Ponytails on the Diamond
“Hey, look, that’s a girl pitching!”
When you play on an all-boys baseball team, you get accustomed to hearing that exclamation. My sister, Stephanie, and I were the only players in our league with ponytails threaded through our caps, but just like other young baseball players, we dreamed of the big leagues and the Hall of Fame.
In July 2014, we had the opportunity to visit Cooperstown. As we wandered the exhibits and learned the tales of fabled players, trailblazers, champions, and – perhaps most importantly to us – other women who have played baseball, we never imagined that our own stories would one day be told within these walls.
When Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball For All, invited us to Cooperstown for an all-girls tournament in July 2014, Stephanie and I didn’t hesitate at the prospect of playing more baseball. Not only would we play on the historic Doubleday Field, it would be our first time on a team comprised exclusively of young women who loved the game just as much.
Over the course of three days, our team played four games, including the tournament championship. Stephanie and I are four years apart in age, and in our leagues back home, we were rarely on the same team, but this time the Augustine sisters had a chance to be battery mates. The competition was fierce, and we cheered as our team won the tournament, but even more inspiring than seeing a W on the scoreboard was seeing the diamond full of young women breaking the mold and chasing their baseball dreams.
During the tournament, Siegal asked me to be a player/coach for her Baseball For All team she was taking to Seoul, South Korea in late August (less than three weeks away at that point) to play in the LG Cup, an international women’s baseball tournament sponsored by LG. Eight teams attended the tournament: Our team from the United States, as well as Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, India, Taiwan, and two from South Korea. We played four games in three days and although we placed seventh, it was still a phenomenal opportunity to be able to play baseball with other women from around the world.
My sister and I thought the baseball adventures ended at the conclusion of these tournaments, but then my career led me to join a different baseball team: The Hall of Fame staff. This past July I became the Museum’s Assistant Curator, a position that entwines my love of baseball and my passion for telling stories through museum artifacts.
While researching some of our women’s baseball artifacts, it occurred to me that while we had an artifact from Baseball For All in the museum collection, we did not have any documentation about the tournament right next door at Doubleday or the LG Cup in South Korea. I called Stephanie to see if she was willing to donate her jersey and cap, and I offered my jersey from the LG Cup in Seoul.
For a pair of sisters who grew up on the smell of infield mix, cut grass, and line chalk, it is an honor to contribute to the legacy of women’s baseball at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gabrielle Augustine is the Assistant Curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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