When Justine Siegal was 13, a coach told her she couldn't play baseball anymore, even though she was one of the best players in the league. To the coach, all that mattered was that she was a girl. "I don't want you on my team,” he told Siegal. “Girls should play softball."
Instead of giving up, Siegal stuck with her favorite sport, going on to become the first woman to coach professional men's baseball (in 2009, with the Brockton Rox), the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team (in 2011, with Cleveland) and the first woman to coach for a Major League Baseball organization (in 2015, with the Oakland Athletics instructional league in Arizona).
She has also channeled her love for the game into creating a more level playing field for the next generation of girls and women. Siegal founded Baseball For All, a nonprofit that promotes gender equity in the sport. Last month, almost 500 girls between the ages of 8 and 19 convened in Aberdeen, Md., for Baseball For All’s sixth national tournament.
Siegal’s next goal: increasing opportunities for women to play baseball at the college level. On Aug. 14 and 15, Baseball For All hosted the Women’s College Baseball Invitational, an all-women’s college showcase and tournament at Centenary University in New Jersey for students interested in playing college baseball. Four of the women participating are already slated to play at colleges next season.
In between it all, Siegal has found time to serve as a consultant on the TV series currently in production in Pittsburgh. She spoke with GoodSport about putting a crack in the grass ceiling, coaching actors vs. coaching ballplayers, and why creating opportunities for girls and women to play baseball is a social justice issue.