It's happened!!!

Tiffany Brooks, a right-handed relief pitcher and infielder from Spokane, Washington, has signed a contract to play for the Big Bend Cowboys of Alpine, Texas. The Cowboys are part of the Continental League, which also includes the Desert Valley Mountain Lions and the West Texas Roadhogs, both new teams this year, and Las Cruces Vaqueros of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Brooks, who played winter ball with the Arizona Winter League, an independent professional instructional league, was part of the 2009 and 2008 Silver Medal Liberty Belles teams at the Phoenix Cup in Hong Kong. She also played in the 2009 NABA World Series with the Montana Mustangs, both at first base and as a pitcher, and the 2008 MSBL World Series.

Although she played softball in high school and on several international teams, Brooks always turned back to baseball. She had played the game with boys from the time she was four years old until she was 15 and forced to play softball. 

Brooks is the first woman since Ila Borders to sign a professional contract with a men's baseball team in the United States. (Eri Yoshida, a teenage knuckleballer, signed in 2008 with a professional team in Japan, then came to the United States and was in the same instructional league as Brooks.) Borders signed with the St. Paul Saints of the Independent Northern League in 1997 and pitched for that team and various others until 2000. Before that, in the 1950s, the Negro Leagues signed pitcher Mamie "Peanut" Johnson and infielders Toni Stone and Connie Morgan. Also, Eleanor Engle, a member of the All American Professional Baseball League, was signed in 1952 for a brief time with the Harrisburg Senators. Engle's contract was made null and void by the baseball commissioner of that time.

http://bigbendcowboys.com/

http://www.checkswing.com/profile/RightEGirl

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the underground movement of women baseball players is beginning to find its way to the surface. Let's nurture it this time instead of stomping it out yet again.