Diamond Thoughts

Diamond Thoughts is where my love of baseball and photography meet. These posts aren't just about the photos I take, they're about the games, people, emotions, and moments that make me want to pick up my camera in the first place.

Baseball has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and now I have the opportunity to experience the game from behind the lens. This is a place for the stories that don't always fit into a photo gallery, from what it feels like to stand on the sidelines with a credential to witnessing women make baseball history right in front of me.

Because sometimes the story behind the photograph matters just as much as the photograph itself.

Why the WPBL Means So Much to Me

I've loved baseball for my entire life. Some of my earliest memories are wrapped around the game, watching the Seattle Mariners on TV, spending summer evenings at Tacoma Rainiers games, and listening to baseball on the radio. I remember the Kingdome, the excitement of Safeco Field opening, the incredible ups and downs of the 1995 season, and the 116-win Mariners team in 2001 that somehow still didn't make it to the World Series. Those aren't just baseball memories to me, they're childhood memories. Baseball has always brought me joy, and my heart has always belonged to the game.

As a kid, I played softball briefly. There were only two girls in the league, and eventually we were told we couldn't continue because it was going to be just for the boys. I didn't step onto a softball field again until this year, at 40 years old. I've loved playing again and have gained an entirely new appreciation for softball, but I've also realized something I've felt my entire life, softball isn't baseball. They're two different sports, and girls should have the opportunity to choose which one they love. As an adult, one of my closest friendships was built around a shared love of baseball, and eventually we became Mariners season ticket holders together, devoted fans of a game we loved but never really had the opportunity to pursue ourselves.

That's why standing inside Robin Roberts Stadium for the inaugural WPBL season affected me so deeply. A League of Their Own was always my favorite baseball movie because it showed women playing baseball and playing it well, but for most of my life that possibility seemed to belong to history. Now there are professional women taking the field again, and little girls can watch them and see something I never got to see growing up. The WPBL's inaugural season features four professional teams and gives today's players a path that simply wasn't visible to generations of girls before them.

I cried during Opening Day because I understood what I was seeing. I was watching women live a dream so many of us never even had the opportunity to seriously consider, and I was watching little girls discover that baseball can belong to them too. That's why I drove from Minneapolis to Springfield, stood in the rain for hours, and brought my camera along to document as much of it as I could. I wasn't just photographing baseball. I was photographing possibility, and I can't adequately describe how much it means to me that I get to witness it.

Some dreams really are worth waiting for.