‘Don’t stop playing’: Girls who love baseball look to show they belong on the field

Lilyana “Lily” Mrozek knew there would be changes when her Little League baseball team in Citrus County recruited extra players for the fall 2021 season. Then, the comments started.

“You don’t belong on the field,’” Brooke Mrozek, Lilyana’s mother, said her daughter, who was then 13, suddenly began hearing, for the first time in her ninth season in that league. ‘You are a stupid bitch STAY IN KITCHEN LEARN ME HOW TO MAKE A SANDWICH!’ Things like that because she’s a girl.”

Even when the mother took the complaints to the members’ team coach, there was no changes. The response by league officials: Lily’s a girl. She’s going to get yelled at. Perhaps you should raise this to become accustomed to it, that is, stop it getting to her so much. Most importantly, Lily cannot jump from one team to another as it happens in basketball.

Lily was forced to sit out on a few of these games but she came back for the last season to complete her playing year for the team.

The same year she became a member of the Florida Bolts an all girls baseball team in Florida located three hours south in Cape Coral that played in a national tournament in Maryland.

Brooke Mrozek 38 said: “I get goosebumps every time I think about it, because we show up and there’s hundreds of girls on this field”.

 Some months later, Bolts wanted a new president once again. Mrozek offered himself, and took the Bolts an hour north of Tampa, from Homosassa. They have about 40 girls playing in four divisions: 10U, 14U, 16U and 18U. The 10U team came out as division champions in the Baseball For All in Kentucky in July. The players of its team were selected from Florida, Georgia and Ontario in Canada.

Women have never been allowed to play Major League Baseball. Olivia Pichardo of Brown University made history as the only female ballplayer to play a NCAA Division I game, in March 2023.

 According to Florida data, 24 girls participated in the sport at the high school level in 2024. This is actually just 0.001% of all baseball players or so states the Florida High School Athletics Association. Nationally, 1,561 girls out of 480,012 high school students, or .003 percent, played baseball between 2022 and 2023, NFHS data revealed.

When Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are breaking records on concert attendance, it is easy to sit back, look at success and exclaiming how far women have come. Finally, you see a woman on a ticket of a major party. Watch this new action flick in which each protagonist is female.

But for so many young girls, that is not their experience in their neighborhoods, and at local parks. Teenage girls in UK are murdered going to a themed party ‘Shake it off’. Legislated obsessions with medical genital examinations for little girls orbit statehouses to play girls’ sports.

Never do they get to play baseball with the boys without someone’s parents chasing them away like a pack of stray dogs. It’s a burden – a paradox – that society burdens 10 year olds with and expects them to solve or figure it out.

You can be a girl. But only at events we want you to attend. All only in the style we would like to dress you. Wanting to act in the way we want. Randy, then take us to a typical town, and you will observe there is no space for girls to just be. It seems that anything can become just the excuse for another war against the culture.

The girls in the dugout, in the infield, in the outfield - they see it every day: they are not wanted. If two people are discussing something softly and turn their head towards you, it’s probably because they are discussing it with you. The girls hear it. They see it. They know that you do not wish them to be around. And they don’t care. They’re not leaving.

That’s all these girls are asking for: An opportunity to show why they should be part of the baseball team. He won’t be expecting any assured job proposition to be made to him here of course. They want to compete. They just want to prove that they can do this on a field with whatever team and in whichever league. No matter gender.Girls cannot play baseball without somebody else’s parents shouting at them to get lost. It is a burden – a conflict in one’s heads – that is placed on 10 year olds and tell them to solve it.

You can be a girl. But only at the events we want you to be at. At least in the style you wish to dress you up. Specifically, act in the manner we wish to see in others around us. Now there being no space where girls can simply be. Just about anything is used to create a new culture war to wage.

The girls in the dugout, those girls in the infield, in the outfield – they understand clearly they are not needed. If when somebody whispers your name and turns to look at you – believe me, they are talking about you. The girls hear it. They see it. The know that you do not want them there. And they don’t care. They’re not leaving.

That’s all these girls are asking for: Opportunity for boys to show why they should be considered for the baseball team. They are not demanding they get a place, a birthright of sorts. They want to compete. They want to demonstrate what they can do on a field regardless of the team or the league. No matter their gender.

Motivation in times of difficulties

The Bolts’ championship 10U team was coached by Matt Olszewski, an attorney practicing outside Orlando, Florida. He had the exact attitude towards all his players as he does towards the two daughters that played for him. He was loud, slamming his arms around when annoyed. He looked every girl in the eyes while addressing them; making sure to criticize a little but knowing most of them have not dealt with live pitching at 7 years of age.

Olszewski, 47, also understood what these girls were Prepare to become overwhelmed with the sheer number of beautiful and amazing things there are to do in Ireland; and we don’t even mean touring castles or sipping cups of tea acquaint with back home.

Every young boy wants to be like his father, or wants the father to be like superman most of the time. If their dad their Superman yells at the girl on their recreation and school teams then maybe she was a villain. Perhaps she had no business being there. Perhaps she needed people to shout at her and they need to do that to her anyway.

Referring to his oldest daughter, Blakely, 10, a shortstop, pitcher and catcher, Olszewski said: “When she first began dancing, of course emotions would affect her and I could see them on her face. That just breaks your heart as a dad, because you can’t do anything about it.”

Overall there are no good choices for a parent to make. Should you take it up to the coach, your child will likely be benched for whining. In any case it is yet to be seen whether the harassment will cease. So, Olszewski wanted his girls to learn that one could look for motivation where it was difficult. It is a reason more to get that ball just a little bit extra, to leg it to first base line on even when it’s just a groundball out. Yet another reason to not give up, keep moving forward, continue to strive.

“That’s how you got to be,” he said about Blakely. I believe with such type of programs it becomes very hard for children to be like oh I’m just going to give up because it’s easy. But she worked harder and rose to the occasion that made everyone else change their mind.”

These older Bolts players do not deny the fact that the harassment does not cease – and can intensify – especially as the battle for places in collegiate teams starts.

Olszewski said that he managed to stay as much as possible on what he could do and which are the aspects that are beyond his scope. He drives his girls to the batting cage to correct the way they hit the ball. In front yard he warms up to become perfect in following the ball after he arrives from home.

And, if their future high school coach will not allow them to go on to the field, then Olszewski does not want to know. Still he will just move his children to another school or look for another football team.

“If they’re good enough, I’ll find a school that will let them play,” said.

A Decadeslong Battle

baseball has been consistent in Dareth Doyon’s life. In the summer years at about 6 years she began to play for Pawtucket Slaterettes league in Rhode Island. She is 44 years now, still, she plays with friends she grew up with only her knees can complain of pains when catching now than before. “It’s my stress reliever,” she said. “Sometimes I can let work take over a little too much as I’m a minor workaholic so it encourages workouts and living a healthy lifestyle.”

Her father, Paul Doyon, 69, previously coaches the Slaterettes and was the team’s vice president before retiring in Florida. “I just loved to teach them how to throw a ball,” he said. Well, I just love to see them progress. That was my joy.”
In an interview, Doyon recalled a favorite Slaterettes moment when she was trying to teach a young woman in her 20s how to hit the ball. How to follow it’s path when the ball was in the air on route to the plate. It’s necessary to move a step before attempting to strike it and then complete the arc of her swing after impacting the ball. He then allowed her to take her place right in the batter’s box after he was done. She hit the ball. “That I think in my view was enough joy to brighten up my entire day,” he added.

Doyon said that he now witnesses positive changes, more people realize that women have their place on the field more than forty years ago. These days the slaterettes have better equipment, having stadium lights and even ‘umpires’ to call balls and strikes. That wasn’t always the case.

The fields the Slaterettes played on were covered by rocks and holes and the coaches used rakes in order to avoid being waterlogged. It would be a pile of dirt so players can throw and that they would wash that pile for the players to throw.

Local umpires used to pay little attention to the organization especially when his daughter was still young, according to Doyon. It got to the point where they wouldn’t even make an appearance. So he would pick up his equipment and go stand behind the plate. He joked that he was the harshest on his daughter: Every pitch was a strike.

“I was so frustrated at the way the city and the municipality treated women or girl’s sports,” he said. “They gave us what the boys left always, and that really bothered the heck out to me, and that’s why I got so involved in it. “ She must be receiving the same rights like the men.”

Domestically, some organizations attempted at lifting the status of women with little perpetual impact. MLB kept them out of majors in 1952 after levelling a ban on them From this information, you should now be able to answer the following questions. The team from the movie A League of Their Own was the All-American Girls Baseball League, which played the last season in 1954. The Negro Leagues allowed some black Women to participate but that also came to an end as well.

Jackie Robinson and Minnie Miñoso opened the door for Blacks and Hispanics men in the past but women were off limits after the Second World War. Goodbye to Dottie Schroeder and Toni Stone.

 MLB today consider Pawtucket Slaterettes part of few women baseball leagues in the country. The members range in age from six years old to nearly 50 and there are over 120 women and girls and they compete in five leagues.

“It really does provide women with a place where they can set time for themselves particularly when they are mothers,” said Bethanie Rado the president of the league. “You know how often you hear women saying ‘I am a slave, I do everything for my kids,’ however, they make that two games a week and a practice.”

And yet there are still people out there who think women should only play softball and not baseball.

“Even today, when I say to somebody that I’m playing baseball, they’re looking at me going,

‘You mean softball, right?’” Dareth Doyon said.

That concept also irks Veronica Alvarez, the manager of the USA Baseball Women’s national team. “Everyone in the United States, they all grow up thinking that girls play softball and boys play baseball,” said Alverez, a member of the U.S team which competed and won a gold medal in the 2015 Pan American Games. “It’s just almost ridiculous to the point that people can’t see it, because doesn’t fit the mould to what people have been taught all their life.”

Role models in the community

Chet Verigan and his daughter Grace traveled from near Atlanta to participate with the 16U Bolts. He’s an assistant coach and they get to miss most of the practices because it takes them seven hours to get to Homosassa.

For Grace, however, baseball was begun relatively later than with most players; she was 11 and had watched her twin brother exercise on a team in which her father also participates.

Verigan, 51, very seldom spoke during the games, but was always keenly present in the Bolts’ dugouts. He didn’t shout very frequently; instead, he whispered consolations. Between innings, he grabbed a piece of food and went to Grace and practically instructed her how to go about her batting.

‘The only advantage of having my dad as the head coach is when the times comes that I gets some bad time, I changes it.’ Grace said. “I don’t need to be scrutinized as much.”

 Boys need to play their part to make sure baseball as a sport does not demote girls, Verigan said. “That’s why I make it my business anytime, to balance that and assure the girls that they are doing a good job,” he said.

In his years of coaching, he has heard boys use a real smart aleck line by telling girls they are not fit for baseball. That their friends throw throw like a girl or hit like a girl. It’s never a compliment. Yes. But it’s always said as a criticism: With a twist of bitter in the mouth.

 He attempts to explain to the girls he coaches that is not how things should be.

I warned every girl out there saying ‘Please don’t stop playing because someone has said you cannot play baseball again’. And never let anyone ever tell you that you can’t play baseball,” he said.

Adleigh “Addie” Kane is as feisty as 10-year-old girls get especially when declaring who she is on the pitcher’s mound or on the basepath. She steps out to the plate with a bow in her hair, and it takes her little effort to send balls past outfielders. She easily charges into a catcher and shrugs it off if, glad for it because it means she gets her team another run.

His nine-year-old daughter Addie went from Ontario to play for 10U Bolts during the tournament in Kentucky to secure a championship on her team. At home, she has been a force to reckon at the field as well For. This has made other girls in her community the likes of which want to play as well.

Some of the dads and moms go to me and tell me, ‘My daughter made us’. It happened after our child was enrolled because ‘we saw your daughter, we signed up our daughter.’?” “I do know that she does take that seriously and feels like she has the responsibility and really wants to do well – and show them that if they wanted to play too, there’s a chance to play.”

Even though she felt like she had to prove herself on a baseball field, Addie said it felt good that girls looked up to her: “I can make a difference.” So while she has to face the same choices other girls do. “It is easier for me to relate with girls,” she said. “It is a disadvantage a little bit to be the only girl in the team because they (boys) do not see you in the same light.”

Addie and say when she grows up she wants to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But if any player of her age, male or female, has a right to dream it is two-way player Shohei Otani.

By then, just maybe, women will be in a position to take the playing field as the majors.

Well, older girls understand that time is fast approaching when they will be removed from the sanctuary. Baseball is not easily opening its arms to receiving them to play in college and of course some do not wish to play baseball anymore after high school. They made me feel like it’s three outs closer to the last every time they are on the field before the end of a game.

Right now, however, that is secondary, secondary to choices concerning colleges, future occupations and careers.

“It’s not really about winning,” said Lily Mrozek, 15, years removed from all those nasty comments in 2021. And despite her 16U team’s losing record in Kentucky, she said: It’s about getting a chance to perform. We deserve to be able to have fun.”

Before their first games at the tournament, Brooke Mrozek gave all of her players blue and white bracelets with baseball charms. They wanted to play baseball but when criticised they said they should remember the friendships they would have made in the week.

“Just remain yourself,” Mrozek said. “You have to continue to fight for the things that you want, and then just get the okay. Looking for those people that do believe in you.”

Jewellery might not alter her life, but a little girl might decide that she wants to play baseball once she witnessed Lily, Addie, Grace, Blakely, etc., entering the batter’s box. And she’ll have to have her own bracelet – to remind her that she needs to be at the field not at the kitchen.