WASHINGTON – Victoria Ruelas was 12 years old when she made history as the first American girl to play in the Little League World Series.
That was in 1989. And while Ruelas is proud of how far women in sports have come since her childhood, she can't help but wish there were more opportunities for them to shine. Especially in baseball, where opportunities beyond youth leagues have so often required girls to take unusual paths, most of them alongside men.
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“We keep saying how much strides we’re making,” Ruelas said. "But they’re so slow in coming. It just should be faster.
“I get excited when I see girls playing and getting to go to the Little League World Series every year. But to still be one here, one there — that’s upsetting to me. There’s so much more of us out there that play.”
Ruelas and many other women have carved out their own spaces in baseball over the years. Now, the wait for something more unifying is on the horizon with next year's launch of the Women's Professional Baseball League.
The league is holding its tryouts in Washington D.C. While baseball stars like former Little League phenom Mo'ne Davis and USA baseball women's national team player Kelsie Whitmore are already signed to the WPBL, the league's tryouts are open to all women.
That has made way for competitors of all ages to chase their dream of playing professionally. For many, the tryouts are one of the first times they've seen so many women's baseball players in one place.
“I never thought I’d see this, ever,” said Monica Holguin, of Burbank, California. “You’re told when you’re younger, ‘Hey, you have to transition from baseball to softball because there’s no future in (baseball) for women.’ And so you just do it.”
The result for Holguin, 45, was turning her focus to raising her two children instead of pursuing a professional career.
“And then something like this pops up and you just say, ‘Hey, let’s just go do it,’” added Holguin, who tried out at third base. “You know, I really did it. I wanted to come out here, compete, and I wanted to show my kids, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can chase a dream.”
Age is no deterrent for Holguin and several other WPBL hopefuls, who are trying to open doors for the next generation of girls baseball players.
Ruelas, 48, played college softball at San Jose State and was on the U.S. team that competed in the 2001 Women’s World Series. She flew to Washington from Honolulu, Hawaii, for the tryouts and said “until my body says I cannot do this anymore, I’d like to keep playing.”
Micaela Minner, who owns a sports training company with her wife in Akron, Ohio, has accomplished plenty in her athletic career. She played baseball until age 15. She was a softball state champion in high school. She helped Missouri's softball team reach the 2009 Women's College World Series. And she played professional softball with the Akron Racers in Ohio.
Minner, now 40 and retired from softball, still feels a deep pull toward baseball — the sport that she said gave her a sense of belonging growing up in the small town Sanger, Texas.
“I was angry about my being a person of color in an all-white town," Minner said of her childhood. "I hated my skin color. And it wasn’t anything other than I didn’t fit in. I didn’t want to be different.”
Minner said her stepdad put her in baseball to keep “me out of trouble.”
Even though she played with boys, the sport made her feel part of something bigger.
“They loved me,” she said. “I fit in, and me fitting in made me love myself. And it saved me.”
Minner is trying out at first base and as a left-handed pitcher for the WPBL. She said even if she doesn't make the league, her hope is that playing professional baseball becomes a tangible goal for younger girls.
“The goal needs to be doing whatever it takes to show girls that you can do this past high school,” she said. “You can play this sport and even get paid to play a game that men are doing. And I think that’s the goal — it has to grow. It has to be something that’s fathomable for young girls right now.”
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