The city of northwestern Ontario was host to the most exciting baseball talent in North America two weeks ago. And none of the players were men.

Instead of this year’s Women’s Baseball World Cup Qualifier in Venezuela, the Canada and U.S. Women’s National Teams hosted a five-game Friendship Series in Thunder Bay, Ontario from July 28 to August 1. . Canada went 3-2 for her.

“This is something special that these women can do,” says US manager Veronica Alvarez. “Anyone who comes around these women becomes infected with passion and almost falls in love.”

In the last few years, women’s attention in baseball has begun to rise. Alyssa Nakken announced that in 2020 she would become the first full-time female coach in MLB history. marlins In November of that year, Rachel Barcovec became the first woman to become a full-time manager of an affiliated Major League team earlier this year. In April, Kelsey Whitmore, who started all five of her games for the U.S. national team at Thunder Bay, signed with Staten with the Ferryhawks, making Atlantic the first woman to play in her league.

Whitmore, who became the first woman to play in the Atlantic League in April, will be in her seventh year playing for the U.S. Women’s National Baseball Team.

Provided by Lizzie Hattrich/Team USA

These women represent the first in a long list and represent an important incremental progression for one of the oldest boys’ clubs in the sport. Women’s baseball is a legitimately competitive sport with a future of its own.The whole weekend was proof that women can and actually play baseball, not just softball. very Skillful.

Team USA and Team Canada are two of the most talented women’s baseball teams in the world and are evenly matched in international rankings. The World Baseball Softball Confederation establishes national team rankings based on points accumulated by winning in international competitions. Six-time world champions Japan are eliminated in first place, but are less than 100 points behind Chinese Taipei in second, Canada in third and USA in fourth. Canada earned a bronze medal in her final game of the 2018 Women’s Baseball World Cup, knocking the United States off the podium and placing her in fourth place. However, the following year, in the World Cup qualifiers in Mexico, the United States beat Canada her 21-4 in the final international game played by either team.

This series was another chance to settle the score, and it was also the first time in three years for each country to experience something other than intra-team competition.

“It was called a friendly series, and I think we knew from Game 1 that nothing was friendly,” says Canadian manager Ashley Stevenson. “Both teams have so much respect for each other that many players are even friends.

Rivalry runs deep, even among the coaching staff. Both Stevenson and Alvarez were longtime members of their respective national teams before moving on to coaching roles. They competed against each other as athletes at his 2015 Pan American Games. This was the first, and still only time, for women’s baseball to appear in multisport international competition. (The USA beat Canada 11-2 to her in the gold medal game.)

Alvarez has been the United States manager since 2019. Stevenson, meanwhile, is a former MLB pitcher who spent four years as Canada’s captain, but Aaron, who left the team earlier this year for personal reasons. is in its first year. cause.

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USA-Canada series shows promising future for women's baseball