‘Why can’t we?’: Former AAGPBL player hosts Women’s tournament
SARASOTA, Fla. — Want to see the true meaning of “playing ball like a girl”?
At Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota last weekend under the banner of American Girls Baseball, top female talent from around the world showcased their skills at the spring home of the Baltimore Orioles for a four-day event titled the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic.
The president of AGB, Sue Zipay, knows all too well the plight of a woman trying to make a name for herself in the baseball realm. Zipay, 88, was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formed during World War II as a pitcher and utility infielder/outfielder with the Rockford Peaches. The league was later documented and celebrated in the blockbuster film “A League of Their Own.”
The event was a labor of love more than two years in the making, and it started when Zipay discovered a young girl in Venice, Fla., who was upset she was aging out of Little League and would only have the option of playing softball.
“I thought, ‘It’s been 67 years since our league ended, and here she is not able to have a choice between baseball and softball.’ There’s something wrong with that picture,” Zipay said. “We have all these other professional women’s sports, what happened to baseball?”
Zipay said the girls want exactly what the title of the popular 1992 film on the AAGPBL is — a league of their own.
“We want our own league,” Zipay said. “We want women playing with and against other women. Everyone thinks baseball is for men, and softball is for women. Who ever came up with that? The AGB was created to promote women and women’s baseball.”
