Tiffany Brooks recently made history by becoming the first American woman of the twenty-first century to sign a contract with a men's professional baseball team. She follows in the footsteps of the few women players who have preceded her on the pro diamond, including Lizzie Arlington,  Alta Weiss,  Lizzie Murphy,  Jackie Mitchell,  Toni Stone,  Mamie "Peanut" Johnson,  Eleanor Engle,  Ila Borders,  the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League, and the Colorado Silver Bullets, by joining the roster of the Big Bend Cowboys in the independent Continental Baseball League. 

 

Tiffany is a double threat on the hill and at first base. As a pitcher, she changes speeds often, keeping hitters off-balance with guile rather than gas, and she fields her position at first as capably as any of her male counterparts. She's also a switch-hitter with power from the right side, which ought to make opponents sit up and take notice. Tiffany has dreamed of playing professionally since she was four years old, and being told she couldn't play baseball anymore as she aged out of the youth leagues in which she excelled, then finding herself steered towards softball, the traditional but non-equivalent substitute offered young girls as an alternative to baseball, did not deter her from following her dream or from remaining determined to make it happen no matter what obstacles she might face. A compulsory hiatus during her high school years owing to the fact that opposing players, worried her skills would show them up, began to pressure the team on which she played to expel her, interrupted but did not end her pursuit of the dream of playing baseball. This past February she joined the Western Canada Miners of the Arizona Winter League after several years of kicking around playing college ball at Gonzaga University, then some adult amateur women's and men's baseball here in the United States, graduating to international tournaments in Hong Kong and gigs with clubs in Holland, Australia, and the Czech Republic, going anywhere she could find a team willing to sign her and give her a chance to show she could play. The Arizona League is heavily scouted and although teenage knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida, Japan's first female pro ballplayer, got most of the media attention during her stint in the same league last month playing for the Yuma Scorpions while Tiffany was playing for the Miners, it was our Ms. Brooks who got the contract** she had worked so hard for and focused on for so long with such unyielding, optimistic determination.

 

                           

                                                          Kokernot Field

 

The Big Bend Cowboys are themselves imbued with a certain mystical attachment to their past and the community that supports them. They play at Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas, in a ballpark built by local rancher Herbert Kokernot as an homage to Wrigley Field in Chicago that has stood for more than sixty years, a proud exponent of the grand Texas baseball tradition. Alpine is home to Sul Ross University, part of the state university system, and is surrounded by the Glass and Davis mountain ranges (yes, Texas has mountains!) At 4500 feet, its elevation is almost as high as Denver's, and it's a bit off the beaten track in the southwesternmost hump of Texas; the closest big cities are El Paso, Austin and San Antonio, each of them hundreds of miles away. Juarez and Chihuahua beckon from across the Mexican border, and Big Bend National Park lies to the south. There's plenty of beauty and history in the surrounding environment, and Tiffany's addition to the Cowboys' roster seems a natural extension of the team's mythology.

 

                            

                                                             Alpine, Texas

 

She's guaranteed to open some eyes and win more than a few hearts and minds as she patrols the infield at Kokernot, and we wish her all the best during the 2010 season and beyond. Tiffany is undertaking a task - representing the thousands of young girls and women across America and the planet who, like her, aspire to play professionally or even scholastically, yet for whatever reason haven't been able to achieve what she has - that will be both a burden and a blessing, but she will shoulder it with the grace, skill, and tenacity that have guided her since her baseball journey began as the seed of a dream in the indomitable heart of a little girl who wouldn't take no for an answer.

 

 

 

**Since this article was posted, I've learned that former LA Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall, now an independent league entrepreneur, has offered young knuckleballer Eri Yoshida a contract with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden League in California for the upcoming season. I'll keep you informed if she decides to sign.