18 March 2025
A Newbie's Guide to Women's Baseball: Six Takeaways from a chat with Amy McCann
by Baseball.com.au writer Eliza Wood
Eliza is a student at La Trobe University doing a writing placement with Baseball.com.au. She is an elite football player for Carlton in the VFLW, an avid sports fan, athlete, and learning the wonderful world of women’s baseball.
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As we gear up for what is set to be a thrilling Women’s and Youth Women’s Championship in April (13-19), I sat down with the one and only Amy McCann to talk all things women’s baseball.
Amy is an Australian Emerald veteran, a 6-time WBSC World Cup representative, podcast host, and Australian baseball broadcaster.
As someone whose life has revolved around sport but is relatively new to the world of baseball, I knew I’d come to the right person the minute I started interviewing Amy.
Her passion, love and knowledge for the game shone through in every way possible. I could have sat there for hours listening to her share her wealth of baseball wisdom.
Above: Amy McCann (middle) with the 2024 Australian Women’s Baseball Championships broadcast team of Emeralds – Gen Beacom (left) and Amy Cannington (right). Amy hosts a podcast on women’s baseball called ‘The Inside Pitch’.
I formed my top six takeaways about women’s baseball in Australia after sifting through my energetic conversation with the legendary Amy McCann.
Here we go.
TAKEAWAY ONE: EVOLVING (AND LONG) HISTORY OF THE GAME
Did you know the first recording of women playing baseball in Australia dates back to the early 1900s? 1909 to be exact. This predates the first recording of a women’s AFL match (1915).
The thought in your head right now is 100 percent correct – yes, Australian women have been playing baseball in Australia for over a century.
The game continued to grow in popularity. The All-Australian Women’s Baseball Association was formed in the early 1930s. History was made on the 17 of April 1934, when the first ever All-Australian Women’s Baseball Championship series was played across three days with New South Wales claiming victory.
The series continued annually until 1940; when, however, due to the Great Depression, WWII and debate over whether women should be playing the game, women’s baseball was unfortunately forced into a 50-year hiatus.
When I asked Amy what drew her to start playing baseball, she simply replied, “Watching A League of Their Own,” the 1992 box office film, and well, she wasn’t the only one.
Around the world, interest in women’s baseball began to boom in the early 1990s, resulting in a resurgence for the women’s game here in Australia.
The turn of the century saw more history. An inaugural Australian Women’s Team traveled to Canada to compete in the first Women’s World Series in 2001.
Above: The Emeralds at the 2004 Baseball World Cup event.
The Australian Team rightfully covered themselves in sporting history for our country, returning home with a bronze medal to their name.
The national women’s team renamed themselves to the Emeralds in 2013 and have tasted a lot of success on the international stage. They won a silver in 2010 and a bronze at the 2014 World Cup.
Their grit and fighting spirit have continually kept them contending amongst the best in the world for so many years.
TAKEAWAY TWO: BASEBALL IS NOT SOFTBALL
“If I had a dollar for every time someone said, don’t you play softball… no, I do know what I play but thank you,” quipped Amy.
It is such a common assumption amongst the general population that women play softball, not baseball, and more-so that the two sports are the same.
Aside from the fact the two games are diamond sports (referring to their diamond shaped fields), the differences are dramatic.
Everything from the size of the field, the size and feel of the ball, the distance between bases, the bats used, the number of innings played, to underarm pitching from a flat mound in softball vs overarm pitching from a raised mound in baseball sets the two worlds apart.
These sports are independently their own; they are distinct for the way they are played, not by the gender that chooses to play them.
TAKEAWAY THREE: A SPORT FOR ONE, A SPORT FOR ALL
Until now, I never realised how accommodating baseball was to its players. A simple concept, but a very beneficial one for the longevity of the sport.
“What’s really great is it [baseball] doesn’t discriminate,” said Amy.
“You could be a really great fielder, a really great hitter, a really great runner, a really great thrower, you can be tall, you can be short, you can be fast, not so fast and the field will find a position for you,” she added.
There are two seasons for baseball – one in Summer and one in Winter.
One of Amy’s favourite seasons of baseball to date was a ‘Winter Ball’ League last year.
Amy and her partner, Sam Hamilton, coached a team of women aged between 32-60 at Monty Baseball Club (Below).
Only one of the players on the team had ever played baseball before and thirteen of the 14 players were mums. She also enlisted the help of current Emeralds Gen Beacom and Allie Bebbere to assist with coaching duties.
“It was amazing” she beamed, a smile on her face.
No matter who you are, how old you are, if you live and breathe sport, or if you’re purely wanting to try something new. Step up to the plate and give baseball a go!
TAKEAWAY FOUR: WOMEN AND MEN PLAY THE SAME GAME
This may sound obvious but the more you delve into it, the more you realise how unique this is to baseball.
Commonly, men’s and women’s games of the same sport have slightly adjusted rules. Nothing overly major, but still a difference, such as ball size, size of the playing field, numbers on the field, etc.
However, in baseball, the men’s and women’s are interchangeable.
Let’s paint a picture.
Take Shohei Ohtani, the best baseball player in the world, and compare him to girls playing in junior competitions. You wouldn’t think they were playing the same field, running the same bases, throwing the same ball, pitching the same distance, would you?
My mind was utterly blown when Amy pointed this out to me, I couldn’t fathom it. I had never heard of a sport where this was the case. The only true difference is that men use wooden bats and women do not, however, if you are a woman playing with the men, you must use a wooden bat.
Women and men commonly play together in baseball community leagues nationwide. If you want to break it down into simple terms, it looks something like this:
• Tee-ball to U/18s can be mixed gender;
• Senior women’s baseball is women and girls aged 13 and up;
• Senior “men’s” is mixed gender and anyone over the age of 14 can play;
I will note, the ages of 13/14 can be state and league dependant.
“It’s much harder and it’s very humbling [playing with the men], but it makes you better… the fact the girls have that opportunity is great,” says Amy.
TAKEAWAY FIVE: A STRONGER TOGETHER COMMUNITY
Above: Girls from Brisbane celebrate after playing in the world’s first Little League Girls National Championship in Lismore, 2024. Read the story here. Photo: Erin Honsa.
What became so clear to me throughout my interview with Amy, was baseball is so much bigger than just a sport to the women who play it.
The community they have built, is the heart and soul of it all.
“What I love most about it, is just the power of all of us that play together. We just have this amazing community… we bring the sport up ourselves,” shared Amy.
When you pursue baseball, you aren’t just joining a team. You are welcomed with open arms into a fun, caring, network of people, where the same energy radiates through everyone.
A united front, who just want to play the game they love and to share that with as many people as possible.
“We don’t step on the field to try and prove you wrong, we just want to step on the field,” she affirmed.
With participation numbers on the up and up at the grassroots level, the gaps that were once there throughout age brackets are starting to fill, favouring the future of this sport that means so much, to so many.
Above: The Belles, a trailblazing Little League Girls Team, trains with the Victorian senior women’s state team.
TAKEAWAY SIX: 2025 NATIONALS IS COMING IN HOT
My final takeaway is that this year’s women’s and youth women’s championships are an absolute, must-see event!
With the best talent in the country all descending upon Melbourne Ball Park, it’ll be no holds barred as we see Emeralds vs Emeralds and the clashing of state rivalries.
Electrifying young talent will be aplenty as they begin to pave their way, and rising stars will shine brighter than ever before.
Names like Caitlin Eyenon (WA), Claire O’Sullivan (NSW), Molly Paddison (QLD), Allie Bebbere (VIC) and Jess Maslin (SA) are sure to have spectators on the edge of their seat as they take to the field and set it alight.
You’ve got women playing baseball for a week, with both the youth and women’s finals taking place on the final day – it doesn’t get much better than that.
You can find out more information about the two events at www.baseball.com.au/women.
WHERE TO NEXT
Baseball is truly a sport of layers.
It has so much to offer, there is so much to learn and numerous ways to get involved.
If you want to explore the world of baseball further, start by looking into the state associations, finding local clubs near you, watch games on TV and Baseball+, tune in to the women’s championship series (April 13-19), or better yet, get your feet on the ground and come on down, and immerse yourself in what it’s all about!
Additionally, you can listen to the intellectual powerhouse herself Amy McCann, on her very own podcast Women’s Baseball – The Inside Pitch.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Amy McCann.
“You run, you throw, you field… and the hard [of the sport], is what makes it great.”
