Kelsie Whitmore always wanted to play in the major leagues. She did not always want to admit it.
“Are you sure?” people would respond after they asked what she wanted to do.
Even at an early age, she knew what they really meant: “You know you can’t do that, right?”
They would — and still do — tell her how hard she would have to work, as if a girl who played baseball with the boys from the moment she started Little League didn’t know that already. She knew they thought she probably couldn’t do it. In fairness, they had never seen anyone try.
can’t do that, right?”
They would — and still do — tell her how hard she would have to work, as if a girl who played baseball with the boys from the moment she started Little League didn’t know that already. She knew they thought she probably couldn’t do it. In fairness, they had never seen anyone try.
Whitmore was never afraid that that skepticism would make her question whether she belonged. As the first woman to start a game in the Atlantic League, an independent circuit, she had never exactly blended in. But she has stood in the same outfield as former major leaguers, tracking and catching the same flyballs. She has taken leads against former major league pitchers, inching toward second base, watching for the same tells as the guys, scoring on base hits just as they do. She has faced elite pitching and velocity, struck out, adjusted and done better next time.
She understands that it has been generations since anyone has seen a woman pull this off, that their doubt isn’t personal but empirical. So, starting young, she changed her answer.
“I just want to continue playing baseball,” she would tell anyone who asked about her hopes and dreams.
“Oh, you mean softball?” they would counter.
“That’s probably the statement I’ve probably heard most in my life,” Whitmore said. “ ‘Baseball? You mean softball?’ ”…
.@Cars_Pickett16 is the FIRST player with a limb difference to play in a USWNT game! #ThatsaW pic.twitter.com/wjlnubWfgc
— ESPN (@espn) June 29, 2022
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Sisters in SportsPost + Comments (46)