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Baseball for all.

From the Vassar Resolutes in 1866 to Kelsie Whitmore in 2026, women and girls have always belonged on the diamond. Scroll through 150+ years of the players who refused to be told otherwise.

All photos: Library of Congress & Wikimedia Commons — credited per image.

The Vassar Resolutes
1866

Star Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club, Indianapolis, IN. Library of Congress / Public domain.

The first organized women's baseball clubs

The Vassar Resolutes

Just one year after the Civil War, students at Vassar College formed the Resolutes and the Laurels — among the first organized women's baseball teams in America. By the turn of the century, traveling Bloomer Girls clubs were barnstorming the country, playing men's teams in front of paying crowds.

  • First documented women's college teams
  • Bloomer Girls clubs barnstormed 1890s–1930s
  • Faced public ridicule but kept playing
Jackie Mitchell strikes out the Yankees
1931

Jackie Mitchell shaking hands with Babe Ruth, April 2, 1931. Library of Congress / Public domain.

17 years old. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Back to back.

Jackie Mitchell strikes out the Yankees

Pitching for the Chattanooga Lookouts in an exhibition game, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession. Days later, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided her contract, declaring baseball "too strenuous" for women. Women were formally banned from signing pro contracts until 1992.

  • Struck out Ruth on 4 pitches, Gehrig on 3
  • Contract voided by Commissioner Landis
  • Continued pitching for barnstorming teams
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
1943

AAGPBL players, c. 1945. Public domain.

Rockford Peaches, Racine Belles, and a league of their own

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

With MLB rosters thinned by World War II, Philip K. Wrigley launched the AAGPBL. Over 600 women played professional baseball from 1943 to 1954 — including the Rockford Peaches, who won four championships. The league proved, on a national stage, that women could fill ballparks playing hardball.

  • 600+ players across 15 teams
  • Peak attendance: nearly 1 million in 1948
  • Folded in 1954 — then nearly forgotten for 30 years
Toni Stone breaks into the Negro Leagues
1953

1932 Negro League All-Star team — the league Toni Stone would join two decades later. Public domain.

Second base for the Indianapolis Clowns

Toni Stone breaks into the Negro Leagues

St. Paul's own Toni Stone — who grew up in the Rondo neighborhood playing on sandlots and with the local Saints juniors — signed with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League, taking the roster spot vacated by Hank Aaron. She was the first of three women (alongside Mamie "Peanut" Johnson and Connie Morgan) to play men's professional baseball at that level. Her single off Satchel Paige is the stuff of legend. Today, Toni Stone Field in St. Paul bears her name — and the Minnesota Twins' 14U girls baseball team practices there.

  • Grew up in St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood
  • First woman to play men's pro baseball full-time
  • Hit .243 against major-league-caliber pitching; got a hit off Satchel Paige
  • Toni Stone Field, St. Paul — home of the MN Twins 14U girls team
Maria Pepe & the lawsuit that changed Little League
1972

Auburn High School girls' baseball team, 1910s. Girls have been fighting for the field for over a century. Public domain.

12 years old. Hoboken, NJ. Three games in.

Maria Pepe & the lawsuit that changed Little League

Maria Pepe played three games for her Hoboken Little League team before national HQ threatened to revoke the charter. NOW filed suit on her behalf. In 1974, the New Jersey Superior Court ruled Little League had to admit girls — and Congress amended the federal Little League charter to match. Every girl who has stepped onto a Little League field since owes her a thank-you.

  • NJ Superior Court ruled in her favor — 1974
  • Federal Little League charter amended that year
  • Threw out the first pitch at the 2004 Little League World Series
Ila Borders pitches for the St. Paul Saints
1997

Ila Borders in a Minnesota Twins jersey. Photo by Sophia Hantzes.

First woman to earn a win in men's pro baseball

Ila Borders pitches for the St. Paul Saints

Right here in Minnesota, left-handed pitcher Ila Borders took the mound for the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League — becoming the first woman to start a men's professional baseball game and, the following season with the Duluth-Superior Dukes, the first to earn a win. She pitched four seasons of men's pro ball, much of it in our backyard, and proved that a woman with a good changeup belongs on any mound she wants.

  • Pitched for the St. Paul Saints — 1997
  • Played for the Duluth-Superior Dukes — first woman to win a men's pro game
  • First woman to earn a college baseball scholarship
  • Four seasons in men's independent pro ball
Alyssa Nakken — first woman on an MLB coaching staff
2020

Alyssa Nakken, San Francisco Giants. Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0.

San Francisco Giants

Alyssa Nakken — first woman on an MLB coaching staff

Alyssa Nakken became the first woman to hold a full-time MLB coaching position when the San Francisco Giants hired her as an assistant coach. In 2022, she became the first woman to coach on-field during a regular-season MLB game. The dugout door opened.

  • First full-time female MLB coach — 2020
  • First woman to coach on-field in a regular-season game — 2022
  • Former NCAA softball All-American
Kelsie Whitmore — first overall pick in the new women's pro league
2026

Kelsie Whitmore with Waves players at a screening of See Her Be Her.

A new era of women's professional baseball

Kelsie Whitmore — first overall pick in the new women's pro league

Kelsie Whitmore was selected first overall in the inaugural draft of the new women's professional baseball league — the highest-profile sign yet that women's pro baseball has arrived for good. Already the first woman to play in an MLB partner league (the Atlantic League's Staten Island FerryHawks in 2022, where she started in left field, pitched in relief, and recorded the first hit by a woman in an Atlantic League game), Kelsie is also a friend of the Waves — a champion of our players and our program.

  • First overall pick in the new women's pro baseball league — 2026
  • First woman starter in an MLB partner league — 2022
  • Two-way player: pitcher and outfielder
  • USA Women's National Team since age 16
  • Friend of the Lake Superior Waves
Mo'ne Davis and the next wave
Today

Mo'ne Davis, 2014 Little League World Series. Photo: U.S. Army / public domain.

Baseball For All, Trailblazer Series, and you

Mo'ne Davis and the next wave

In 2014, Mo'ne Davis became the first girl to pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series — and the first Little Leaguer of any gender on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Today, Baseball For All hosts the largest girls baseball tournament in the country, MLB's Trailblazer Series puts elite young players on big-league fields, and right here in Minnesota the Twins run dedicated girls baseball programming — including a 14U team that practices at Toni Stone Field in St. Paul. Up north, the Lake Superior Waves are building that same pipeline in Duluth. The wave is real.

  • 100,000+ girls play baseball in the U.S.
  • MN Twins field a 14U girls baseball team at Toni Stone Field, St. Paul
  • Duluth 709 Baseball runs girls programming in northern MN
  • Lake Superior Waves: your local on-ramp

You're part of this story.

Every girl who steps onto a baseball field today stands on the shoulders of the Resolutes, the Peaches, Maria, Toni, and Kelsie. The Lake Superior Waves are the next chapter.

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