"Come One, Come All, If You Want to Play Ball": A Celebration of Women Who Love and Play Baseball

WORCESTER, MA — Women who love and play baseball can bring their bats and gloves to the field at Polar Park on Saturday, October 19, for an inaugural baseball festival dubbed, “Come One, Come All, If You Want to Play Ball!” The October Baseball event begins when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees Women’s Fantasy Campers, joined by members of the Pawtucket Slaterettes, take the field in a hard-fought hardball contest scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Gates open at 3 p.m. Admission to the game is free, and concessions will be open for purchase.

Following the seven-inning Fantasy Game, all fans will be invited down onto the field to take batting practice, play catch, run the bases, and shag flies for $20 per person, benefiting the WooSox Foundation’s efforts to improve the accessibility of Diamond Sports in Central Mass. The field will be open from approximately 6:15–9 p.m.

“As we move ever closer to women playing professional baseball again, we are eager to invite all who want to experience October Baseball in New England to take the field, take some cuts, and hear the pop of the ball in their gloves,” said WooSox President Dr. Charles A. Steinberg. “We have drawn inspiration from so many women—from Maybelle Blair, who played 70 years ago in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, to little pee wees and peanuts swinging the bats for the first time in town ball throughout the Worcester area.

“A number of women currently enjoying stellar careers in the Worcester Red Sox front office played youth baseball or softball. They learned the game, and they learned many of the lessons of life that have enhanced their emotional intelligence—a key part of success in working in our game.

“Maybelle ‘All the Way Mae’ Blair has blessed an award in her honor to the MVP of the Red Sox–Yankees Fantasy Campers game. At 97 years young, she is the epitome of the baseball-playing woman who has never stopped loving the game—and who has never stopped playing the game.”

Fans can talk baseball and take photos with Blair, who will be in Worcester for the October 19 event. Blair helped create the baseball classic, “A League of Their Own.”

“I played softball for 16 years, but I grew up loving baseball,” said Director of Public Relations & Community Relations Alexis Dill. “As a headliner at our UniBank Women in Sports Day panel in April, Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a pro baseball team, emphasized the value in allowing girls and young women the choice to play baseball or to play softball.

“While this festival is intended for girls and women, we also invite fathers and sons and brothers and male coaches and mentors to partake in the joy that we hope this first-of-its-kind event will bring to all.”

Fans seeking to play on the field can bring their own gloves and bats—wooden or aluminum—and the WooSox will supply some as well. The club will also supply baseballs and softballs.

Fans can receive personal attention by writing to [email protected] or by calling Polar Park, 508-500-1000.

—WOOSOX ’24—