Trailblazer Kelsie Whitmore leaves her mark in Cooperstown
Kelsie Whitmore, the trailblazing ballplayer, had just ended her most recent season. But before determining the next step in her journey, she decided to visit Cooperstown and reunite with a few newsworthy artifacts from her baseball past.
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum hosted a Voices of the Game program in its Bullpen Theater with Whitmore, an outfielder and pitcher with the Atlantic League’s Staten Island FerryHawks the past two seasons. In 2022, while playing with the FerryHawks, she became the first woman to play in a professional league that is affiliated with Major League Baseball.
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Accompanied by her father, Whitmore spent time touring the Museum as well checking out a number of artifacts she has donated over the last few years. These include:
- A batting helmet worn by Whitmore when she recorded her first professional hit as a member of the independent Pacific Association’s Sonoma Stompers on July 20, 2016.
- A bat used by Whitmore when she recorded her first professional hit as a member of the Sonoma Stompers on July 20, 2016.
- A batting helmet worn by Whitmore when she recorded her first hit for the Staten Island FerryHawks on Sept. 3, 2022.
- Batting gloves (on exhibit in Whole New Ballgame) worn by Whitmore when she recorded her first hit for the Staten Island FerryHawks on Sept. 3, 2022.
Also included in the Hall of Fame’s archives are a Whitmore clipping file and a lineup card and scorecard for a game played on July 22, 2016, between the Sonoma Stompers and Pittsburg Diamonds, that featured the first all-female battery with Whitmore pitching and Anna Kimbrell catching.
“I knew my stuff was in the Hall of Fame since 2016. And the last time I was here was when I was 12 years old, playing at the Cooperstown Dreams Park,” Whitmore said. “The Hall of Fame said to come out and check it out. I just finished my season a few days ago and I was like, ‘You know what? This is the perfect time to head up there.’ So, I drove up here with my dad and we’ve really enjoyed checking everything out.”
Whitmore said it was “really cool and a little weird” seeing her old equipment.
“When I first saw my bat from Sonoma, that bat was like my best friend,” Whitmore said. “You have a connection with a bat. You love it. You’re using it every day. And I saw it and I was like, ‘Wow, like I haven’t seen this one in a while.’ I remember loving that bat. So, it’s almost like seeing a best friend that you haven’t seen in a while and you’ve got to part ways again, but you know it’s in good hands.”
Having her dad along for this special trip as important, too.
“I told him, ‘Hey, I’m going to the Hall of Fame to see my stuff. You want to come?’ Two days later he booked a flight and we drove here. I’m glad I’m able to do this with my dad,” she said. “Both of my parents were teachers. My dad, PE teacher, my mom, kindergarten teacher. They are very supportive. It’s good to have family support, especially when you feel very isolated. Especially when you’re all the way across the country. I live in California, so New York’s a whole different vibe. It’s a culture shock, so you feel like you’re in another country too.”
According to Scott Whitmore, Kelsie’s father, it was an honor and a dream come true for the family to have some of Kelsey’s artifacts in the Hall of Fame.
“I remember when she got the call about the bat from the Stompers. She was just so excited. It was a no-brainer to have that equipment put here,” Scott Whitmore said. “She was 12 the last time we were here, but coming now you can imagine as a dad how proud I am.
“I know she had a love for baseball at a very young age. Just to see her growth from when she started and each year she’s developed and gotten stronger and faster. But more importantly she just got a better mindset for the game. Her baseball IQ is very high. And I’m not talking about rules and stats, but mechanics and strategies. And to see her grow from one year to the next, it’s been a lot of fun to see that.”
Whitmore, 25, born and raised in California, loved baseball from an early age. After playing the game in Little League and high school, her options to continue with the sport were limited and she transitioned to softball as a star player at Cal State Fullerton. Her involvement with the United States women’s national baseball team began while she was attending Temecula High School, competing in the 2014 Women’s Baseball World Cup, the 2015 Pan American Games and the 2018 Women’s Baseball World Cup, among other national events as a member of the national team.
In 2016, the Sonoma Stompers signed Whitmore and Stacy Piagno, the first female teammates in professional baseball since the 1950s when women played in the Negro Leagues.
“Director Francis Ford Coppola was one of the owners of our team and I remember him saying he was playing catch with his family one day and he was like, ‘Why are there no girls playing baseball? I want there to be a female that could play on the team that I just purchased,’” Whitmore said. “And so, I was just about to be graduating high school and I was actually devastated because I don’t want to be done baseball, but I don’t know where to go next. I don’t know where the opportunities will lead to because not many women have opportunities after high school baseball, especially into college.
“Justine Siegal, who runs Baseball for All, a group she founded that promotes gender equality in baseball, contacted me. I remember I was in my third period class and as I’m stressing about what am I going to do regarding baseball. She calls me and asks, ‘Do you want to play professional baseball?’ I said, ‘That’s crazy you just asked me because I am literally trying to figure out how I can get to the next level out of high school.’ She told me there’s a team in Northern California that is looking for the top female players in the U.S. and she mentioned my name.
“Long story short, the Stompers ended up signing me and played there for two years and it was when I was also in college. In the summers I would go and play pro ball and then go back to school. I did that for two years, spent the last few years focusing on school, but I knew I wanted to keep playing professionally. I just kept putting it into the universe, praying about it, working my butt off behind closed doors, connecting, networking, doing the best I could to just continue getting to the next level, going to showcases, doing whatever I could, just to get to the next level and keep playing.”
In April 2022, the two-way player signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks. That season, she became the first woman to play in the Atlantic League and the first woman to pitch in an Atlantic League game.
Whitmore’s two seasons in the Atlantic League have included as teammates such former big leaguers as Rusney Castillo, Dilson Herrera, Adrian Sanchez, Yoshi Tsutsugo, Justin Williams, Kyle McGowin, James Pazos and Julio Teheran. Her manager in 2022 was Mets legend Edgardo Alfonzo and in 2023 was former Yankees infielder Homer Bush.
Asked why choose baseball when she had other athletic options, Whitmore stoically replied: “I think baseball chose me. It was something that just always felt right. And I never looked back.”
Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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