Kelsie Whitmore has been playing baseball for as long as she could remember. Yes, that’s correct, baseball. At this time, she and many other female athletes are trailblazers in making the sport equal. Her path to playing baseball started as a child with her father, Scott Whitmore, who has always been her number one supporter. He introduced her to both baseball and softball, after seeing both of them, she chose baseball.. And that was just the beginning.

“She would just throw to me, or I would throw to her and have her hit. It went on for a while and I finally asked her, don’t you want to play with kids your own age?” Scott says as he reminisced about her debating on whether she wanted to play baseball or softball. It led to a funny story about hair which in turn led to her choosing the sport she wanted to continue with.

“She had seen all the girls with their hair in a ponytail. She thought she had to wear her hair like that in order to play. I said, “no, you can have your hair any way you want, if you want to have your hair down, you can have it down.” I didn’t direct her either way, I showed her both, once she figured out that she didn’t have to have her hair in a ponytail, she chose baseball.”

It then took off from there, Kelsie started outplaying boys of her own age and then made the commitment to play for her high school team. She was the first female to play the sport at her high school and it eventually led to a scholarship opportunity. That’s when things had to change, but Kelsie was able to embrace the challenge for better opportunities.

Time For A Change

Kelsie got an offer from Cal State Fullerton to play softball, something she wasn’t used to playing. Nonetheless, she was eager to take on the challenge.
It became clear that the offer was just too good to pass up, and once she started playing, she noticed the differences. The sport of softball and baseball are very different as Kelsie describes… “it isn’t just a difference of gender.” The distance from the mound to home plate is smaller, the bats are different, the pitching angles are different, and there is no leadoff as Kelsie describes.

“In the beginning, it was a little tough. Just being in a new environment, especially with all girls. I grew up mainly playing with guys, and obviously, it was a sport I never played before. Sometimes [but] not always are you gonna be accepted, a lot of times. I was looked at as the baseball player.” Kelsie recalls that as she got used to the game itself, things began to click. As she got more experience under her belt, the game began to slow down for her, and in turn she started to excel. She started making friends and she realized that it brought out the competition in her, making her care more about the sport than herself which made her a great teammate.

Playing At The Collegiate League

Whitmore spent some time playing in the collegiate league with the Sonoma Stompers and described the experience as great. “It was a great experience. I was really young, I wasn’t fully developed in my skills, I had a lot to learn. The guys that I was on the team with, I still talk to today. I was taken under the wing of a lot of guys. Whether it was pitching or hitting or outfield, I had at least one guy that took me under their wing.

Pitching and hitting, yes you read that right, remind us of anyone? After bringing up Shohei Ohtani and having a laugh about it, Kelsie did say he’s someone she models her craft after. She loves the uniqueness of what both pitching and hitting bring to the table and is willing to learn both with enthusiasm. Based on her work ethic and overall passion for the game, there’s no doubt that she could have her name next to Ohtani when it comes to being a two-way star.

Making Herstory And Ending The Stigma

After playing independent baseball for some time, Kelsie became the first woman in history to compete in a professional game in Mexico. She had said that she didn’t even know about that feat at the time. She was just focused on just helping her team win. It’s still an incredible accomplishment and a milestone to show how far she’s come in her career.

And she’s not done by any stretch.

When asked about hearing guys say that girls can’t play baseball or that they should stick to softball, Kelsie said “I think those people are just not educated, it doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. People only know what they know. It can bug me at times, but only because I want it to be normalized.” She compared it to sports like basketball, golf, and soccer in that there are no gender-specific sports just how baseball shouldn’t be. The topic of girls playing baseball has grown along with the creation of Baseball For All, a non-profit organization that focuses on gender equality in baseball.

But there is still work that needs to be done in order to get rid of the stigma completely. People should recognize that a woman can play just as hard as their male counterparts, and Kelsie is a prime example of that.