Women and girls are making huge strides in getting on the baseball field, and Major League Baseball is creating initiatives to foster that.
The latest from MLB is the Trailblazer Series to be played this week in Vero Beach, Fla., at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex. The event for girls (between 12-14 years old) happens this weekend and is held to honor Robinson’s trailblazing career, which is celebrated across baseball on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day.
Three girls from San Francisco — Jasmine Atkinson, Malia Bagley and Freda Somers — will participate, the league announced. There are 92 total girls participating in the series, which has been running since 2017.
The annual event is happening in a major year of growth for women in baseball (the hardball game), and the Bay Area has been a hub for its evolution.
San Francisco is one of four founding teams of the Women’s Pro Baseball League which begins its inaugural season on Aug. 1.
The league, which spans from New York and Boston to Los Angeles and San Francisco, will run for seven weeks this summer. Though all these teams are in big coastal cities, the first season will be played entirely in Springfield, Ill.
San Francisco’s team (yet to be named) drafted Kelsie Whitmore with their No. 1 overall pick in the draft last November. Whitmore made a name for herself in the Bay Area while pitching for the Pioneer League’s Oakland Ballers and playing for the Pacific Association’s Sonoma Stompers.
More than 600 women tried out for the draft last summer, according to MLB. A sign of how much the game is growing for girls.
Before the WPBL begins, many players will participate in the Women’s Baseball World Cup. That happens from July 22-26 in Rockford, Ill., a nod to the Rockford Peaches women’s team made famous by the movie “A League of Their Own.” Maybelle Blair and Jeneane Lesko, legends who played for the American Girls Professional Baseball League, which closed down in 1954, will speak at panels at the Trailblazer Series this year.
MLB has a few other events for women and girls who want to get into baseball, including a workout showcase for kids called “MLB Grit” that allows a handful of those girls to play in a weeklong invitational called the “Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series.”