Can girls play baseball?

Baseball has been a part of Taylor Varsho’s life for as long as she can remember. Her earliest memories are attending baseball games with her dad, a coach, when she was 4 years old. Her dad played and coached in Major League Baseball and now her brother Daulton Varsho plays for the Blue Jays.

For the Varshos baseball was their life. So, of course Taylor would play baseball. She was the only girl on the boy’s travel team in 8^th grade.

“When I played there were some challenges, but I stood my ground,” Varsho said. A lot of teams we played were shocked to see a girl playing but I just got this attitude that I was gonna prove them wrong. I can play just as well as the boys.”

But 8^th grade would be Varsho’s last year playing baseball. High school athletic rules would not allow Varsho the opportunity to play baseball in high school or beyond. Had there been opportunities for her to continue playing, Varsho said she absolutely would have continued with baseball as far as she could go.

Can girls play baseball? And what would it look like if they had their own teams?

Girls CAN play baseball. Girls DID play baseball. Girls/Women ARE playing baseball.

The first organized team of women baseball players was in 1866 at Vassar College. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League launched in the 1940s when men went off to fight in WWII. Little girls and boys play together when they start in T-ball or coach-pitch baseball.

Girls can play baseball, and they did at competitive levels. And then they didn’t anymore. Something happened in America along the way. Someone decided to tell girls that they don’t play baseball. America’s past-time became just a male sport.

But there are girls who didn’t get that memo from society.

Girls like my daughter Isy who doesn’t want to switch to softball. She is still playing baseball on a boys’ team. Women like Kelsie Whitmore and Ayami Sato, who are working hard for opportunities to play baseball on a professional level.

“Girls playing baseball is not new. They have been playing it since the mid-19^th century,” said Jean Fruth. “There’s a comfort for parents in understanding this idea is not new. That door was already opened and then closed again. Hopefully now we have busted the hinges off the door.”

Fruth and her team at Grassroots Baseball are sharing stories of women in baseball to keep that conversation going, keep that door busted off the hinges and not likely to ever close again. Grassroots Baseball promotes the simple truth that sports can empower and transform lives- the lives of youth, minorities and women around the globe.

“Do you want to have your daughter be told ‘No?’ Then what else do they think they can’t do?” said Fruth. “We need a more modern book and stories to tell and show girls what is possible.”

Fruth has done that with the film SEE HER BE HER. She directed and co-produced the film. It is available on Amazon Prime and in select cities this summer.

After shooting photographs at a girl’s baseball tournament with Baseball For All, she was hooked. The girls played incredible ball with skill and passion. But Fruth would learn from these girls that this was likely as far as their career in baseball would go because there are little to no opportunities for girls to play baseball at higher levels. Fruth was frustrated by this and driven to find change. She knew she had to tell this story.

“I’ve covered a lot of baseball, but I’ve never seen anything like what I witnessed at the girls’ game,” Fruth said. “They were spirited, fun, and confident – truly skilled. Just as good as the boys, and at times, even making better defensive plays.”

As Fruth began her work on the film she was amazed by the depth of this story. It is an international story. The film answers the question: can girls play baseball? Watch the film and you will hear the stories of amazing women who play baseball.

“Not only did these women persevere, they wanted to win,” Fruth said. “They really did see the bigger the picture. They want women’s baseball to win. They all get it. It’s a movement for them.”

The film blows any follow up questions out of the water. How can we do this? What does it look like to have all-girl/all-women teams? Girls are playing baseball all around the world. Countries are supporting women in baseball and even paying them on a professional level.

Girls and women are crushing baseball in other countries. What more do we need to do in the United States? How can we do even better for our girls?

Here is your Call to Action: Support the girls you know that want to play baseball. Don’t let “society” answer the question for you. Empower the girls in your life to Own the Box. If they want more opportunity, make it. And cheer for all women along the way.

“You’re not only playing baseball. You’re changing it,” Fruth said. “What you’re doing matters and that’s cool to be a part of.”

Varsho changed her focus to basketball when she could not go farther in baseball. She went on to play college basketball and now is a high school principal. Baseball prepared her for life and leadership.

“The toughness I took away from the baseball atmosphere and teams I was on prepared me to stand up for myself as a female athlete and leader,” she said.

And while she has been grateful for all of the opportunities in her life, she wishes she could have continued playing baseball.

Varsho’s answer to the question, can girls play baseball? “Absolutely! why not?”

Work is underway to launch the Women’s Pro Baseball League in the summer of 2026. Little girls will have the opportunity to see themselves on a professional baseball field. See her and be her.

So perhaps a better question is this: Do you enjoy playing baseball? Then play baseball. Make it happen for the girls in your life.

Own the Box.