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[light music]
[man 1] Go!
[announcer 1] Today, we will witness the first co-ed team
in professional baseball since the 1950s.
[woman 1] You see baseball all the time,
but you never think about seeing a woman out there.
[man 2] I don't know why they get so hung up on this.
There's nothing wrong with being not so great at sports.
Like I can't cook a good soufflé.
[narrator] What you're about to see
is not a work of fiction,
but it is a story of many dreams
that you've likely never seen it or heard of it before.
[announcer 2] A pivotal Group C matchup today.
Two teams collide on a huge stage.
Both need a victory to advance.
[clinks]
[announcer 2] Holmes and her first triple, the play today,
a double to left that brought home two runs.
[narrator] Courage, passion,
perseverance against all odds.
This is the world of women's baseball.
-Let's go, Ebony, let's go. -Let's go, Ebony, let's go.
[woman 2] People wouldn't believe me
when I'd say I play baseball.
They're like, "Oh, you mean softball."
I'm like, "No, I play baseball with all the guys."
And you have to actually do the function,
-like not this, but... -[woman 3] Yeah, you can't do it
-like this. -Yeah.
[woman 4] My coach said "I don't think you should play
for my team anymore, because you're taking spots away
from boys that could potentially be college prospects.
[Kelsie] It was after a game,
and this guy had tweeted,
"Why aren't you playing softball?"
Baseball is for boys and softball is for girls.
That's something that's just been kinda carried
in people's head for so long.
[woman 6] I played baseball since I was five years old,
and ever since then,
I just fell in love with the game.
I played till I was 14.
Went to high school, they didn't let me play.
[woman 7] I think that's just something
that we have to deal with
being women playing in a men's sport.
[Jennifer] Women play rugby, women play soccer,
women play basketball, mixed martial arts.
Women do all these violent sports.
What is the issue with baseball?
[clinks]
[light music]
[clinks]
[man 3] Whoa!
Good job, Marti, way to hit the ball, all right.
You are the next Nomar Garciaparra, baby!
I grew up playing baseball in Southern California.
[Marti] My dad trained me before I could walk.
Marti was adorable.
She looked like Shirley Temple,
striking out boys when she's seven, eight years old.
[Gary] KNBC and KABC would show up.
They thought she was the mascot or something else,
and then they would see the windup,
pretty much the same windup she has now
that she had at seven,
and it just made for pretty good TV.
Well, it looks like you enjoy playing baseball,
-is that right? -Yeah.
[reporter 1] If you could have your baseball dream come true,
what would it be?
That I can be in the major leagues.
-[reporter 1]The major leagues? -Mm-hmm.
[light music]
As far back as I can remember,
I've played baseball and I've loved the game.
[Malaika] I used to turn on a baseball game
and fall asleep on the couch,
and my brother would walk in and change the channel
and I would immediately wake up.
And I would say, "Hey, I was watching that."
And he would say, "You were sleeping!"
And I said, "No, I was watching it."
[cheering]
[Malaika] I like that baseball is way more complicated
than people think.
The average fans sees the game, they see home runs,
-they see strikeouts... -[clinks]
and that's about as deep as they get.
But it's so much more complicated than that.
There's so much more going on.
I can't say that at five, I appreciated all those things,
but certainly, the seed was planted.
We start in tee-ball and there's a handful of other girls,
and then you get to machine or coach pitch, and...
there are fewer girls.
Then you get to kid pitch and I was the only girl.
But I love the game.
[camera reel whirring]
[narrator]In 1931, The Yankees were on their way back
from spring training when they stopped
in Chattanooga, Tennessee to play an exhibition game.
There, they faced Jackie Mitchell
who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
The next day in the paper,
Babe Ruth was quoted, saying,
"I don't know what's going to happen
if they begin to let women in baseball.
Of course, they will never make good.
Why?
Because they are too delicate."
No one knows for certain why.
But the next day,
Jackie Mitchell's contract was voided.
Since then, no woman has played
on a Major League affiliated team.
[thwacking]
[Kelsie] Ever since I was six, I've been playing baseball.
My dad kinda got me into it.
[Kelsie's dad] When she was a very young age,
you know, I would teach her the proper mechanics
to throwing, balance, the swing mechanics.
I would video tape her,
we'd break it down, she'd get to watch it.
It got to the point where he was like,
"Well, don't you wanna get in a league,
and don't you wanna play?"
[Kelsie] And I kept saying no. I didn't want to do it.
And one of my biggest concerns, I was like,
"Well, if I gotta play, do I have to have my hair up?"
[Kelsie's dad] She saw every girl
that had her hair in a ponytail,
assumed that it had to be that way.
I said, "You can have your hair any way you want to,
first of all."
"Then I wanna play baseball."
At 11 and 12, you know,
I kept getting people that would say, "Well, you know,
when the boys start getting stronger and faster,
things are gonna change a little bit,
and they never did.
She was a baseball player. You know?
And it wasn't she threw like a girl or threw like a boy,
she threw like an athlete.
And then high school came around,
she's like, "I wanna play baseball."
I'd always wanted to be on the Dodgers.
[Jennifer] And I kept having these fantasies,
this might be why I became a political scientist,
that they would change the law
by the time I got to be nine and I could play Little League.
[Jennifer] In 1973, there were lawsuits
to allow girls to play Little League Baseball.
One team physician said,
"No, girls' bones are softer at this age.
They break much easier."
Or there was talk about
if a girl gets hit in the chest with a ball,
she's gonna get breast cancer later.
I mean, this is just crazy science
to keep little boys and little girls segregated.
[Jennifer] Little League Baseball lost in 1973,
and the Hoboken, New Jersey Little League
shut down for a year rather than let girls play with boys.
Of course, legally they couldn't stop
the two girls that played with the boys,
but they certainly didn't support them.
Instead of starting girls baseball
or welcoming co-ed baseball,
they created the softball league.
[Justine] And that sort of became the popular version
of this is what girls do and this is what boys do.
Totally two different sports.
We're two different sports.
[Marti] I relay to this as tennis and ping-pong.
It's the same concept, different dimensions,
but totally different sport.
She can hit, she can pitch,
but Stacy Piagno doesn't play softball.
As Fox30's Brent Martineau explains,
like the movie, Stacy, she's in a league of her own.
[Brent] The fastball is pretty good.
The curveball can be nasty.
[umpire] Strike!
[Brent] Not bad stuff for a pitcher with a ponytail.
This is normal for me, you know.
I've always played baseball since I was little.
[Brent] Stacy Piagno is one of the guys.
[Stacy] I grew up playing when I was younger.
You know, it just started off as something fun to do.
Me and my brother, we both played.
As I got older, um, I definitely fell in love with the sport,
just how, you know, anybody falls in love with what they do.
And I had a pretty easygoing past.
You know, I was always pretty accepted growing up
with my coaches and teammates.
[Stacy] But it got to the point where
I have to either, you know,
work my butt off to stay in this sport or just slide out.
[Stacy] I played high school baseball with the boys,
then I went to college and I ended up playing softball.
Softball, it is a different sport,
but at least I was, you know, running
and throwing something.
[Kelsie] It's tough being the only one.
You just gotta work a hundred times harder
to fit in, to earn respect, and to, to do well.
[Kelsie] Whenever I came into the ballpark,
I was a little nervous, I was a little scared.
I didn't know what to expect.
I wasn't like the guys who were able
to change in the locker room.
I changed in the restroom.
[clanking]
[Kelsie] As I was walking to the batting cages,
I literally asked myself, "Do I want this?"
Like, is this something I really want?
I, like, paused and I was like, "Yeah, I want this."
[clanks]
[man 4] Run! Go!
I definitely had that dream as a kid.
I wanted to be the first woman in professional leagues.
I, I think I probably wrote some story
for some elementary school essay.
[crowd cheering]
[Malaika] I decided I was gonna give it a shot
at the high school level.
I actually wrote a letter to all the high school coaches
uh, at schools that I could attend.
[Malaika] I wasn't asking for special treatment,
I was simply asking for a fair shot.
Frankly, some coaches said no, there's a softball team,
um, and a handful of coaches said,
"Sure, if you're good enough, you can come play."
I stopped going to the games
because the boys were hurting her.
At that time, she played second base.
There was a man on first, there was a ball hit to second.
[Thom] She charged the ball and the runner,
put his knee right into her head
as she was going for the ball and knocked her out.
And I was done, 'cause I was gonna kill somebody
if I continued to watch what was going on in the field.
[narrator]For nearly a century,
there were only two opportunities
for women to play baseball.
In the 1940s, while the men were away at war, women played
in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
as portrayed in the movie A League of Their Own.
Even though by the 1990s the ban on girls
in Little League had been lifted,
in practice, very little changed.
From 1994 to 1997,
a few women got to play for the Silver Bullets,
a professional women's team that barnstormed the country
playing against men.
Otherwise, girls who play have no choice
but to play on boys teams if they're fortunate enough
to have school, league, and parental support.
-Hooray! -Hoo-rah!
[Matti] Every time I go out to pitch against a guy team,
I hear chatter.
I've been trained by doing this so many times
that I kinda, it's like, mute them out.
[man 5] Come on, dummy, get 'em out!
-The boy can play! -[man 6] Let's go!
[man 7 wolf-whistling] Tie game!
[man 8] What? No.
[man 9 whistling] Got 'em at three!
[Kelsie] There were times I would feel
left out as an athlete.
People in the crowds would,
would sometimes think differently.
Guys on the other team would make it a big deal.
[Kelsie] One dad came up to my dad and said,
"She'll never play high school baseball in this town.
Not as long as I'm around."
I've had people try to peg me.
They went after her all the time.
They hit her like six or seven times with a pitch.
[somber music]
Talk about pursuing a dream. It takes a lot of courage
to come out to this field.
When I finished my senior year,
for all intents and purposes,
I thought that baseball was over for me.
I wanted to go to a big Division 1 school,
I wanted to have that experience.
The best way for me to do that
was to use volleyball as a means to get a scholarship.
You can't go anywhere with baseball
if you're an athletic girl.
And, and that's, that's a real roadblock.
[Stacy] Whenever people doubted me,
I would take that energy and that would fuel me.
That's what made me keep going.
[teammates clapping] Go, go, go! More!
[Kelsie] Sometimes baseball will be tough and it'll be hard,
and I get frustrated with it,
so I'd want to do something else.
I liked being with women athletes like my own.
There are times I, I would want to pursue soccer or golf,
and then there are times I just thought like,
I just, I just really love baseball.
Like I just can't imagine stopping.
-[metal clinking] -[audience] Woo!
I was Googling women's baseball,
men's league,
I was just looking for anything,
and I stumbled on the fact that USA Baseball
had a women's team, which I didn't know,
and they were having open tryouts
for the 2006 National Team
that was going to play in the World Cup in Taiwan.
I thought, well, I haven't played in a while
but I'm gonna give it a shot.
[light music]
[Ashley] USA Baseball is the governing body
for the sport of baseball.
All Olympic sports have one.
[Ashley] One of our jobs is fielding national teams
to be able to complete with the best in the world.
[Stacy] Life is such a special thing,
where you get to come out
and finally, you know, play baseball together.
[Stacy] So we don't get paid, we don't have salaries.
It's not like that.
This is purely the love of the game.
[narrator] In 2004,
the first Women's Baseball World Cup was held,
providing international playing opportunities,
and giving women their only chance to play
high-level amateur baseball once every two years.
And in 2015, women's baseball was included
in the Pan American Games for the first time.
Team USA won the gold.
The World Cup in South Korea is next and that's our focus.
[Malaika] We're currently number two in the world,
but we wanna be number one.
[narrator] The top 40 female baseball players in the USA
compete to represent their country
and the sport they love.
I hope it goes further than, you know, just this year,
this, this go around.
[woman 6] It'd mean the world to me to go play,
especially for the United States.
[narrator] Only 20 will make the cut
for the rare opportunity
to play baseball with women and against women.
Every year, we get more girls
that find out about the team and try out,
and each year it gets better, and stronger, and bigger
and more of a program.
Did you ever pitch 'em on top?
[Tamara] I did, actually was a... pitched quite a bit,
-about 400 years ago, but... -[teammate laughing]
[Tamara] I probably crossed.
I was really hurt too.
I got pulled out of the first inning.
Oh, yeah, you were hurt? You started? And mentally?
I'm actually gonna go take pitching lessons
and come back to the team
so that I can pitch one inning and redeem myself.
[woman 8] I got you, Holmsie.
I've never been more butthurt in my life.
It was awful.
Tamara, she's just like a goofball, to be honest.
[Stacy] She's just great to have around,
and it's funny, 'cause she's so intimidating.
Like, physically. [laughs]
But she's the nicest person that you've ever met.
[Tamara] Being the oldest person on the team,
you know, I'm gonna get beat up with the old person jokes,
but at the same time, they have to carry the equipment
so it's good to have the youngins around.
[Tamara] My biggest responsibility
is to, is to lead by example,
and help groom them in the USA Baseball way.
[clinks]
[Tamara] You can look at any high-end elite athlete
and you see that, that what we call that it factor.
You gotta have that heart
and you gotta have that confidence.
A lot of times, you can't teach that.
[upbeat music]
[Tamara] I work as a full-time firefighter in Oakland,
and I run a CrossFit gym in my off days
when I'm not playing baseball.
Up in my 20s, I played the last two years
with the Silver Bullets,
and then USA Baseball came around
and that also provided another high level of play.
[woman 9] We can try it out.
Yeah, we need to get it.
[Tamara] There are a handful of us
who have been playing together since 2006,
and we've built a very good camaraderie
and some really close friendships.
This is what we look like when we play catch
and Catchphrase. [laughs]
[Tamara] Recently got married and then a handful of players
that I'm the closest to came to my wedding,
so, you know, we are, in fact, a family.
[team cheering]
[light music]
[giggles]
-Yeah! -Yeah!
[Tamara laughing]
[Tamara] I anticipate this being my last World Cup.
I'm definitely gonna go down swinging for sure,
but I don't feel any extra pressure.
-[clinks] -[woman 10] Yeah.
I come and sit here all the time.
[metal clinking]
[woman 11] More, more, more!
Hit me, hit me!
Ones are at the 45, twos are at first base.
How I got into women's baseball is somewhat of a funny story.
I'd finished up my college playing career
and my college coach called me,
and he's like, "Hey, you just graduated."
He's like, "What are you doing this summer?"
[Jp] It was an opportunity to coach and I jumped on it.
When I found out it was women's baseball,
I went into it like every other guy.
I was like, "Oh, are they gonna be able to reach the play?
Are they gonna be able to hit it out of the infield?"
[Jp] And I was very pleased
to see within minutes of being on field
that my ignorance was inexcusable.
Not only was I amazed and impressed
with their athletic ability,
their coachability is off the charts.
[teammates cheering, clapping]
The intensity, the drive to win, the compete level.
I mean, I look for all those things in my athletes,
you know, at WPI.
Every single one of these girls has that level about 'em.
[Matt] And again, I think part of that
is that path they've taken.
Plenty of sacrifices they had to make.
So we're lucky as coaches
that we're gonna be dealing with those type of athletes.
[metal clinking]
-[woman 12] To two! -[woman 13] Two!
[Joe] I love it.
I mean, shoot, I, when I came walking in,
I saw the third baseman make a play that,
I mean, it's do or die.
-And she made it look easy. -[metal clinking]
[Joe] So that's the need to see.
I mean, these girls are playing
and everything full board.
[Joe] More of like, old time baseball,
like a manufacture runs and stuff.
[interviewer] Tell me again uh, what you do.
-I'm a scout -[interviewer] All right.
for the Toronto Blue Jays.
[Joe] I have dreams about old baseball at night,
like living in Brooklyn and the Dodgers and stuff.
Baseball was played totally different.
Power's an added thing to it.
Now that it's so individualized,
everyone wants to see the guy throwing
a hundred miles an hour and hitting 495-foot home runs.
You kinda lose the whole team thing.
[narrator] While bat and ball games
go back as far as ancient Egypt,
one of the more direct ancestors of the game
was invented by women.
Milkmaids in the 15th century
were the ones that have been credited
with inventing a game called stoolball.
[Jennifer] They set their milking stools in a circle.
One served the rock to the other,
and the other one hit it and ran to the first stool.
And you got out if a fielder picked up the rock
and threw it at you before you got to base.
I mean, you know, simple, right?
Very feminine.
But it wasn't a boys' game.
[light music]
[narrator] Twenty women will go home, and 20 will stay
for a bi-annual opportunity to play competitive baseball.
The ones who don't make the cut will have to wait two years
for this opportunity to come around again.
[teammates clapping]
So this next year coming back,
I will definitely be way more prepared.
[woman 6] It is sad, you know, you're not going
to South Korea or playing,
but it wouldn't help at all if we didn't come back.
And then when you go to your exit meetings
and the coaches sit down and talk to you
and tell you, you know, what you're gonna work on,
the positive things they have to say about you,
it's just motivation to come back.
The competitiveness of breaking down to 20 is so hard.
And that sometimes it's gonna mean
you're not gonna make that final 20
and it's gonna be devastating.
[Malaika] And it happens in all sports, right?
I mean, you sign up for that.
[light music]
-Say home team. -[team laughing]
So it's gonna be a culture shock for me,
'cause I'm in little Southern Louisiana, you know?
[Megan] In middle school, everyone always said like,
"No one's gonna take you in high school for baseball,
but I'm glad I picked it back up.
I'll send it to Mom.
[Jp] It's going to be a battle of who's closer to perfection.
Any of you that have been at international games,
am I over-exaggerating?
At the high-stakes table we're at,
that means we let somebody come
and take a gold medal off your neck.
Give me that ring.
They're taking that ring off your finger,
and then bring it back to wherever they're from.
[Tamara] A good solid core
has played together for long enough,
and that's starting to show in our play.
And even though we've gotten beat by Japan
in the last couple of World Cups,
we're still at least the number two player.
And I feel like this is gonna be our year to surpass that
and bring that championship back.
[Tamara] We're gonna say on three.
One, two, three.
[all] USA!
[clinks]
♪ Give me a game Underneath the lights ♪
♪ Give me the roar of the fans
♪ Give me the sound Of the big bat swinging ♪
♪ Best of the best in the land
♪ Just load up the bases
♪ Fire up the crowd
♪ Let's clear out the dugout
♪ We're gonna get real loud
♪ Just throw me a fastball
♪ Smoke from the mound
♪ We're gonna end this thing With just one swing ♪
♪ I'm gonna knock one out
Freaking L.A. to Tokyo.
Boarding.
-Jessica! -Ready for takeoff.
Don't wiggle next to us.
[Malaika] When I was playing in high school,
in my first couple years playing USA Baseball,
I was playing 'cause I love to play.
Now at 35,
I see the impact that our success can have on the sport.
[player 1] Friend, how was your flight?
I'm hangry. [laughs]
[Malaika] Every time we play in the World Cup,
it's like, "Oh, women play baseball?"
And then two years later, people forgot
that somebody already wrote that article.
We almost reiterate that it's abnormal
in some of the exposures that we do.
It's nice when they're little.
Everybody appreciates Mo'ne Davis.
-[Jimmy] Give it up, everyone. -[audience cheering]
Mo'ne Davis from the Taney Dragons!
Remember her name!
[Malaika] It was a sensational story while she was doing it,
and nobody recognized the fact that there are thousands
of other girls playing Little League Baseball.
There are...
At the time, there were women
playing in the Pan Am Games. [chuckles]
And no announcer even mentioned it.
[Jp] There's more to this. It's not just, you know,
us going and trying to win a gold medal.
Let's, let's pave the way for these other girls.
-Woo! -[Malaika] We had the YouTube
streams this year,
and media coverage has gotten better.
The idea of a woman playing baseball
to stop being an anomaly and to be normal.
And that's what we're shooting for.
[player 2] Thank you.
-Next stop, South Korea. -Woo!
[stewardess speaking Korean]
-We love USA! -We love USA!
[Jp] It's great to be here in South Korea.
We're really looking forward to the tournament
and feel very welcome.
Thank you very much.
-[crowd] Bye! -[Thom] It's like taking
women's baseball out of the closet.
[Jp] You're catching a lot of media exposure,
and people are asking, "Well, what is that?"
[Jp] The chapter of the United States.
We'd like to thank everyone for their hospitality,
and we very much look forward to competing
with so many great ball clubs from all over the world,
um, in such a great baseball country as South Korea.
So we're very excited.
-[crowd chanting] -[whistle blowing]
[cheering]
[Tamara] These new teams coming in
are definitely gonna bring a good energy
and it's exciting to see it.
We had like, Pakistan and India, like,
teams that traditionally would not have been there,
and that's amazing.
Women baseball, you see a big potential
for this sport in the world.
The last editions of our World Cup was only eight teams.
We increased that. Now we have 12 teams.
It's the first time we ever had live coverage.
They built here in Korea this new facility,
mainly although for this event,
and for the women's baseball.
[speaking Korean]
[lively music]
[crowd clapping]
[translator] I got a group of women to start a team,
then I did my best to develop an environment
where they could begin to play baseball.
[team clapping]
We have a specific league in Australia
for women's baseball.
[man 10] Well, we have 14 teams in Sydney.
They all play in the competitions.
The women's game is the dirty little secret
that's swept under the rug.
And it won't get on ESPN,
but you put on chess and you put on poker,
and you put on the spelling bee.
[Gary] Why wouldn't there be one highlight?
Women's World Cup today.
Blah, blah, blah.
It's a beautiful event. Looks great.
[narrator] The top two teams from each group
move on to compete for the gold medal in games
broadcast on live TV in several countries.
And for the first time,
streamed on the Web around the globe.
The remaining teams will play consolation games
before returning home empty handed.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] Women play on the same field as the men.
There are only a few differences.
The women play with an aluminum bat,
the outfield fence is moved in about 15 feet,
and they play seven-inning games.
["The Star-Spangled Banner" playing]
[Tyler] And with that, a very warm welcome
to Gijang, South Korea
and the 2016 Women's Baseball World Cup.
The U.S. has been shut out of the top spot
over the last four editions of this tournament
by a dominant Japan national team,
and the Americans looking to atone for that.
Stacy Piagno gets to start for the United States
this afternoon, as the U.S. takes on Hong Kong.
[action music]
[Tyler] Piagno is a member of last year's
United States National Team
that won gold at the Pan American games.
She made history in that tournament,
tossed the first no-hitter
in women's baseball at the Pan Am Games.
[clinks]
[Tyler] Piagno to second, and on to first,
there is a 1-6-3 double play
that cuts down the inning for Hong Kong.
The United States coming up.
[action music]
-[clinks] -[Tyler] There's a swing
and a drive off the bat of Baltzell out to center.
That'll get down, and it'll roll toward the wall.
In to score from second base is Brittany Gomez.
Right on her heels flying all the way
around from first, Jade Gortarez.
The first three U.S. hitters reached two or home
on Baltzell's two-run double,
and the United States is on the board quickly
in the bottom of the first.
[crowd cheering]
[clinks]
[Tyler] Malaika Underwood, one of the best pure athletes
in this tournament, and probably anywhere else too.
This is her sixth straight Women's Baseball World Cup,
and her second hit of the day already.
[indistinct chatter]
[Tyler] That brings up Tamara Holmes.
Ho-Ying Au pitching from the first base side of the rubber.
Hopefully, it's not just one.
Lifts it down the left field line.
Seven-inning games here for this tournament.
U.S. raised out to an early lead in the first inning.
[crowd cheering]
[Tyler] Americans have not looked back
as there is a foul tip into the glove
of evading backstop by the plate, A.J. Hamilton.
And that'll do it as the United States
wraps up a tournament opening victory.
It's the U.S., nine, and Hong Kong, one.
The American improve to 1-0, Hong Kong falls to 0-1.
[Jp] You all today picked them up, did a really good job.
[team clapping]
[Jp] Malaika gets up, one of the best players on Earth,
and changes that line drive.
Holmsie, one of the best hitters
in the history of women's baseball gets up,
and she's willing to show bunt, pull it back,
and that ball gets into the backstop, we score a run.
You see what I'm saying? That's that veteran leadership
that I hope you guys are picking up on,
and that's how you adjust to the game.
There's a long history of women playing baseball.
[Shirley] You can't imagine how comfortable that uniform was.
The only problem was sliding.
Would you believe I'm still digging out gravel
-in my strawberries? -[audience laughing]
[Maybelle] That was the year of 1948.
That's a couple years ago.
We learned a great deal, we took the bad with the good,
and we bit our lips when we wanted to cry.
We were just a team,
and I think it's the most wonderful thing in the world.
[Malaika] You can go back to the '90s
with Julie Croteaus, Ila Borders.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 3]Diamonds truly are a girl's best friend.
Baseball diamonds.
That's not a mistake on your scorecard,
that's Southern California College freshman Ila Borders,
becoming the first woman ever to pitch
in a men's college baseball game.
[Ila] I got my entire education paid for,
and then I was able to play four years
of professional baseball and get paid for it.
[Malaika] You can keep going back, and back, and back,
and there are women in this game,
and I think we need to start recognizing that fact too.
-[clinks] -[Jennifer] There are some basic
unanswered questions about why
male athletes define athleticism,
and why female athletes
are given the message at some point or another
that this is not natural beyond a certain point.
I've been around baseball forever.
It's been in my blood.
I went to Franklin Pierce, I was an All-American there.
I got drafted by the Cardinals.
[Matt] And, um, feels like every guy,
or at least the baseball players I was with, was like,
you know, when I have a son,
they're gonna be a major leaguer.
And I had my girls
that you never trade-in for the world,
but if my daughter wants to play baseball,
she's going to play baseball.
[Jennifer] We don't really respect women's athleticism,
and we certainly barely accept women's team sports.
We teach girls that femininity is basically disempowerment
or its empowerment in a devious way.
It's sexual empowerment.
Right, like in middle school, I was pitching back then
and I thought I was like the best pitcher there was.
Like, I played on a bunch of boys' teams
and I was always the best one.
They would always tease me like,
"Oh, you play like a girl, la, da, da."
Then I would hit bombs and strike 'em out,
and I'm like, "Okay, well, if that's what you think
playing like a girl is like, then I play like a girl."
-[crowd chanting, cheering] -[whistle blowing]
[Tyler] Big time opening night matchup
at our main facility here in Gijang Hyundai Dream Park,
as four-time reigning champion Japan,
the top-ranked team in the world,
takes on fourth-ranked Canada.
These games are on live television in Korea.
They're packing the stands. I mean, at the main stadium
you couldn't find a seat anywhere.
[crowd cheering]
[Tyler] Autumn Mills set to deal the first pitch of the night.
She'll pour in a called strike
to get things started on the mound for Canada.
Facing Canada, which is like the greatest rivalry
in like history of women's sports, especially in baseball.
Last few years it's been USA-Japan,
USA-Japan in the finals,
so, um, you know, hopefully, that's starting to change.
[clinks]
[Tyler] Swing and a line drive back up to center field.
That's a base hit.
Obviously, we wanna be in that final game, um, next week,
and I, we feel like we have the players to do that,
and the coaching staff to help us get there.
[crowd exclaims]
They really, really wanna beat us,
and that's a situation where it cuffs you.
[Japan Team cheering]
[Tamara] Beating Japan, that's certainly, uh, my goal
and high on my list.
[Okura speaking Japanese]
[translator]I started coaching women's baseball in 2001
before the start of the World Cup.
Back then, there was no culture of women's baseball in Japan.
I immediately fell in love
with their passion and will to fight.
It hit me like a bang.
[speaking Japanese]
[translator] And for the past 15 years,
we have made slow but steady progress.
And finally, we have a solid foundation.
[speaking Japanese]
[translator] And in the next ten years,
our goal is to have girls baseball
in every high school in Japan.
[Tyler] On the mound for Japan, Ayami Sato.
Likely the top arm in this competition
and really in women's baseball anywhere.
Professionally this year, a 9-3 record
and 2.17 ERA in 2016.
She's the anchor of this Japan staff which is in search
of its fifth straight Women's Baseball World Cup title.
[crowd cheering]
[Ayami speaking Japanese]
[translator] When I first started baseball,
there were no opportunities for girls to play.
As I kept playing, I thought about quitting many times,
but the timing was so perfect for me at every turning point,
and I was able to keep playing.
[speaking Japanese]
[translator] Now I'm a professional baseball player.
I'm happy that now there are opportunities
for girls to play baseball.
[Tamara] With the Japanese team,
we always play a very close, a very tight-knit game,
and it's just all about who makes that first mistake.
In the last couple of World Cups,
we didn't make a lot, but when we did,
they scored the one or two runs that was needed to beat us.
So I'd like to see us come out a bit more dominant
with our bats and tight on defense,
and really just not make those costly mistakes.
[Tyler] Swing and a miss.
Fastball well spotted over the outer half,
with the 11th strikeout of the night from Ayami Sato.
Our final from Gijang Hyundai Dream Park tonight,
it's Japan, eight, and Canada, two.
[calm music]
[team chattering]
[narrator] Many of Team USA's players
are recruited out of Division 1 Softball.
While nearly half of the team
played high school baseball with boys,
only a select few had the opportunity
to play competitive baseball beyond 12th grade.
During summers, I still plan on trying
to play baseball and trying to get better at it.
[Kelsie] And I was thankful that Stompers were willing
to give me that opportunity to prove myself.
[narrator] Kelsie was drafted by the Sonoma Stompers.
With the support of their sponsor,
she became the first woman to play
men's professional baseball since Ila Borders in the 1990s.
I admire the courage and the love of sport.
[Francis] I just would like it to not happen with one,
it should be four or five
so they have colleagues on the team.
[Kelsie] It's tough being the only one,
and, yeah, I mean, I do feel pressured.
I guess that's one of the reasons why sometimes
I could be so serious and so hard on myself,
'cause I don't want to hear people saying this and that.
[Kelsie] Being with... with an all-girls baseball team
is, is a lot different.
And just to come together, and just to play,
and not feel pressured is a great feeling.
[Tyler] With a victory today, one of these teams
will be moving on to the Super Round,
basically guaranteed if they trip there,
The United States,
the world's number two coming into the day off
of that victory over Hong Kong yesterday,
a big start for the U.S.
Snyder awaits the two, two.
Takes a rip, left side.
A stop there for Yung-Hsin Cheng.
Bomb thrown to first from the hole.
Runner breaking for third, Tamara Holmes.
Very appropriately eased up on the groundout,
what a great job of base running.
And she's been a mainstay on this U.S. roster
for the last two decades.
And in nine games for the women's team
during 2015 competition,
Tamara got a .345 with an .820 OPS.
[Gary] They're intrepid these girls, they're fearless,
and that's the beauty of watching them.
[Tyler] Born in Newton, Massachusetts
in the United States, Marti Sementelli,
one of the younger players on this roster, she's just 23.
But Marti made headlines back home when she was offered
a partial scholarship out of high school
to play collegiate baseball.
Former winner of the World Cup's Best Right-Handed Pitcher Award,
that award came eight years ago
at the 2008 Women's Baseball World Cup when she was just 15.
-[clinks] -[crowd gasps]
[Tyler] That was the first,
a first straight cap in these towns.
What a good play by Michelle Snyder on the backside
of the third base bag to round that baseball.
[Gary] I thought Marti was the only one.
And in 2008, they say, come to Wisconsin.
And there's gonna be this tryout,
they're gonna play a bunch of games,
and they're gonna have the World Cup in 2008 in Japan.
[Gary] We were shocked at the talent.
And then she saw other Martis, she wasn't the only one.
[Tyler] Megan from Stafford, Virginia.
A Longwood University product.
Former Lancer who walked onto the basketball team there
while playing softball.
Shows you the athleticism of all the women in this tournament.
-[clinks] -[Tyler] Even just watching this
as Megan gets into this one, crushes it,
high and deep to right.
Racing back is Shen, and that ball is gone!
-[crowd cheering] -[team cheering]
-Yeah, yeah, woo! -[crowd cheering]
♪ You know how lucky they are Come on take it on ♪
[Megan] Right in front of my country
and hitting a home run,
in front of all these fans, definitely number one.
♪ Then come lady, Come on, take it on ♪
♪ You know I like it, baby Come on, take it on ♪
♪ Take it, take it Take it, take it ♪
[clinks]
[Tyler] Gortarez, it's a first pitch bouncing back
to the mound,
if that ball hit off of her foot,
but the United States is gonna record the out at first
and record the victory with it.
That is a final.
The 1-3 putout retires Ya-Zhu Wen,
and the United States moves on in a tight one to 2-0,
a perfect record to their start here
at the 2016 WBSC Women's World Cup.
The U.S., they'll collide with the Australians,
coming at them tomorrow.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd] We love you!
We love you!
[women laughing]
[crowd] Woo!
We were at the Major League Korean game last night
and our thing's being promoted on the screen.
Like that's not gonna happen anywhere else.
[Marti] That's opportunity.
[Kelsie] We looked up at the TV and we're on the TV.
It was weird, and we started screaming.
Oh, shit!
[laughing]
-Look at... -Oh!
[woman 14] It's slow!
[woman 15] Oh, yeah!
Yo, it's like Times Square in Korea.
[upbeat music]
[team cheering]
[upbeat music]
[cheering]
We're Australia, traditionally, the Aussie battler.
We're the underdog a lot of the time,
our population's not as great as a lot of the other countries,
and we have to fight and claw
for every little victory we have.
[Simone] We understand that we've got tough opposition,
but on any given day,
baseball's a funny game, um, and anything can happen.
[crowd chanting, cheering]
[Tyler] A pivotal Group C matchup today.
The final one of the opening round
for the United States and Australia,
as these two teams roll powers in women's baseball,
collide on a huge stage.
Here are the scenarios.
Very simple for each of these teams,
especially on the United States side.
If the U.S. gets a victory today,
the Americans are through to the Super Round.
The Aussies need a win today
and they need it by five runs or more.
We have the most female players of any country
at the moment, aside from Japan, obviously,
but the challenge we have is there's not enough depth,
because it's not our national pastime.
[crowd] America!
[Tyler] Two out scenario, here from Malaika Underwood.
And she lifts this one to center field.
Starting in on it, now racing back is Chelsea Forkin.
It's over her head.
It's gonna be an RBI double at least,
for Underwood, is around second base.
She's gonna dig for third and then throw on target,
but a little bit off line.
-[crowd cheering] -[Tyler] One nothing lead
here in the top half of the first inning.
There's 20 years,
in his daughter's case, of development,
-of sacrifice... -She's been playing
since she was five.
-Of practice. -We were hitting all--
All the, you don't belong here, all that, you know, other shit.
You don't wanna get dirty.
Yeah, so it's more than just this.
[Tyler] Kelsie Whitmore,
a name that has made a whole lot of headlines
across the United States in recent months.
Eighteen years old, a really dynamic talent.
Actually just graduated high school this year
in Temecula.
[crowd cheers]
[Tyler] 2-1 pitch on the way to Lovering.
That one's lifted in the air to right field.
This is gonna get over the head of Megan Baltzell,
that's gonna run half off the wall.
In to score from third base, Chelsea Forkin,
and motoring all the way around.
Aussies trying to find a way into the lead
in this pivotal matchup with the United States.
Two-one on the way, McMillan to the left side of the infield,
diving, and not as fast as shortstop Jade Gortarez,
Michelle Snyder, and that's gonna enable two runs to score.
And the Aussies have jumped into the lead
ahead of the United States.
It's 3-1, Australia.
[crowd cheering]
[clinks]
[Tyler] That's the only one that bounced back to the mound.
Gortarez will go to third,
she'll cut the lead runner down there, back to first!
In time to get the out!
A 1-5-3 double play, and a huge swinging momentum
as the United States gets out of a jam unscathed.
We're a good team and we know...
we think we're a pretty good team.
They're made to vows as well,
and when we come against them, yeah, we wanna win.
[Tyler] And the Americans with the double play possibility
still very much alive.
They got themselves out of a first and second one-out jam
in the fourth inning with a double play ball
back to the mound, 1-5-3.
-[clinks] -[Tyler] Anglin,
a liner back up the middle.
That's in the center field for a base hit.
It gets out to Brittany Gomez in a hurry.
She kicks it.
Coming around third base is Kim McMillan.
The throw to the plate is not in time!
McMillan scores
and the Australians have their five run margin.
They lead at 6-1 here in the fifth.
[tense music]
You know, you can tell who's been working
on their women's baseball program and who hasn't.
I think women's baseball is a sport in Australia.
[Stan] Women's baseball is not a sport in the States.
[Sandy] Our country doesn't even know women's baseball exists.
I get tired of saying, yes, I meant women's baseball.
Hello.
Oh, you mean softball?
[Jp] "There's no way you coach baseball if it's women."
[Tyler] Kind of an interesting fact
that her connection with this Australian women's team.
There's a speeding wind up to the right field.
That one ducked down for a base hit.
It's gonna bring home at least one.
If no one scores, third base.
Running around third base and scoring is now Anglin,
and the Aussies have built the lead to seven runs now.
It's 8-1.
[Sandy] We were hoping we'd never see this day.
[Tyler] Rounding third base, coming to the plate is Doty.
No throw in time and the Aussies continue
to add to the lead, that's now an 8-1 lead.
The other countries...
will eventually surpass us if somebody doesn't step up.
-[clinks] -[shouts]
[Tyler] Seeing time in professional sports.
[crowd cheering]
[Tyler] Another tease, and she just pitched her team
to the final out of a victory
and a passive win over the United States
as a fly out from Jade Gortarez will end it,
and Australia wallops the USA.
Our final score in game number 14
of the 2016 Women's Baseball World Cup.
The Emeralds all over the Americans.
[Simone] Today, we were swinging bats
and it didn't matter who came in to pitch.
I think our backs against the wall helped us a little bit.
Yeah, I should like to know.
Aren't we all, hey?
[woman 16] All right, let's get to work!
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd chanting, cheering]
-[Malaika] Are you okay? -I guess.
[Stacy] Just after we lost to Australia,
Hong Kong had to beat Chinese Taipei
in order for us to advance.
[Stacy] And everyone's just crushed,
and we're trying not to cry.
We went and watched the game on TV as a team,
just to support Hong Kong at that point.
[Tyler] The American team, wherever they are right now,
anxiously awaiting the outcome of this game.
[Tamara] It was so absurd, it was so horrible.
And you had to listen to the [bleep] announcer
just say every two minutes about how it unfolded,
and how we're out.
[clinks]
[somber music]
[Tamara] I didn't have, like, five minutes to myself
to really internalize and probably go break something,
so I'm sitting there, like, with this devastating blow
of "This is the end of my career."
All these things like, you know,
I had visioned watching this stupid game.
You know, you think about it, it's like this is something
that you train for for two years,
and then at the drop of a hat,
something happens and you're just out of it like that.
[Tyler] And this ballgame is over.
Moving on to the Super Round.
The United States has been eliminated.
Chinese Taipei, the top seed coming out of Group C,
will join Australia coming up starting on Wednesday
for Super Round action.
[somber music]
[Stacy] I was very emotional that night,
and, uh, everyone was just, you know, quiet.
[Kelsie] I don't like losing, like, at all.
So when I come across that, it's definitely hard for me
to accept and to go through.
And it is, like, a real bummer, because we're a good team.
-[clinks] -[crowd cheering]
[Stacy] You know when you have to tell people what happened,
that's always hard.
Like, ooh, like, you know, you get a text.
"How are you guys doing, are you winning?"
And it's like, "Well, five days ago this is what happened",
and you have to keep re-bringing it up.
[Malaika] And seeing how desperate we were
for those YouTube streams,
and how desperate we were for those articles,
and we finally got it.
Like, this was the tournament where it seemed
like everything was right there,
and if we could make a run for the gold,
it would have been a great story,
and everybody would have picked it up.
And then now, here we are in the consolation pool.
And to feel like you've let down your country,
or your family, or whatever sacrifices you made back home,
that's a tough pill to swallow.
And there are things that put it in perspective too.
Like last night when we played Pakistan,
the, the challenges that those women
have gone through to play the game.
[woman 17] Yeah, yeah, I want you to go from, so down up.
In Pakistan, people don't like to see women sport too much.
[Marriam] That's why some of the girls
don't do practice regularly.
My family's not supporting me as really to, uh, play.
[Zeba] I don't go outside of my hometown,
even for shopping, for university, or anything.
You have to go with your father, or your mother, someone.
[Marriam] It gets really difficult
to take off from job, because every girl's
having financial problem in Pakistan.
When you go back to your country,
you don't have anything to do.
You could lose your job.
[team chattering]
[Syed] If you are saying that they are not
that capable to play baseball in the USA,
just imagine your national game and the other country
are playing for it, and they are winning from you,
you should work on it.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] In a stunning final-inning comeback,
Venezuela scored the walk off run
against Chinese Taipei to take home the bronze.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] And in the lopsided gold medal game,
Japan defeated Canada
to take home the gold for the fifth time in a row.
[team cheering]
[narrator] For the first time
in the history of the World Cup games,
Team USA watched the final games from the stands.
[Jp] One loss, no medals, that's tough.
And we knew what the math formula was,
and we didn't work out in the end of that formula.
[crowd singing]
At times, it can be frustrating
when you look back and you feel like,
"This is as far as we've gone?"
[singing]
[Okura speaking Japanese]
[translator] What great experiences
playing against the USA before.
I'm so bummed that we couldn't play each other this time.
[all] Yes, yes, yes!
[Jp] With us not playing Canada, with us not playing Japan,
some of the most beautiful baseball you'll see
in the women's game is not gonna be exposed to the world.
-Thank you. -[teams applauding]
[woman 18] There's no crying in baseball.
I know, cheers.
[team chuckling]
It's been a pleasure playing against all of you.
[speaking Japanese]
[translator] You guys are great competitors, and...
[speaking Japanese]
I have nothing but the highest respect for all of you.
[teams applauding]
[in Japanese]
[team laughing]
[all] Yes, yes, yes!
Yes, yes, yes!
[teams applauding] Woo!
[crowd applauding]
[interviewer] So what's your future with baseball?
I don't know. [chuckles]
I really don't know. Um...
[somber music]
[Stacy] We've been together now,
it'll be three weeks about, right?
So, you know, when you have that lifestyle,
then you have to go back home, it's like...
well, back home to the regular, old grind.
[Marti] I don't like leaving this team
when we get so close together. It's...
You get used to everyday life.
Just going on the bus, eating together,
playing games, going back, hanging out.
So you get in such of a system
that you dread the, like the, separation.
[Kelsie] We just vibe, like, really well together
and get along so well, because we understand
what we went through when we were younger.
People would say, "Oh, I totally get what you're saying."
Like, "I know what you're feeling."
Like, "No, you don't." Like... [chuckles]
You're not a girl that plays baseball,
you don't know what I mean.
[indistinct chatter]
[Marti] I could do a career 165 days a year,
and I guarantee you, everyone else would say the same thing.
If you could just do this,
it would be just like guys in the major leagues.
That's what they do.
[narrator] Few opportunities exist
for these players beyond the national team.
And two years is a long time to wait
for the next World Cup games.
Following their bronze medal victory,
Venezuela mandated a new women's professional league.
In 2001, Japan opened baseball
to its girls and women,
leading to professional opportunities.
Australian baseball is as open to women as it is to men.
And the Canadians now have rules and policies in place
to allow equal access.
The break that our women are more or less forced to take
in their baseball development is...
a monumental hurdle.
[narrator] The US Women's National Team returned home,
not knowing when their next
baseball opportunity would arrive.
They work hard to stay in the game,
training and practicing wherever they can.
Many return to their day jobs,
while others pursued education.
Kelsie accepted a full scholarship
to Cal State Fullerton for softball.
[Kelsie] I still constantly think
of baseball every single day.
I'll go out of my way to get ready for the summer,
and, yeah, like, I am playing softball,
so it's hard to think, like,
"Is this still something I can do?"
[tense music]
Twenty-five years ago, I was told to quit baseball,
and yet in 2017, we're still seeing the same thing.
[Ila] It happened to me in pro-ball my last year.
I had a phenomenal year, good strikeout to walk ratio,
and had some innings pitched.
Was talking to two teams and they're like,
"Hey, we're gonna invite you to spring training camp."
And then I never got that call, so I called them up.
And they're like, "We don't want the media.
We don't want all the hoopla that comes with it.
We don't want you to be a distraction
to Major League Baseball."
To me, girls playing baseball is a social justice issue.
If you tell a girl she can't play baseball,
what else will she think she can't do?
How can you tell a young girl
who falls in love with the sport at an early age
that she can't play it?
[Jennifer] Boys are allowed that dream.
I actually have a funny statistic on my phone
that I read to my athletes all the time.
"There are currently 455,000 high school players.
There are 25,000 college players.
There are 3,510 D1 scholarships.
There are 750 major league players.
So all these boys can play,
because they're chasing down a dream
and it's less than one percent likelihood,
and our girls can't 'cause it's zero percent?"
It's comical.
[narrator] In the early years,
women weren't the only ones excluded.
When Branch Rickey wanted to bring Jackie Robinson up,
there were men who said he doesn't have what it takes,
athletically, physiologically, because he's black.
Thinking about the girls,
and how they've been discriminated against,
[Sharon] I say this is an absolute parallel
between what happened to my father.
You're out of the game, Kelly. Get off the field.
Next time I get on base, watch out for spikes.
[Sharon] It was a strength of character.
That is what helped him to survive and sustain,
until it got to the point where of acceptance.
And Jackie Robinson is at the plate.
Come on, Jackie, boy!
He can't bunt now, he's got to hit straight away.
-[thwacks] -[crowd cheering]
Okay, let's face it.
Women have always tried to secretly compete.
- Do you believe that? -[woman 19] Secretly?
That's right, secretly compete
- against men. -[woman 19] They're not doing
very well. Doing the secret.
But once in a while, I have to give it to you ladies.
You do get lucky.
America's favorite pastime
takes a swing at the record books,
signing not one, but two female players
for minor league ball.
[reporter 2]It was 25-year-old Stacy Piagno on the mound,
and 17-year-old Kelsie Whitmore in left field.
[Stacy] Getting a chance to continue to play,
um, as a woman, means a lot to me.
[reporter 2] Just like any other ball player,
they drew the attention of young autograph hounds
and fans in the stands.
First I heard about it, they said there was one,
and then they said there was two.
And I was like, "That's so cool."
What makes this even more shocking,
they weren't even lesbians, that's crazy.
[woman 19] Wow.
There is an unbelievable amount of pressure
for them to succeed, not just for them,
but for their entire gender.
[Tyrelle] So, I remember my first day here
and Stacy was throwing.
So I kinda just watched her and she would say,
"Hey, was that downhill plane?"
And, "How was the velocity on that?"
And I was like, "No way."
She was talking like a pitcher.
And they're the first ones out there every day
and getting their work done.
Man, I wish my boys the same way.
Then we automatically, we gonna have the best team anyway.
[Stacy] I really feel like this team is such a great family
and I feel so welcomed by everyone.
Like these guys are my brothers out here,
close to my sister. [laughing]
[Smitty] Just stay strong, ladies,
and rest assured that men all over the world
will be behind you every time you bend over
to pick up that weight, okay?
Now there's gonna be doubters.
There's always gonna be people who doubt them,
but they, and they know that.
[man 11] They're just gonna prove them wrong.
They're gonna go out there and they will work
ten times harder than the naysayers and all that stuff.
She would not have gotten that opportunity
without this sort of crazy experiment coming
from Francis Ford Coppola and his people at Virginia Dare.
If they can play the game
and if some smart talent scout spots them,
I don't believe there is any barrier.
[Francis] Once and for all,
defines that a professional baseball,
there is no prohibition.
[tranquil music]
I do feel a responsibility
to, you know, stand up for women's baseball.
[Stacy] There is a girl who came out just last night.
She was going into high school,
having trouble with her coach.
And we gave her a lot of talk. [laughs]
And, um, she was just so thankful.
And she's going to a new high school
and it's looking pretty good for her.
Like, she's hopefully will be able
to play on our team down there.
[somber music]
[Jennifer] I don't know if the issue really has to be,
"Do women have to play with men at the elite levels?"
Yeah, would it be great, and, yeah,
do I think that there are talented women
that will eventually have the opportunity to do that?
Absolutely, but we're not there yet,
and we shouldn't focus on that.
[Justine] If we keep celebrating the one girl
that plays with the boys, we're never gonna get anywhere.
We're just gonna keep celebrating superstars.
When I was a girl, what would have I liked?
I'd like to play with other girls.
[indistinct chatter]
[women laughing]
I made it work. I hit a few people.
What's the definition of work?
Struck out one.
[narrator] Six months after the World Cup loss,
players from Team USA came to coach young girls
from across the country, and be a part of an opportunity
they could only have dreamed of for themselves.
[Stacy] Malaika was telling one of the little girls on our team,
super talkative, "Hey, so your coach, Tamara Holmes,
she loves it when you go up and you talk to her."
She said, "She doesn't like to be left alone."
See, I'm standing with her.
Oh, good, yes!
They're all great. [laughing]
Why don't you play softball?
You'd be good at softball.
Bleh!
It's so much harder than baseball.
I wanna congratulate the players participating
in our inaugural Trailblazer Series
hosted by Major League Baseball.
[Rob] We know this tournament will forge a path
for the next generation of women who play our great game.
We decided, "Hey, let's do something
around Jackie Robinson."
He's a trailblazer and he paved the way for a lot of people.
[Tony] Let's put together a tournament that...
that highlights his pathway.
[woman 20] 14S slacks, yes?
[woman 21] That could be.
[Malaika] I think it has to start at the youth level.
We've gotta find ways to deepen our pool.
We gotta continue, you know, getting the word out that,
yes, women do play.
-Fine. -Is there something
I should know about you? Are you...
I ask a lot of questions.
Oh, good, I have a lot of answers.
[Tamara] Really, it's the first step,
first time series for young girls in baseball.
Then, of course, you know, we're excited,
and excited to see where it goes.
They all said this was the first time they've done it,
ever played with other girls.
I think it's really cool that the MLB
has finally decided to chip in on girls baseball,
because they've been out of it for so long.
[Malaika] All right, so we're gonna start by warming up,
and we're gonna throw a really short bullpen
just to see what you got,
and then we'll do an infield, outfield. All right?
[upbeat music]
Two, four, four, six, you guys are hitting.
The rest of us, we're just gonna shag.
You don't have to say in the infield,
you can just kinda hang back in the outfield,
'cause balls are gonna be going all over the place.
I want you to completely get those hips across
and use all the power in your legs, okay?
Use that ball better.
-[metal clanking] -Better.
That means you, kitty-kat.
When can I go to the field?
Not yet, hang tight.
We're gonna switch all together, okay?
I'm pretty sure...
The girls are so great, they all work hard.
They wanna be here.
They love the game.
[Stacy] They all remind me of little versions of myself.
Little versions of Lincoln. Holmes too.
Somebody catch me, catch two.
That's good.
The challenge is how do you put this girl
in front of all kids to make them connect to it?
Well, you can see these girls can play ball.
And all they... and all we want, Billy, is a league of our own.
Yep.
[Maybelle] Before I get six foot under, I want this thing going,
and I don't have many more years,
so we had better get started.
[light music]
[Justine] Every girl here has dreamt of playing in the majors.
Every girl, so to have Rob Manfred say
that, you know, "We believe in you now, we've heard you."
It matters.
[Tony] One of, if not the most important aspect
of this tournament are the women
who have been carrying the torch for girls
and women playing baseball long
before this tournament was even created.
And we're proud that we have so many of them here
serving as our coaches,
and I'd like to introduce them now.
Marti Sementelli.
[all applauding, cheering]
Justine Siegal.
[crowd cheering]
Malaika Underwood.
[Tamara] At some point, it's not just about you
and what you want,
and if you have the knowledge and you have the ability
to reach out to the kids, which I hope I do,
'cause I never thought I would consider myself
a coach or in this position, but now that I'm here, uh,
it, it's a good feeling.
[Tony] And our final but certainly not least coach,
Tamara Holmes.
[crowd applauding]
[lively music]
All right, we can get on the bus,
we'll figure it out if I find her.
I'm the worst coach in charge of herding kids.
[girls laughing]
♪ Down by the banks Of the Hanky Panky ♪
♪ Where the bullfrogs jump From bank to banky ♪
♪ With a ees uuf, soda puff
♪ Hey, Mr. Alligator Ate your puffs ♪
-Dang it. -[girls laughing]
[Stacy] After you're with me,
we're gonna start walking out here, okay?
And I have your tickets right here.
Girls, the third inning, top of the third,
that's when we're going to go buy our meals.
[indistinct chatter]
David, just taking a photo.
[Justine] This just should not be a special event.
It should be here all across the country
on diamonds in local communities everywhere.
This is the first event that we've done for the girls,
but what is beyond that, you know, who knows.
It could be league, it could be a woman coach,
it could be a lot of different things.
-[Malaika] Who's the first? -[girls] I am!
-[Malaika] Who's the best? -[girls] I am!
-Who are you? -[girls] Trailblazers!
[cheers, applause]
[narrator] The Trailblazer Series ended
with the girls being honored on the field at Dodger Stadium
as part of the Jackie Robinson Day celebration.
[Sharon] My hopes and dreams is that this would continue,
this would be a start,
and that the girls
that develop and really become real talents
will get an opportunity.
♪ Can you see
♪ By the dawn's early light
♪ What so proudly we hailed
♪ Free
♪ And the home
♪ Of the brave
[applause, cheers]
[Stacy] For a while, there were a lot of games
where we weren't getting in.
So, you know, it kinda takes a toll on you.
It starts to make you feel like, "Am I ever gonna get in?
Am I ever gonna get my chance?"
[Stacy] We're out here, we're working hard every day,
physically and mentally, like I said,
and it's like we wanna get out there
and prove what we've been working for.
I mean, we're skeptical.
We were wondering whether they were just there
to fill roster spots,
or just there to, you know, for the experience.
We didn't know if they would play
or if they would get any time on the field.
I have over 20 years
of professional baseball experience.
[Aaron] Won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006,
so it's an interesting thing, you know?
A girl is gonna play professional baseball.
It's something you wouldn't normally, uh, see.
And, you know, they'll joke about it here and there.
One of our guys last year, he hit one home run last year.
He hit it off of Kelsie.
It was his first professional homer,
and it was his only professional homer,
and we said, "Hey, maybe this year
you can hit a homer off a guy."
[crowd cheering]
She was on the mound, it was the first inning,
-and she came up like this. -[crowd cheers]
Add there must have been 500 to 600 people there,
which for us, is a huge crowd.
And hushed, I said, "I've never in my whole life,
ever been to a baseball game
where there wasn't a single sound."
I felt very comfortable, I felt in my zone,
and, you know, from then on out they were very quick innings,
and I felt like I just couldn't be stopped,
and they just weren't getting a hold of any of my pitches.
[reporter 3] Last week, the young recruit, she belongs.
[clinks]
[reporter 3] She tossed seven innings, gave up a run,
struck out four, and won the game.
Just the third female pitcher
- to claim a victory... -[Stacy shrieks]
in a men's league since the 1950s.
That night she won, to me, she looked like
an ex-big league pitcher that threw,
you know, 78 miles an hour.
[Stacy] Last year, both me and Kelsie,
we were both being recognized
for just being girls and being here. You know?
But this year, what was so special to me
is that I actually got recognized for playing,
and for something that I've physically done.
I've grown up playing ball with Stacy,
so I was definitely, um, honored to be part of that game,
and I was super proud of her.
I knew she was gonna take care of business that day.
And she didn't only pitch well, she dominated.
At least I can say I played with a girl before.
Not a lot of guys can say that.
[Tyrelle] That's probably one of the coolest things
I've ever been a part of.
[Aaron] It was a tough loss to take,
but she deserved the win
and it was neat to, uh, to be here to see her.
[Jennifer] Those of us who love baseball
know there's no other game like baseball.
As soon as I hear the sound of a ball
hitting a leather glove or see it flying off a bat,
I'm in love again.
It's a great game,
and why can't we be committed
to saying that half the population of this nation
should also have access to it?
It's not one of those things where life's not fair.
No, I mean, this is something that people can change.
[Lynne] This adversity, this bias that they endure
from an early age, because of their love of the game
is a challenge.
[Lynne] And part of succeeding is overcoming the challenge.
I learned so many life lessons in baseball,
like as a person, as an athlete, as a teammate,
even as a daughter, like, and as a sister.
I've been through so many ups and downs,
and, like, I've learned so much.
[narrator] Baseball is not only played on the field,
it is also played in the hearts of players and fans.
And what is played in the heart is then reflected
in all other aspects of our lives,
from the classrooms to the living rooms,
from the boardrooms to the courtrooms.
[Justine] They're playing baseball now, but you know what?
They're learning that they can be anybody.
[girls laughing]
[Justine] The future's in the smile on these girls.
Whatever it is, it's their choice,
and that's what they're learning on this baseball field.
They gotta keep fighting,
or else, nothing will really happen,
but I also think as we go,
you know, the generations are getting stronger.
And the confidence just oozing, dripping everywhere,
which is just awesome to see.
[light music]
[crowd cheering]
I say I think we're in the middle
or beginning of the story, not at the end,
and probably, to get to the end,
we'll go this way and that way,
and...
forward and backward, and everywhere in between.
[uplifting music]
[narrator] For every woman and girl
who has been denied the right to play,
another has stood up.
The game is far from over,
but they stand united with their allies.
Headed towards one clear goal.
The freedom to pursue their dreams.
The right to play baseball.
Yeah, yeah!
[crowd cheering]
[lively music]
[announcer 4] At seven, women's baseball World Cup
USA, Venezuela.
Amanda Giovani, a diamond grab to double up the rudder.
Robbing, Elise Koalina.
USA wins by a score of three to one.
Like that baseball.
[lively music]
So, uh, let me get this right,
so it's gonna be, uh, my name, what brought me to baseball.
I swear she wore, like,
it was like a one piece, like, tights.
[Kelsie] She, I swear she wore it during BP.
Every time I'd look at her,
I'd just picture that's what's under her uniform.
[Kelsie] Never leave home without it.
And I don't think you can say, "We want a woman in the pros",
and then work backward and go try to find her.
She may not be alive yet.
She might be born in February.
[light music]
All the rookies had to sing karaoke
before the game in the locker room
[Stacy laughs] It was really embarrassing.
She's just anti-visor.
Does not want to wear it.
We ordered these, uh, custom-made Nike baseball hats.
We're gonna do a little ceremony,
and give her, her, uh, big baseball hat.
Finally, you've got something you can wear.
-So cute. -Yes.
[laughing]
[mumbling]
[man 12] We'll play baseball in a little bit, okay?
It's okay, we'll go play baseball.
[sobbing]
[man 12 chuckling]
[upbeat music]
-I'm very proud of Marti. -Oh, my god.
Would have loved to go further but, uh, she did good.
She did everything she could do.
I can't be any prouder in you than right now.
Then buy me a new car. [chuckles]
No, we'll get some soup on Witty Street and Waltham.
Oh, cool, I get soup.
I mean I've been there.
A lot of the girls on the team have been there.
[Malaika] Isn't that life?
Don't you have to make those hard decisions with anything?
Got a buddy right here.
Um, you have to make those decisions, I mean,
do you wanna move down to the other busking zone?
[light music]
And that's a wrap.
And that's pepper.