On a perfectly manicured practice field at the new Atlanta Braves spring training facility in North Port, dozens of girls from across the country are lined up for batting practice.

They are here for a girls baseball camp, and are being coached by members of the gold medal winning U.S Women’s Baseball World Cup team, players from Canada’s national team, and alumni from the World War II era, All American Girl’s Professional Baseball League, which inspired the movie, “A League of their Own.” 

Baseball has long been called America’s “national pastime.” But for women and girls, the sport hasn’t always been exactly inclusive. This camp, and other initiatives across the country, are aiming to change the perception that baseball is just for boys.

As a player for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Sister Toni Palermo was one of about 600 women to play pro baseball from 1943 to 1954. She played shortstop for the “Chicago Colleens” and the “Springfield Sallies,” and was known for her prolific base stealing.

“And every time I would steal a base I had to slide, and I still have scars to prove it,” she said. “So there was no crying in baseball.”

Palermo, who is now a Catholic nun, traveled to CoolToday Park from her home in Wisconsin to help coach, as did Jeneane Des Combes Lesko, formerly of the AAGPBL’s Grand Rapids Chicks, who now lives in Seattle.

They are here to support the camp’s organizer, Sue Zipay of Englewood, who also played professional baseball. She was with the women’s league’s winningest team, the Rockford Peaches. Zipay and her son have run the Englewood Tennis Club for over 30 years but baseball has always been her passion. It was Zipay’s idea to approach the Braves Florida organization to host the girls-only training event.