Cooperstown Symposium – Skirting the Diamond
with Amie Cuevas
Years ago, Jean Hastings Ardell started the “Skirting the Diamond” panel, which was held during the Cooperstown Symposium at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It took a brief hiatus after her passing, before Dr. Leslie Heaphy and Dr. Kat D. Williams helped to bring it back in the last couple of years.
This year, at the end of May, I was honored to be part of that panel at the 36th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. International Women’s Baseball Center CEO Dr. Kat D. Williams moderated the panel. USA Women’s National Baseball team player Meggie Meidlinger and I were invited to speak as panelists about our experiences on and off the field in baseball.
Speaking before an audience of about 70 attendees in the Grandstand Theater at the Baseball Hall of Fame with such amazing women was something I never imagined I would do. We both shared our baseball stories of how we ended up where we are now. For me, that was a non-linear path. While Meggie and I come from opposite ends of the baseball spectrum, we found a lot of overlap in the work we have done so far and continue to do. Meggie Meidlinger is a baseball pitcher on the USA Women’s National Baseball team, a coach, an architect, and runs Baseball at Heart, which empowers children and youth in Uganda through baseball.
I spoke about my work as credentialed media covering the Los Angeles Dodgers, co-hosting/producing the podcast, Baseball Shangri-L.A., and being the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Women in Baseball committee Newsletter editor. As well as my passion for bringing more representation across the sport. Representation and visibility in this sport are themes that are core to my work. As I was growing up, and came to baseball later in my adulthood, I did not see people who looked like me. Admittedly, I did not know what I do today was even possible. If we all keep working and showing up, I hope more women and girls will see what we are capable of while realizing they can do what we do. We all have special gifts that we can utilize in different ways to grow the sport.
Lots of people think the sole focus of “women in baseball” is getting the first woman onto an MLB team. Yet for many, it is actually about having a safe place of our own, however that translates. Whether that is a league for women or just acceptance in a sport that still has challenges with gatekeeping. I am glad we contributed to helping people see things through a different lens during the Symposium. Many women have helped move the needle forward to advance women in baseball. We stand on their shoulders while also paving the way for the next wave of women. All while reminding everyone that we have always been here.