Women in Professional Baseball

The All American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-54) was the first ever professional baseball league made exclusively for women.

Baseball has been around in a professional capacity since the birth of the Major League of Baseball (MLB) and its very first club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. While baseball been predominately dominated by males, in more modern times, women's roles in the sport have grown exponentially. The sport of baseball in general is played mostly by men, while a similar version of the sport called softball is predominantly played by women. In a professional capacity, the players in the MLB are exclusively made up of males, and until more modern times, employees of the organization were almost exclusively men as well. A number of all women's baseball teams have surfaced since baseballs inception, and although the sport is still mainly male dominant, the influx of women participation off the field is growing at a staggering rate. Specifically, MLB teams are now employing more and more women for roles that before were exclusively held by males: scouts, nutritionists, athletic trainers, team doctors, statistical analysts, mental conditioning coaches and front office staff are now just some of the roles that women are beginning to occupy within professional baseball.

Inception to Modern Day

The Boston Bloomer Girls were an icon for women in professional baseball, and after some time even a few men were accepted to play on the team.

There have been reports of women participating in casual baseball games in as early as the 1860s, however in this era women were typical discouraged from playing sports as they were considered 'manly'. In the late 1890's there were efforts to organize all women baseball leagues, which created one of the more notorious women's teams in history, the Boston Bloomer Girls baseball club. Unfortunately, some cities banned the playing of baseball by women and teams like the Boston Bloomer Girls began traveling to more welcoming cities that were curious about the all girls baseball team. Although teams like the Bloomers were mostly considered a novelty, there were many women players who were attracting attention from male-only teams at the amateur and semi-pro level. One of the most well known of these players was first baseman Lizzie Murphy , who was critically acclaimed by multiple sportswriters to be equally as talented as the male players. Murphy was never able to play in the Major Leagues but was fortunate enough to have a successful 17 year career in multiple semi-pro leagues and was part of a team of all-stars that played in a charity baseball game against the Boston Red Sox. There was also the creation of a women's only professional league called The All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The league operated for 11 years from 1943-1954 and in its peak had 10 teams located throughout the Midwest of the USA. In 1992 a movie called A League of Their Own was made, which was inspired by certain players and teams that participated in the AAGPBL.

In more modern times, baseball has slowly become more inclusive to women. Women's baseball has become more popular on a national and world level, with the Women's Baseball World Cup being played every four years since 2004. The tournament consists of the world's best teams competing head to head to be crowned world champions. The tournament has been held in many different countries including Canada, USA, China, Japan and Mexico, and Japan has capture gold in the last six consecutive tournaments.

Professional Roles Today

Scouting

Edith Houghton was the very first female scout for professional baseball and was hired in 1946 by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Amanda Hopkins was hired in December of 2015 by the Seattle Mariners to become only the second female scout of all time (behind Edith Houghton in 1946). Hopkins attended Central Washington University where she was a member of the softball team. Hopkins began working for the Mariners as an intern, with interest in amateur scouting, and attending a scouting development program before being hired by Seattle. She was able to break through into the world of scouting even though she played softball, not baseball, as most scouts are former baseball players, and is now responsible for scouting amateurs on behalf of the Mariners in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Coaching

In 2009, Justine Siegal was the first female to ever coach a men's professional baseball team. She became the first-base coach for the Brockton Rox, a member of an independant professional league. In 2011 Siegal was the first women to ever throw batting practice for an MLB team, the Oakland Athletics. She then went on to throw batting practice for the Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, and New York Mets. In 2015 Siegal was officially hired by the Oakland Athletics to be a guest coach during their fall instructional league in Mesa, AZ. This instructional league is a small camp held by MLB teams to work closely with their highly touted prospects and is therefore staffed by only the most qualified coaches.

On November 23rd, 2019 Rachel Balkovec made history by being hired by the New York Yankees as the first ever female full-time hitting coach. Balkovec previously worked as a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals, and is touted for her expertise in the science of human via two masters degrees. She is expected to begin her roll in February 2020.

Athletic Training

In 2018, Nikki Huffman was the only head athletic trainer in all of the MLB, and was just the second woman of all time to occupy this role. Originally Huffman was a student athlete at Averett University, playing basketball while also studying athletic training. Then in 2015 she went on to begin a fellowship at Duke University's human performance laboratory. While at Duke, Nikki Huffman helped rehabilitate Marcus Stroman, one of the Toronto Blue Jay's star pitchers, after he underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL. Stroman's injury was supposed to be season ending, but he was able to return in September and participate in the post-season and credits his early return to Huffman's work.