SPRINGFIELD — The Jimmy Dugan character portrayed by Tom Hanks might have told his Rockford Peaches women’s baseball team in the 1992 classic “A League of Their Own” that there’s “no crying in baseball.”
But there were tears of joy shed at the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League game Saturday in Springfield, where real-life Rockford Peach Maybelle Blair, 99, threw her ceremonial first pitch from a wheelchair to kick off the sold-out season opener.
More than 4,000 poncho-wearing fans packed the rain-soaked stands, singing along to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” as the Los Angeles Queens went to bat against the New York Heights after a 90-minute weather delay.
Both teams came stacked with star power. Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato and former Little League champion and outfielder Mo’Ne Davis represented LA, while Team USA’s powerhouse duo of outfielder Kylee Lahners and catcher Denae Benites anchored the Heights.
Nine-year-old Lena Shackleford of Virginia attended the historic game two years after participating in a catching lesson with Benites in Washington D.C.
Decked out in royal-blue Heights gear, Shackleford said she dreams to be a catcher like Benites.
“There’s only like two times I’ve been in a tournament that’s all girls, so I’m kind of used to being the only one.” Shackleford said. “It feels really great to know that there are other [girls] out there.”
Commissioner and league co-founder Justine Siegal previously made history as the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team (the independent Brockton Rox), and in 2011 became the first woman to throw batting practice during Spring training to an MLB team with Cleveland.
“We’re not here today to prove that women’s baseball matters,” Siegal said of a league with players also hailing from South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Australia and Curacao. “We’re here to show you that we’re ballplayers, too.”
The last time Illinois hosted a women’s professional baseball league was 72 years ago, when the iconic Rockford Peaches — formed as MLB players were drafted into World War II — played 12 seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team went on to win a league-record four championships, and they were famously depicted in the ‘92 film.
Now, a different league of its own is back in Illinois, albeit a bit further downstate. Blair was among three original Peaches who made guest appearances, along with Jeneane Lesko and Gloria Rogers.
Hoffman Estates resident Frank Vito, 57, had just graduated college when the movie came out. An avid baseball fan and former Little League coach, Vito said he wasn’t rooting for any specific players, but for the league as a whole.
“I see these women pouring their hearts and souls and bodies into this game, and I just think it’s awesome, and I’m happy for them,” Vito said.
Carol Wolf-Studer is familiar with the work the players have put in to make it into the league. She remembers her granddaughter, London Studer, practicing in a makeshift batting cage her father built in their basement.
Studer played in boys’ leagues growing up but had nowhere to play in college. A first-round WPBL draft pick, she played Saturday as New York’s first base-woman.
“When she was two, three, she had a plastic bat and a wiffle ball,” Wolf-Studer said. “She has worked her butt off to develop those skills…and it’s really almost a work of art to watch her.”
They all took the field at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium, named for the Phillies Hall of Fame pitcher who hailed from Illinois’ capital and had a stint with the Cubs in 1966.
The inconspicuous open-air park doesn’t immediately reveal itself, with no major roads or highways leading up the arena. And because the 5,200-seat stadium only has about 100 parking spaces and no nearby parking garages, many spectators ended up parking along residential streets nearby.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, dozens of people filtered in and out of the Little Corner Bar, the local watering hole serving as the pre-game spot for dozens of fans wearing WPBL merch and MLB baseball caps.
Springfield native Carol Corgan said she’s proud to see Springfield take up the mantle.
“This is not a very accessible city to get to, and [fans] are coming from all over the world,” she said. “It’s so bizarre, but what a privilege for us.”
The WPBL season runs through early September, when the playoffs start, with all games held in Springfield.
A fan poses next to a mascot of 99-year-old Maybelle Blair at the Women’s Professional Baseball League Inaugural game Saturday in Springfield. Blair played for the iconic Rockford Peaches professional women’s baseball team in the 1940s and ‘50s, which was famously depicted in the 1992 film, “A League of their Own.”
Mawa Iqbal/WBEZ