Florida Bolts Girls Baseball - Opening the Future for Girls & Women in Baseball

 Welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck. I am Mark Corbett, your host. And with me today, I have two guests who are part of my favorite game and that is women and girls baseball. And we will have on here just a moment, Brooke and Lily green. And they're going to tell us all about the Florida votes, girls, baseball, what it means to them and what it holds for the future and women's baseball as well.

How are you doing ladies?  

Good. How are you 

doing? Well, doing well. Thank you all for joining me today. I know everybody's got a busy schedule, so I'm very happy that you're here today. My passion for this is, it's crazy. Okay. I'm just, I'm nuts when it comes to women's baseball. A big part of that started about a year ago when I did a show and some of the ladies from the all Americans, I guess if you, if I look back at my own time,  Growing up, I mean, girls, they had just a few sports, they had basketball, volleyball, field hockey, and softball as the primary sports available to them.

I really didn't see much else, you know, the closest thing I saw to baseball was Bad News Bears with, uh, back in, yeah, way, I'm talking about the one way back, you know, back in the eighties or whatever. And then later on, we saw with the learning the league of their own. Yeah. And prior to that, it was, I can't remember the gentleman's name, Candela, who had wrote about his, I think his aunt who played in all Americans.

So these were sort of the unveiling, if you will, for me of, of women in baseball and what it can happen. And there's so much more, whether we're looking at, uh, Jackie Miller, Maude Nelson, or, or people like today, Perry Barber. Uh, Tamara Holmes, and these are just to name a few. So now that I've rattled off what little bit I know about women's baseball,  let's, let's get you all talking.

So Brooke, you and Lily both are part of the Florida boats organization, and this is a girl's baseball organization, but it looks like the span is pretty large about who is involved in what you all do. Can you give us kind of an introduction to that, please? 

Yeah. Um, so I, I took over the organization back in 2022 in January.

Um, it was originally put together by a gentleman named Josh. And by then, my daughter was already 12. She had already been playing baseball for 6 years. And he, so, introduced me to girls baseball, um, didn't even realize that there was anything like this. She'd always been playing on teams with all, with other boys and playing against teams with boys.

Um, there was always those whispers of, Oh, there's a girl on the team, you know? And so when we got, we got together with Josh and we went to the baseball for all nationals, and we realized this was the bigger, This is a bigger deal than we thought there are hundreds of girls that are in her position where she's the only girl in the league or in the area and Josh ended up moving out of state.

And so he was like, Hey, I need somebody to run the organization. Never in my life have I run a nonprofit, let alone a baseball organization. And I jumped in feet first. And here we are. Uh, we started with one team. Now I have five teams going to nationals this year. We, we take girls from all over. Um, if you don't have a team local to you and you're out of the state of Florida and you want to join the bolts, we welcome you.

But I have girls from South Miami all the way to Jacksonville in Panama city. Um, so it's quite a broad. Spectrum there. Um, but I have girls from eight to 18.  

How do you gather these young women? You're talking about five separate teams I mean, is that various age groups or what are we looking at here?  

So right now i'm fielding a 10 u team a 12 u team a 14 u team 16 u and 18 you know, and our goal is to at least meet once a month because again They're scattered so far apart that we try to practice once a month.

I scatter that practice around the state of Florida just to try and bring it closer to home for some people. And then we just get together for the national tournament in July. And then, um, this past year we went to Arizona and competed in the late in the Cardo series out, um, in December. That was in Arizona.

This is past December. Um, but that, that's really all we've done. That's our goal is just to come together and compete in all girl tournaments.  I am a firm believer in that they should still play in their little leagues and they should still play on their local travel ball teams  To sort of bring that awareness that hey girls are still out here.

We're still playing baseball  and it's  It's not going away. We're not going to just fade off into softball. We're here we exist  

So it's not an either are with your young ladies, they can play baseball with you guys. They can do it through the local leagues and and traveling leagues as well. Or and even if they want to do softball,  you know, that sounds like a great opportunity.

Because 1 thing I've always been concerned about with the not even talk about it. Girls baseball, but travel ball. I always felt like, I don't know. I felt for one thing, a lot of players had to invest a lot of money in some of these travel leagues and, uh, for the equipment, et cetera. And sometimes it's very detailed about what you have to have and the price can be prohibitive.

So I'm having some difficulty understanding how we can help so many people when there seems to be a price restriction when it comes to travel ball.  

I agree. Um, we have a local travel ball team organization, I should say. That's  it's close enough to us, but their fee per team is 2, 500. 

Good gravy.  

Loued your travel expenses.

That doesn't include food. It doesn't include the tournament costs because some of these tournaments require that parents pay a fee to go watch the tournament in it. But now I got to go pay to watch it. It's it is, it's very cost prohibitive. Lily. Has always done very well in little league. She's always made all stars  and we toyed around with the idea of travel ball for a little while.

Um, but again, you're right. The cost kind of hit me. I was like, okay, I work full time. My husband works full time. I do have another child. Um, I have a son that I can't always like neglect every weekend to go travel for baseball, but it can, it can prevent. It can be cost prohibitive,  which is one of the reasons that I, for the bolts, at least I try to keep that cost in a minimum, um, sponsorships, fundraising to kind of ease that burden off the parents of like, Hey, you got to pay this plus your travel costs. 

Well, I'm glad you're trying to keep it a minimum because I know that's difficult. And I've seen some of the things we'll talk later on about sponsorships that people can do to, to help you all and alleviate some of that costs for the young ladies who wish to play ball. So I was really glad to see you guys are taking moves for that.

Well, Lily, I've been talking to your mom about a lot of this stuff, but, uh, I'd like to hear your experience. I mean, a big part of what we're talking about baseball, it's a bath family. I mean, if you're doing things together as a family and some things, you know, you had to get to go do by yourself, but.

This, this whole love of baseball, uh, what, where did it come with you? Was there certain people who inspired you, certain heroes?  

So my mother used to play baseball when she was young instead of my uncle. So I felt like I always had the baseball genes in me. Grandpa, we call him buddy. And he used to encourage me to always play and always try my hardest. 

Well, that's fantastic. I mean, that's, that's it. You got to have a spirit in it when you got family involved with. I think it does make a big difference. I would like to ask you, Lily, you know, what has been like maybe the most  surprising part of your time with the boats. Is there a certain moment with you as a player during a game or an event?

That you do cherish.  

I think I cherish the team the most because they've always been so supportive. They've never really put me down.  

And well, your teammates, I guess, have you, is there been a consistency for you with, with the boats? I mean, there's many of the same players go from year to year.  

Yes. I've had most of the same players ever since I was six. 

Well, that's pretty good. I mean, when you're looking at the future of the game of baseball, uh, What are your expectations?  

I'm expecting them like everybody to get stronger and I'm expecting the game to grow more and be more welcoming of women in baseball.  

One of the things that I'm doing right now is I have a presentation and I'm going out at different facilities and, and groups and talking about women in baseball this month.

And there's so much, and I was mentioning some at the beginning, things like Maude Nelson. You know, you, you may know who are of her. You there's people like, uh, who was that? Can't think of a lady's name for the life at the moment. Um,  Jackie Mitchell. Yeah. Jackie Mitchell. So back in April 1st, 1931, April fool's day, she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, you know, and the thing about baseball, what I'm thinking about for, for women, Lily, that, that bothers me is because no sooner that she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, you And she was actually playing with the double a Chattanooga lookouts back then.

So she was in, you know, the, the pipeline for major league baseball. But a few days after she struck out, both of those gentlemen, the baseball commissioner at the time, Kennesaw mountain land has said,  I'm going to void your contract. You can no longer play baseball. And what was his reasoning for giving, doing that?

It's because women were unfit to play baseball as the game was, quote, too strenuous, unquote. And that's the kind of myopic viewpoint that existed long ago. And it seems like none of it has really advanced as quickly as many of us would like to see.  I think to treasure what's happening with women in baseball today is great, but there's so much more room for the future of, uh, of women to be able to, whether it be in the front office, like a Kim Ang.

When you see yourself at 18, where do you see yourself when you're 18? Uh, do you see yourself with a scholarship in softball? Do you, hopefully, maybe they'll be doing scholarships for baseball?  

I expect to possibly see myself either getting a baseball scholarship. Or just getting into college and doing something in sports management. 

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience, Lily, about your own experience with the game?  

Um, all I can say is that just don't give up. These people will bring you down, but you can't let them get to you. 

Amen.  I'm glad to hear that. Keep your spirits up. All right, Brooke, let's come back to you here for a bit.

I wanted to ask you. What inspired you yourself as far as your enjoyment with the game? I mean, when you were younger, Lily mentioned that you've been playing the ball, playing baseball back then. What was, what inspired you?  

Honestly. Um, so my parents, my parents.  How to love my dad, especially my dad had a love for baseball, my mom too.

And I could remember, you know, skipping school, being pulled out of school to go to spring games. And, you know, we, we were always at the fields. We were at the field so often, um, that my brother and I were both inducted into the double Ray fan wall of fame when we were younger. I mean, we would go so often the players knew us, they recognized our faces.

We would run into. You know, I ran into Karl Crawford at the mall one time and he recognized me. And it was just, it's just the love of the game. We love baseball,  but when I was, and I'm not, I'm not that old. I'm only 38.  There was still that stigma of girls playing baseball and we were forced, we were forced out of the ball.

We had to play softball. There was no opportunity, no, nowhere for me to go. Um, so when. Lily turned five. I asked her, you know, what do you want to do? And she said, I want to play baseball. And I said, all right, I'm fine with that. We found a local league that was willing to give her a chance and she played and everybody at the league loved her.

She was good at it. Um, it wasn't, it's not, that's not even a mom brag. That was. She made all stars every year. People from other leagues would compliment her and come up to her and tell her how great she did.  I think one of the, the biggest inspirations for the Bolts is, is her and her friends.  She's got such close relationships with several other girls on the team that  If, you know, if she told me tomorrow, she was done with baseball and she wanted to quit, I'd probably would keep the bolts going for the other girls because I've seen all of their passion.

I've seen all of their love for the game and they deserve to have somebody out there who supports it and finds resources and provides them opportunities. And it's not just me, but organizations like Seuss with the, the AGB, the baseball for all, you know, Those organizations are key into continuing this for them. 

You bring up a good point there. I mean, we were talking about Sousa pay, one of the original all American girls, professional baseball league. And also, uh, the lady who put together pretty much the whole thing, as far as the Sarasota event for the all girls baseball classic, which if you didn't make it there, folks,  you'll have to forgive yourself because I won't.

I'm telling you, it was, it was such a great event to see some of this Fantastic talent out there, you know, a lot of these young ladies, uh, Perry was mentioned, Perry Barber, you know, who's been a, an umpire for years and was a legend and you had Tamara Holmes, you know, and several other ones, I believe from the USA baseball team.

Yeah. To see that kind of talent and it's inspiring and the sadness to me was  I don't think we did enough  to get more, uh, butts in the seat, so to speak, because there, it was a treasure to be able to see those games. And while we had some people there, I think we could do more hopefully here in the upcoming one.

Yeah. So we'll see. 

I agree. I think that this past year was, there were more people than there were the year before. I still think we have a long way to go. Yeah. Um, you know,  We live in a state where. You know, there's this political undertone of women in sports and women doing things. And unfortunately we're fighting that battle.

Um, not just the bolts, but I think Sue is fighting that battle as well. And like Lily said, we were going to have, we're going to have the naysayers. And we're going to have the people who don't show up because, oh, it's women. And we just have to continue to push on through. We just have to continue to show that these girls are talented.

They're equally as talented as the boys. If not, some of them are better. Um, some of. Is that we saw this past year. Those were ESPN worthy. I mean, those were phenomenal. Um,  you know, and I think another,  another  misconception is that we want women to infiltrate into the MLB. That's not the case. I think that most of us, including my daughter.

Um, they just want to league. They literally as cliche as the sounds, they want to leak of their own.  Have the W NBA. We have women's soccer. We have all of these things for women. Why do we not have a WMLB? Why do we not have a women's major league baseball?  And I think that, I think that's another misconception as well.

I think that if people realize that they, they want something separate and they want this on their own,  then maybe they'll gain some more support. Bye.  I think Sue's doing a great job. I think she's got, she's on the right path. The motivation is there. We just have to, to really get people out there to see. 

Yeah, the thing I get a little concerned about is that bringing that focus in. I think there's, there's a lot of talent and there's a lot of people doing a lot of great things for women in baseball. But I think the challenge is getting everybody to, to hold hands and be a force to where there is like a league of their own.

I mean, Sue, Sue can only do so much and there's other ones out there. There's organization you mentioned earlier, baseball for all. There's all these other organizations out there. And I think the, the, The most, I don't know if it's the most, it has to be a challenging part of bringing all those folks together to help, you know, build that.

Uh, I don't think we're going to see Rob Manfred come out tomorrow and write us a blank check and say, Hey, let's go ahead and hit a women's MLB. But you know, what I know, 

and I have said this before I've, uh, and. I've always thought that it was going to take a retired MLB player who maybe has daughters who want to follow in dad's footsteps, who is going to want, who's going to be willing to lose some money for a little bit. We're not going to come right off and make money.

It's going to take a few years, but you're going to want. Somebody to invest. And I have always said Derek Jeter, I thought he was great. He's got three daughters of his own. He's retired, you know, somebody like him who has a passion for baseball, who has daughters,  who's willing to say, you know what. Let's invest in this.

Let's get this moving. And yes, let's get these organizations on board. Let's get Justine from Baseball for All and Sue and the USA Women's National Team. Let's get together and work towards a common goal because that's what this is. It's all a common goal. We just have separate organizations. So I think that's, that's key.

I think that's really gonna, that's really gonna be key into pushing this along.  

Well, we're going to need to wake up Derek Jeter because I think it's certainly a person of his magnitude and I think persuasion would be able to help a lot. So, you know, that's the challenge. I think in a much more micro level, I can think of when I had children that were there in the scouts.

And at the beginning of each year, you know, all the children that we want to be in the scouts that year are coming back that we would sit down in the cafeteria with a couple of leaders up there and then we're going to plan out the year. But the 1st thing the leader said is who here is going to make a commitment to stand up and be a parent that's going to be involved.

And I, I think while. We can talk, you know, down to his parent level here, but I think it's the same sort of situation of getting people involved to put some kind of cohesiveness together to really establish a woman's league. And  I don't, I don't know what it's going to take. I mean, there's a lot of great women out there that are playing in college who, you know, who are stepping up beyond that.

There's, there's some real talent Titans. I mean. You mentioned earlier, and hopefully we can all do a Kumbaya, bring it together and make something like that happen because  the talents there, the energy is there and just need a strong foundation. I apologize if I don't see something that's already out there making that happen.

So forgive me. Is there some place I should be looking to see that now?  

Not, not that I know of. Um, you know, one of, we have all of these organizations like mine, you know, I have the Florida Bolts, but there are so many others. There's the California waves. There's the Arizona peaches. There's the Georgia peaches, you know, the New York wonders.

We have all of these girls organizations that are, you know, in these individual States, California has a couple,  but. There is, again, there's not this cohesiveness of, we're all in it for this common goal. We just want to, you know, most of them are competitive. You know, Justine has baseball for all and she does her own thing and she's nonprofit and it's, it's, she puts on the biggest all girls tournament of the year in July this year.

Um, and you have Sue doing hers for AGB.  I think like you said that, you know, coming together and singing Kumbaya, uh, we, that's.  You're hitting the nail on the head. Um, I have always felt that there's got to be  like a sit down or, or, or a common. Again, it's a common goal. They've got to come together and we've got to figure this out because the longer that it continues to go on, the more disheartening it is for some of these girls that have put all of their effort into it,  you know, I don't let Lily give up.

I don't, I, she tried softball once. She absolutely hated it. Um, so I don't, I don't, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to tell her, Hey, you have to play softball because there's nowhere for you to go, we have colleges now that have women's college baseball teams, there's 10 of them now there's places for them to go, if we can get that movement together and we can get that  cohesiveness together and get these everyone on board, everybody on the same path. 

Wow. Well, I hope I hope that comes to be. Maybe we need to have like the MLB. We need to have winter meetings with all those people come together and sit down and talk for 3 or 4 days and find something out. Well, tell me about the Florida boats. I'll step away from all the  global view. If you will tell me about the Florida boats this year.

What's on your agenda? Some of the tournaments you have coming up.  

Uh, so right now we are gearing up for the BFA Nationals. It's in Elizabethtown, Kentucky this year, um, from July 7th to 12th.  I have five teams that I'm putting together, um, like I said, 10U, So I have girls coming that are age 8 all the way to 18.

And we'll compete in that. And then our goal after that is to possibly participate in the New York Wonders has a tournament in Labor Day weekend up in New York, and then the DMV series is in Maryland in October. So our goal is to hopefully, um, Go to those tournaments as well. Um, personally for the bolts, I have put together an all girls baseball clinic in St.

Petersburg. Um, raise Tampa Bay rays sponsored us to get, um, some shirts for the girls participants and baseball city in St. Petersburg donated a field.  Uh, the Tampa Tarpons had caught wind as well. So they're going to be coming and donating tickets to that Saturday's game to all the players and participants.

Um, but I had, I have over 30 girls registered to come out and have a great skills clinic.  And then my hope is to continue this movement and growth to have our own tournament in, um, either March or April of next year, we're going to. Hopefully bring those other teams from Arizona and those other teams that are around the country to come and do a tournament here in Florida. 

Well, you know, you're building a sense of community wherever you go. I see that. I think that's important and I'm glad you're getting all those other organizations that integrate with you too, and supports with those things. Tell me about the clinic. What, what's that like?  

Um, so again, we have girls from age eight to 18.

Um, it's from nine to one. And we're just going to divide everybody up and we're just going to have a basic skills clinic where we, you know, work on grounders. We work on fielding pop flies. We'll work on hitting. I have Tina Nichols, who was also on the USA women's national team. She's going to be joining us to kind of her insight on pitching and, you know, just kind of bring, again, it's, it's about awareness.

It's about bringing these girls together and showing, Hey, you guys, we can do this. It's, it's a, it's.  It's great. I was surprised  with how many girls registered so quickly.  

I'll try to make it up there because my old hometown is in Louisville, Kentucky. So it's right, right down the road from Elizabethtown.

So, uh, I used to drive there with my work a couple of times a week. So that's, uh, was it the Cal Ripken  field or something? I can't remember. 

Ripken experience. Yep. That's where it's at. 

Well, that should be a lot of fun.  I'm so pleased to see what you're doing with so many young women across. I mean, for, like I said, from 8 to 18 and to have that set up and give them this opportunity. 

You know, this, this is where the future is for women. I mean, and for young girls, if you don't do it here now, it's not going to happen later. I mean, the groundswell has to happen with what you're doing, Brooke, and getting those other organizations to come together and say, yes, let's find a way to build this.

And how many schools did you say in college are now have, uh, women's baseball teams? Ten.  Wow. So, so Lily, you said, uh, you were bored with softball.  

Yes. 

What, what was it about softball that it lacked that baseball gave you?  

Well, so I played softball in middle school, so they weren't very experienced. So it was hard for me to enjoy it with having to try and teach them how to play and then teach them what to work on. 

I can appreciate that. I, I know that I see when I was years ago, uh, calling us some games for women's basketball at the University of Louisville. I'm talking long ago. We're talking about like, yeah, 1979 and I did the color. It was, I would sit there and they played the same day. Usually as the men, the women's games came first. 

And I was always amazed at the tenacity of what they gave, you know, to make the win. And I think that you're going to see that maybe with baseball as much or more, because you have these elite players when you have like the national, what USA women's team, there's only so many spots available. So you gotta be hungry to get there.

You know, if there's only 10 teams in the U S for college, you know, you have to be hungry to get there. And I think the young women that you see there are going to be tenacious. You're going to have a professional attitude and they know what they got to do to keep that space. So I can see why the, the, and almost the, uh, I  don't wanna say the rarity of, of availability makes it that much more, I don't wanna say attractive.

It makes, makes an athlete realize what they have to do to get one of those spots right.  Lily, kudos to you for that. So I, I appreciate your, your tenacity and your professional attitude about it  is, Brooke, let me ask you, what do you, when you think about these young women  after they've gone through the BOLT system, what do you want them to, to feel like?

What do you want them to have as they move from there on at 18 plus,  

I, I, I hope that they come back. I want them to be involved. I want them to stay involved. You know, if they don't make the USA women's national team or they don't, you know, go on to play baseball in college, I want them to know that they still have a family where that's what we call it.

We're, we're the Bolts family. Um, any new person joins, I'm like, Oh, welcome to the Bolts family. We're a support system. You know, whether they want to continue baseball or they make that switch to softball or, you know, they, they go onto a career field that has nothing to do with sports. I want them to come back.

I want them to coach our younger girls. I want them to come back and tell me about what, what they're doing with their lives.  I've grown to, I love these girls. They, they,  like you said, their tenacity, um, They're just fun. They're a fun group of girls. I have  36 of them  and I just, I adore every single one of them.

They all bring something unique to the game and bring something unique to the team and I want them to stay involved.  And like I said, if it's not baseball related, I still want them to know that, hey, I back them up. I support them in whatever they need. They, they can come to me and say, Hey, coach Brook, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm going for marine biology, and I'm gonna be like, awesome. 

Let's, what can I do? What can I help you with? You know? Um, so I hope that they, I hope that they've forever remembered that there was somebody who stood by them and, and, and gave them that opportunity and, and presented those. You know, challenge said, Hey, this is a challenge, but you're going to get through and we're going to push through, um, as a family. 

Well, family means a lot to me, and I think in the game, and we went ahead, Tamra Holmes on here a while back, we talked about the family of the team as well as her own family. And, and there's a strength there. It's something you can build upon and the thing too, when you're talking about some of these players as they grow older, uh, it may be thinking like, so it can come back, give back to those young ones coming up, you know, make sure that we can do more for them as well.

So, wow.  If people want to help out the boats, where can they, what can they do?  

For our biggest thing is fundraising and sponsorships. Um, anybody who owns, if you own a local business, uh, we have sponsorship levels starting at 200  going all the way up to a thousand we're nonprofit. So any funds that come in, go straight to the girls, whether it's getting them practice shirts or new uniforms or, you know, helping them pay.

We, we, we try to cover the cost of all the tournament fees. Those are expensive.  Anytime that anybody, you know, if they want to donate or they want to sponsor, um, they can go to our website. It's Florida bolts, Florida bolts dot square space. com. We're also on Facebook, Florida bolts, girls, baseball. Um, or just reach out to me.

Uh, my, the email is Florida bolts, baseball at yahoo. com. Um, and getting the word out, getting, spreading the word and saying, Hey, there's this. You know, if you see a girl playing baseball, hey, there's a girls organization, you know, join them. Um, but that's sponsorships, donations, and word of mouth.  

Well folks you heard it here you want to support girls and women's baseball and no better place to start than with florida girls florida boats girls baseball and You heard as far as the contact information from brooke.

I'll make sure I put that in the show notes as well Lily, you got any final words for us things that we need to be thinking about as the season progresses  

Just keep doing you and keep pushing it. 

All right  I love that attitude. All right, brooke any other final words or things we need to be considering  

No, not really just I think we've hit everything.

Um, we just there's this movement and we've got to keep riding that flow And we've got to keep pushing like lily said keep pushing through and You know, we've got to we've got to get together. We've got to figure out a way to bring Women's baseball into a reality. 

Amen. Okay. Well, thank you again We've been speaking of course here with brook and lily about florida votes bureau's baseball.

Make sure you check it out  Thank you all for joining us here today. Look forward to talking with you soon. And just remember, you can always find us here. You can find us Google podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts, we're everywhere. And also you can find us on www. baseballbizondeck. com and leave us any notes you might have, any reviews when we'll look forward to talking with you again, real soon.