Stacy Piagno and Kelsie Whitmore made history two weeks ago when they both stepped onto the field and played a game of baseball in Arnold Field in Sonoma, California. Both women were playing for the Sonoma Stompers, a professional minor-league baseball team.
Stacy Piagno, the 25-year-old pitcher from St. Augustine, Florida, made it through the first inning, gave up two runs in the second and lasted until the third inning. Behind her, in left field, was Kelsie Whitmore, 17, of Temecula (Riverside County), who Stompers officials consider the best female baseball player in the country.
“It’s exciting. I’ve got goosebumps,” said Lizette Dalquie, 64, of Sonoma, as she sat in the stands waiting for the first two female ballplayers in the independent Pacific Association to take the field. “It’s a breakthrough for the girls. The Stompers have opened the door for them and hopefully it will open up more doors.”
How did this come about? Famed film director Francis Ford Coppola—yes, that famous film director.
The bright idea to recruit women was first floated by film director Francis Ford Coppola, who said in a news release that he always wondered why there weren’t co-ed teams in professional baseball given that the game doesn’t rely as much on size and strength as other sports.
“My family would play co-ed baseball games and inevitably the star player would always be an aunt,” said Coppola, whose Virginia Dare Winery, in Geyserville, has been a primary sponsor of the team over the past three years. “So when my Sonoma winery became involved with the Stompers, I had the opportunity to turn this thought into a reality and recruit these amazing women capable of playing alongside men.”
Coppola’s winery became a sponsor for the team and the idea took hold. This is believed to mark the first time, since a Negro League team employed three women on their team back in 1950, that more than two women were on a professional baseball team. Ms. Paigno and Ms. Whitmore have played coed since high school and both are on the Olympic women’s team. Well done.