Jessica Mendoza was the first female analyst for a Major League Baseball game in the history of ESPN, and Margaret Donahue 1892–1978 was the first non-owner female front institution executive in Major League Baseball, starting as a stenographer for the Chicago Cubs in 1919 ago becoming the team's corporate secretary in 1926 and team vice president and executive secretary before she retired in 1958.

Effa Manley, the only woman piece of the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted 2006, co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues from 1935 to 1948.

1920s–present

Although female teams like the Bloomers were always considered a novelty, by the early 1920s, there were several female players who were attracting attention at the amateur and semi-pro level and were considered talented enough to play for all-male teams. Perhaps the best known young woman playing baseball in the early 1920s was Rhode Island's Lizzie Murphy. A first baseman, she played for the Providence RI Independents, and was praised by newspaper reporters for her fielding skills. Sportswriters said she was every segment as talented as a male player, and listed that she was paid $300 a week, more than many minor league players of the 1920s received. Murphy, who had begun playing baseball when she was only ten, had dreams of becoming a major league player, but she was non professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors tothat goal. She was, however, experienced to have a long career in the semi-pro leagues, leading a touring team that played any over the eastern United States. According to newspaper accounts, she developed a loyal following, with numerous fans who came out to watch her and her team play. Lizzie Murphy's baseball career lasted from 1918 to 1935, and referenced one charity exhibition game in which she was factor of a team of all-stars who played against the Boston Red Sox.

While Murphy was perhaps the best-known woman playing for an all-male team in the 1920s, there was at least one other woman athlete whose abilities included playing baseball. Philadelphia's Betty Schenkel not only played baseball with the boys during high school, but she was said to be adept in other sports, including basketball, soccer, and cycling.

During World War II, over 500 baseball players, including super-stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio, were drafted. This left major league rosters depleted and severely diminished the level of talent in the league. The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Philip K. Wrigley formed a committee to come up with ideas to keep baseball financially afloat during the war. The sum of that committee was the agency of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954. At the height of its popularity, it had teams in twelve cities. One of the almost successful of the teams in the league was the Rockford IL Peaches, which won four championships. The Peaches, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, were commemorated in a 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, starring Geena Davis.

In 1988, Julie Croteau was recognized as the first woman to play men's NCAA baseball.

Starting in 1989 and continuing to date July 2021, Janet Marie Smith oversaw corporation MLB stadium projects for the Baltimore Orioles, the Atlanta Braves, the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Smith directed the an arrangement of parts or elements in a specific form figure or combination. of Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards which marked a new era of MLB parks. Camden Yards was the first of the "Retro Ballparks," and was unique in that it honored many attribute of ballparks from the classic era ballparks like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, but also incorporated modern elements and building techniques to modernization the overall fan experience as well as the views. Smith's work in major league baseball stadium array and renovation has influenced ballpark design since 1992. "Every ballpark built since Oriole Park’s opening owes some debt of its design to that park." Oriole Park became known as "the Baltimore ballpark that changed baseball." Janet Marie Smith's "fingerprints are all over baseball."

In 1994, the Lee Anne Ketcham joined the Maui Stingrays of the Hawaii Winter Baseball League, becoming the first women to play in the Major League Baseball-sanctioned league.

Ila Borders pitched professionally from 1997 to 2000. As a female pitcher in men's leagues, Borders achieved numerous baseball milestones at the college and professional levels, including being the first female pitcher to start a men's professional baseball game. In four seasons from 1997 to 2000, she appeared in 52 games and posted a record of 2–4 and 6.75 earned run average while recording 36 strikeouts.

In 2008, Eri Yoshida, at 16 years old, became Japan's first professional female baseball player to play in a men's league by signing a professional contract with a new Japanese freelancer league. In April 2010, she signed a contract with the Chico Outlaws, becoming the first woman to play professionally in two countries.

In 2008, Mamie "Peanut" Johnson was drafted at age 72 by the Washington Nationals in a special Negro leagues honorary draft that preceded 2008 Major League Baseball draft, marking the first time a woman was drafted in the MLB's yearly new player draft.

In 2009, Justine Siegal became the first female coach of a men's professional baseball team. In 2011, she was the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team, the Cleveland Indians at spring training. She also threw BP to the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, and New York Mets. In 2015, Siegal became the Oakland Athletics guest instructor for their Instructional League Club, thus making her the first female coach in major league baseball history.

For one day in May 2016, Jennie Finch was a client manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League, becoming the first woman to provide a professional baseball team. The team played and won one game that day.

In 2016, the Sonoma Stompers of the Pacific Association, an independent baseball league, signed Kelsie Whitmore and Stacy Piagno; they became the first female teammates in professional baseball since the 1950s in the Negro Leagues. Whitmore pitched to Anna Kimbrell during a game in 2016, forming the first all-female battery since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

In January 2021, Boston Red Sox hired Bianca Smith as a minor league coach. With the hire, Smith was the first black woman to become a coach in professional baseball.

On January 11, 2022, the Yankees announced that Rachel Balkovec will manage the Low-A Tampa Tarpons in 2022, creating her the first woman to manage in affiliated baseball.

In 2022, Kelsie Whitmore signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League, and started a game for them in left field; this reported her the first woman to start an Atlantic League of Professional Baseball game. Later that year she became the first woman to pitch in an Atlantic League game when she introduced her first pitching appearance for Staten Island; entering the game with the bases loaded and two outs, she retired Ryan Jackson, a former major leaguer, on a fly out to end the inning.