LOVERRO: Diamonds — bats, gloves, too — really are her best friend

OPINION:

On Saturday and Sunday, Purcellville, Virginia, hosts the nation’s longest-running adult women’s baseball tournament: the Diamond Baseball Classic, organized by the Eastern Women’s Baseball Conference.

That “diamond” may shine a little brighter this year, thanks to an inspiring new documentary on women playing baseball.

“See Her, Be Her” is the story of seven women baseball players from seven different countries and their quest to qualify and win the 2024 women’s World Cup Championship.

The film is available on Amazon Prime and has tapped into the love of baseball for many, including those who may have had no way to express that love on the diamond.

“So many women who play have said how they know they are not alone and how it is inspiring them to continue playing the game they love,” said photographer Jean Fruth, a producer and director of the film. “They may have felt they wanted to quit and this keeps them going. Or in some cases, inspiring them to play for the first time.

“We have parents who are inspired to support their daughters,” she said. “I got a note on Instagram from someone in D.C. who saw the film. He wrote saying he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his daughter but now he will be absolutely supporting her wanting to play baseball. Turning that guy around, he was on the fence, now he is supporting her.

“Older women who didn’t have the opportunity to play and how happy they are to see the next generation play,” Ms. Fruth said. “So many women have told us how they wanted to play, but didn’t get a chance because there were no opportunities. Reaction has been great, not just in the United States, but so many other countries.”

Ms. Fruth, a celebrated sports photographer, formed a partnership with former Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, also one of the documentary’s producers, to create a nonprofit organization called Grassroots Baseball to promote the amateur game around the world.

They have created a series of photo books that beautifully illustrate the game, including one — “See Her, Be Her” — as a companion for the documentary.

Executive producers for the film including tennis legend Billy Jean King, former Milwaukee Brewers President Wendy Selig-Prieb, and Misdee Wrigley Miller, the granddaughter Phil Wrigley, the late Chicago Cubs owner who founded the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, featured in the popular 1992 film, “A League of Their Own.”

The documentary comes at a time when women’s sports have caught a wave of growth and attention. The WNBA has reached record levels of viewership, in part because of the stardom of Caitlin Clark, but has gone beyond the infatuation of one athlete.

The National Women’s Soccer League has expanded by five teams since 2020.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League started last year. And next year will mark the launch of the Women’s Professional Baseball League.

Ms. Fruth said they had just completed the book featuring grassroots baseball along the iconic American highway Route 66 when she said they recognized a void in their work. “We spent three years introducing the game at the youngest level, doing clinics with kids, also producing a book, baseball and Route 66,” she said. “At the very end of the project we realized we didn’t have anything for girls in the project. There just wasn’t a presence of girls or women in the book. That was disappointing to us. That was kind of what we found…maybe one girl on a Little League team, you get to the game and they say, ’Oh, there’s a girl playing.’ You kind of see her sitting at the end of the bench.”

They found there were women trying to play the game at a high level, not just in the United States but all over the world.

“They were playing at a high level and having fun,” Ms. Fruth said. “They were talking about lack of opportunities, their high schools won’t let them play, they make them play softball, they can try out for their high school teams, but there’s a good chance they won’t be able to make it and compete.

“Then it took on a life of its own,” she said. “It became a learning project, about the history of women’s baseball, that there’s so much more than the United States. There are 25 countries that have women’s national teams. It was like this secret we were learning about. Unwrapping it became exciting.

The film focuses on seven women from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan, South Korea, Cuba and Uganda, playing for the Women’s World Cup title. “It was the same wherever we went,” Fruth said. “These women were just looking for opportunities. We thought the film would be a cool way to give them visibility, and it is working out. We are giving them visibility.”

It also features support for women’s baseball from Cal Ripken Jr., and Ichiro Suzuki, who put together a women’s baseball game in the famed Tokyo Dome.

“Ichiro’s desire to help women in baseball in Japan ran deep, and having a game in the Tokyo Dome was really incredible,” she said. “He was very serious about it.

When we started to interview him, he said this is not a game or a joke. They play to win, and they need to. We expect them to train hard and want to win and come with their best. We need like-minded people to come together and raise the bar for women. Fans aren’t coming out for women’s baseball yet. We need to make that happen.”

You can make that happen this weekend in Purcellville — the joy of baseball from those women who are determined not to be denied their place to express it.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.