Lara Griffin 0:01

Welcome to the Rockford Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Lara Griffin. With a grand reopening of Byers Stadium just around the corner, we're bringing back this episode featuring author and International Women's Baseball Center CEO, Kat Williams. We discuss her book, All the Way, The Life of Baseball Trailblazer Maybelle Blair, and the importance of women's sports. Enjoy the episode and join the festivities on July 18th for the grand reopening of Bayer Stadium at Maybelle Blair Park. Hope to see you there. So All the Way is your second biography of a player from A G P B L. That is a mouthful. Yes, yes. And so and you also wrote the is about Isabel Lefty Alvarez. So why is it so important to tell these stories and of these women?

Dr. Kat Williams 1:01

Right. Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me. This is um it's very exciting to talk about this book. This book has been a labor of love and a long time coming. Maybelle Blair is also a very dear friend of about 25 years, um, as was Left the Alvarez. Um and so s the answer to your question is is you know multifaceted. Um I first met many of the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 2003 when I attended uh their 60th anniversary reunion. Um and immediately I was I was overwhelmed, I was in awe, I I just they became just important people in my life. Um Lefty uh story is as a Cuban immigrant, she came to the United States at age 15 alone, spoke no English, and played professional baseball. And um her her father was a supporter of Batista in Cuba, and her brother fought with Castro. Okay. And that gives you an idea of the kind of life we're talking about. So Maybell's life was not quite like that, but if you read the book, you'll find it was full of all kinds of other adventures. And so it's important to tell their stories as human beings. Their stories as this is their life, this is what they did, but through every single piece there is a thread, and that thread is baseball sport. What it did for them, how it helped them, how it helped them to overcome uh difficulties. In Lefty's case, uh coming to the United States at age 15. And and what playing that sport and having that team connection.

Lara Griffin 2:52

What year is this like a few years?

Dr. Kat Williams 2:53

She came to the U.S. in 48. Okay. Uh 1948. And um and so the the All-American Girls League was in existence from 1943 to 1954. So um, and then Maybell played in 1948. But for both of them, as I say, that thread is sport. And it was for me as a kid growing up, and it was a literally, quite literally, a lifeline for me. Um, and those stories resonate for me. And when I speak to, if I speak to a group of students, for example, or uh uh some uh teams or whatever, I start to tell my story or I start to talk about their stories and the the role of sport and the role of baseball in their lives and helping them, it's like little light bulbs going off all around the room.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah, I get it, I did it.

Dr. Kat Williams 3:48

Um and so that's why it's to tell their story as b baseball figures. But it's not just one of those biographies where here are your batting, here's your batting average, here are your stats, and I was great second baseman or I was a great pitcher or what it's it's almost the baseball itself is almost secondary. And and so if if folks read the Maybelle Blair book, you'll find that um she spent her entire life, she's 98 years old, and she's still going strong. Her entire life is about creating baseball opportunities for girls, first for herself and the girls that she grew up with, and now it's for girls playing the game today. And the same was true for Lefty. Lefty died a few years ago.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Okay.

Dr. Kat Williams 4:40

Um so that is a very long-winded answer to your question, but um it's not just a simple answer.

Lara Griffin 4:47

Yeah. So let's give some context to Mabel Blair. Like, how is she significant to Rockford?

Dr. Kat Williams 4:53

Well, she is significant to Rockford uh in that um she was one of the founding members of the International Women's Baseball Center. Um we were founded in 2014, and and literally sitting around a table at her house in California over pizza and beer, uh, we all threw in about 20 bucks and we created the IWBC because we knew there was a gaping hole, there was a place where somebody needed to step up. In 2016, um someone contacted us and said, Hey, you all have any interest in some old property across the street from Buyer Stadium in Rockford, Illinois? And we're like, uh, sure. So we came here on a very cold, cold day in November of uh 2015. And from that day until this, uh Rockford has opened its arms to the IWBC and to Maybelle Blair. And she also, she was not a Rockford Peach, but she played for Peoria Red Wings and played against the Rockford Peaches. She very famously said, Oh, I hated the Rockford Peaches. And I said, Yeah, because they always beat you. And she said, yes. So that is her connection to Rockford, for uh neither of us live here, have lived here, but we have that historical connection with the Peaches. And then also, you know, we've made this the home of the IWBC. So it is an extremely important um place to us personally and professionally.

Lara Griffin 6:24

Aaron Powell And so why did you make it the home of the IWBC?

Dr. Kat Williams 6:28

Well, you know, when we first um created the organization, we didn't necessarily have in mind, oh, we need to have a place in this location or that location. But when we were contacted and someone said, Oh, there's a place across the, there's some property across the street from Bayer Stadium, we all looked at one another and went, Oh my God, it has to be Rockford. You know, we just weren't thinking. And so it was one, it was divine intervention, or however you want to think about it. It was somebody said, Here's a possibility, and we got here and we became more and more familiar with not just the beaches, but Rockford is known as the cradle of baseball. And there was the Forest City Nine. There are connections to Ross Barnes and connections to Spaulding, the of Spaulding Sporting Goods. This town has a deep, deep connection to baseball. Wow. It's a no-brainer.

Lara Griffin 7:21

Yeah. Right? I had no idea.

Dr. Kat Williams 7:23

Yeah, most people don't, right? Um, so it's it for all of those reasons. And we have on on occasion, we have been asked, would you consider building it X someplace else? And I said, not as long as there is a breath in me. Now, the rest of our board may disagree with me, but that's my opinion.

Lara Griffin 7:47

So with Maybelle, how how was she as an interview subject?

Dr. Kat Williams 7:51

Oh my God. Well, you know, you need to meet Maybelle Blair. I don't even know how to explain Maybelle Blair. Um she was she was more than just an interview subject. Uh we uh we first met in 2004, and this is a opening story of of the book. Um it was my second reunion of the AAG PBL, and I'm standing in a lobby surrounded by all these former ball players, and they're chatting and laughing and talking, and I'm standing there like, and as you can tell, I'm not generally sort of shy, but I was standing there like a wallflower, you know, almost afraid to speak to these women. And they're all talking and laughing, and all of a sudden, there's an escalator right in the center of the lobby of the hotel. And coming down the escalator was this vivacious, laughing, gray-haired sunglasses wearing woman, and everybody's hollering up to her, hey Maybelle, how'd they get you out of the casino? You know, just all kinds of and I looked up and there, and it was Maybelle Blair. I didn't know her. And she came, came down and immediately was, you know, engaged in telling stories or whatever. And um they got, they were finished talking, and then a bunch of them walked off. They were going to the to the hotel bar, and she turned around and looked at me and she said, Are you coming? And I said, Sure. And I've been following her ever since. Um she is a very, very dear friend. Um, but uh her story and her uh dedication to women and girls in sports is um is second to none and it's contagious.

Lara Griffin 9:38

Aaron Ross Powell So what do you think? Why is it important for women, girls to be involved in sports? How much time do we have on that?

Dr. Kat Williams 9:48

Um first of all, it is important um and on a very fundamental level, um, it that there's the physical and health-related um uh benefits of it. But for most girls, most people that's kind of secondary. Um but you learn a lot of lessons by playing sports. You learn about teamwork, you learn about winning and losing, and you gain confidence, and it's empowering. Um the one of the statistics that I think guides me still is that of um all the women in the upper echelon positions of Fortune 500 companies, 87 percent played organized sports. Oh that is not a coincidence.

Lara Griffin 10:38

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Dr. Kat Williams 10:40

Yeah. And it's it's also uh Title IX was passed in 1972, um, which meant that that uh girls and women had to have opp equal opportunities um in sports, and that that it it it does other things as well, but sports is that's mostly the thing that people associate with Title IX. Um after the uh passage of Title IX, girls' participation in sports, and I'm talking girls, not women, um, rose 800%. Wow. And then the important number connected to that, teenage pregnancy went down drastically. Wow. Yeah. It's it's uh there and you know, we can spout all the statistics, but it's the stuff that I see every single day. It's the stuff I experienced as a kid, as a girl growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, quite literally, very poor, and pre-Title IX, I had an undiagnosed learning disability. I couldn't read till I was in the third grade. I might as well have had bully me tattooed across my forehead. School was terrible. It was awful, it was painful. And then I got home and I went out into the street and I played baseball with the boys. And right then, those same boys making fun of me, they didn't make fun of me then because I was a good ball player. Yeah, in fact, I was some sought after. And so there was a moment, there was a marker where I was good. I was good at something. And so it was like a placeholder that allowed me to be good, feel good until I could figure out how to be good elsewhere. And I think that's true for a lot of girls. And so that's the important part, right? And and Maybelle gets that too. I mean, most of us do. And um, and so it's again, it's not about whether or not that player is going to become professional or play in the World Cup or play, you know, but it's about what it does for those kids. Um and it is it is my life life work to to make sure that a lot of kids don't have to go through what I went through. And I think you would find if you asked Maybelle, she'd say the same thing.

Lara Griffin 12:57

Yeah, it's so interesting. Like I I love sports. Uh I played tennis in high school. Oh, good. Yeah. So I was I actually I was on the varsity team. Good for you. So for me, like what you were saying makes a lot of sense. And just like how it like focuses, your focus is different. It's and it's builds resilience. Absolutely. And your your hope, like the competition. Yeah. It's such a nice form of competition and the team building. Yes. And I think that's something we don't have enough of.

Dr. Kat Williams 13:37

No, I think that's right. I think that's right. And it's and and whether you would agree or not, it seems to me from an outsider looking at you that that played a big role in the being you being the successful woman you are today. And I think that just giving girls that opportunity, it's not gonna be for everyone. It's not gonna work the same way for everyone. Um it's not gonna become their lifelong passion, maybe, but it will have an impact. And and then there's also every single thing I do um has a foundation of fairness. And for me, it's also just about fairness.

unknown 14:12

Okay.

Lara Griffin 14:13

Um back to Mabel. Yeah. Uh what do you hope readers take away from the book on Maybell?

Dr. Kat Williams 14:20

Well, I hope they get a sense of what a character she is. I mean, she is, as I say, she's 98 years old. Uh, she is actually gonna be here in Rockford on the 21st when we launch this book here in Rockford. Um she has worked her whole life from nothing. I mean, beyond poor as a kid. That was during the Depression. So, you know, her family, like every other family, was hit hard. But she constantly was part of baseball, part of the game, played competitive baseball, also professional softball. And so, what I want people to see is that this is a woman who absolutely uh has turned her life into helping to create opportunities for girls and women. And mostly on a on a baseball diamond, but not just that. Um, and so she is uh the biggest supporter and cheerleader of girls and women playing baseball today. And many of the girls and women playing today will tell you we could fill this room full of those young women who would tell you, Maybelle Blair is my hero. They get it, they see we all stand on her shoulders. And it's not just her, she'd be the first to tell you, Cat, I didn't do this by myself. But but I want people to get a sense of who she is as a person. She is hysterically funny, for one thing. The other thing is she's not had the easiest life. Um, she was um in the closet until um just a couple of years ago. At age 97, or I'm sorry, 95, she came out on the Tribeca Film Festival stage. That has how she lived through the red scare of the 1950s, bar rates of the 1950s. And now here she is at 98 years old, she's not over, she's not only a um a star in the world of women's sports, but now there's there are generations of girls and women and young boys who can say, Oh my God, she had to live like that for 95 years.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Wow.

Dr. Kat Williams 16:36

And now she's willing to step up and say, you know what, don't don't do that. Don't live like that. Be yourself, be who you are, be you. And um, that to me is one of the most important messages.

Lara Griffin 16:50

And you had mentioned the um base Well, let me think about this. How about um can you tell us more about women's professional baseball? And sure.

Dr. Kat Williams 17:03

Like, well, yes, absolutely. There are um we do not have professional baseball in this country. Okay. We have a national team, um, the USA women's national team, but that is not considered professional. Um it's kind of think about the Olympics. You know, it's that it's that kind of competition. Now, there are some countries around the world who do have professional elagues. Uh Japan is the single best uh women's baseball program in the world. Okay. Some other countries might disagree with me, but in my opinion, um and and so and Australia, uh, some other countries have professional women's baseball, but there are national teams in 35 countries, including the U.S. Um now every three years, uh something the World Baseball Softball Confederation, the WBSC, um uh puts on a women's baseball world cup.

Lara Griffin 18:08

Okay.

Dr. Kat Williams 18:09

Um and now most of the people in the U.S. don't think of baseball tournaments as being cups, but this is an international um organization, and the WBSC um hosts all baseball and softball World Cups, all ages, both men and women. Um and we have, we, the IWBC, in partnership with Go Rockford, uh, the Park District, uh, the Rivets, Rockford University, we have um submitted a bid to host the Women's Baseball World Cup here in Rockford. Uh the first stage, group stages would be in the summer of 26, and the finals would be in the summer of 27. We would be bringing 12 different countries um to play baseball here in Rockford, what we call the Cradle of Women's Baseball. And so that is huge. It is so huge. And we won't know for another month or so if our bid is successful. Um but I wanted to point out that Justine Siegel, who is a founder of an organization called Baseball for All, um, and also just an incredibly important character uh in uh player in in the world of women's baseball. Um partner with uh um some other folks in creating a new women's pro baseball league that is hopefully going to start next year, and that is professional.

Lara Griffin 19:42

Wow.

Dr. Kat Williams 19:43

Uh I know. I'm very proud to say I'm on the advisory council. I'm not really advising them of anything. I think I, you know, but I am happy to be included. Um so that would be professional baseball in the U.S. And it would be the first time since the Peaches played in the 1940s.

Lara Griffin 19:59

Wow. And would that have like in every state of the Trevor Burrus?

Dr. Kat Williams 20:03

No, they will start out small. The the um what they're hoping to do is right now start out with a sort of group of teams um in the Northeast, because that's where they have contacts. Okay. I am trying to convince them, however, that you really can't have a women's pro team without having a team in Rockford. Yeah. So um so I don't know, you know, the again, it's not as if I have any real pull, right? But I I am uh I think the Midwest is uh is ripe for the for that kind of thing. So um that would be professional baseball. The World Cup is not considered professional baseball, but it is the best women's baseball on the planet. And we are very likely to get it right here at Rockford.

Lara Griffin 20:52

Wow. That's awesome. I'm like really excited for that to happen.

Dr. Kat Williams 20:57

Oh, me too. Believe me, me too. Me too.

Lara Griffin 21:00

So I will keep my ears perked and my eyes open.

Dr. Kat Williams 21:03

You will hear me screaming. We will we will have press releases rolling out all over the place. And um and so, like I said, we it may it may be a month, it may be six weeks, something like that. But we'll know fairly soon, and we'll make sure that uh um, you know, that we get the word out. Okay. Because we're going to be calling on all you listeners out there to be volunteers.

Lara Griffin 21:25

Um and is there anything else you'd like to mention that we haven't like covered today?

Dr. Kat Williams 21:32

Uh about the book? Well, the the thing is, um this book took me, even though I've known Mabel since um, you know, what seems like forever, um it took me a long time to write. And and when you see it, you're gonna be like, Kat, how long did it take you that long? It's a little book. Um but but that was kind of the point. We wanted the book to be accessible. Um, the publisher was very clear, you know, you may be a history. Historian, but I don't want a 500-page biography with you know a hundred footnotes. Um it is accessible, it is a good story, and you would be you will be introduced to one of the single most important figures in the history of women's baseball through this book. And it is mostly her voice. I I add context, obviously, but it is mostly her voice and and and her stories. And so I hope that folks will read it and and take in the information. Um the book, as I said, is a labor of love for me. Um and it took me a while to write it, in part because um I didn't feel worthy of writing it. I didn't feel like I could do justice to the story of Maybelle Blair. Um and you know, maybe I have, maybe I haven't. Uh that's for readers to decide. But um I I think it tells her story in a way that shows determination and grit and and and truly what a remarkable woman she is.

Lara Griffin 23:10

I love that. And I love that you are platforming like women's stories. Oh, yeah. Because there isn't a lot of her story. No, a lot of his story.

Dr. Kat Williams 23:20

That's exactly right. Yes. As a professional historian, I can tell you that is right. That is right. Yeah.

Lara Griffin 23:27

So I really I hope you'll write more books.

Dr. Kat Williams 23:31

Well, actually, I have already a contract for the next one.

Lara Griffin 23:34

Oh, cool. Can you share?

Dr. Kat Williams 23:36

Well, I can only say that it is also a biography, but it is about a woman named Edith Houghton. Okay. She was not part of the All Americans.

Lara Griffin 23:43

Okay.

Dr. Kat Williams 23:44

Um but um yeah, as soon as we get this one on the shelves, I'll start writing that one.

Lara Griffin 23:50

Okay. Well, thank you. So we have ordered your book and it should be available for checkout as soon as it comes out.

Dr. Kat Williams 23:57

Okay.

Lara Griffin 23:58

So we are very excited um to host your book launch party. So um yeah, so and I just asked you this, but about which book what your next book is going to be about, which is exciting.

Dr. Kat Williams 24:13

Yeah.

Lara Griffin 24:13

Yeah. Um so I just want to thank you today for coming in. And so to our listeners, uh Kat's book is All the Way, The Life of Baseball Trailblazer, Maybelle Blair, comes out on March 18th. So RPL is hosting a book launch party in the J.R. Sullivan Theater on Friday, March 21st from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. And we are planning on Maybelle attending. Yes, we are. And Kat will talk about her book, ask uh Maybelle some questions, and then we will have a reception with refreshments. Her book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Dr. Kat Williams 24:52

Absolutely. Yes, will it be um will you be doing an audible or you know, I'm not sure of that. Um that is kind of generally if the publisher wants that. Okay. You know, and I haven't inquired. So um I would like to do that. I think it's important to have that option. Yeah. So uh, but we're not sure. There it it obviously on Kindle, um, but uh, you know, I'm a I'm an old-fashioned girl. I want to have the the hard copy in my hand, so I'm pretty excited about getting that into the hands of people.

Lara Griffin 25:26

Yeah, that's awesome.

Dr. Kat Williams 25:28

Yep.

Lara Griffin 25:28

Well, thank you.

Dr. Kat Williams 25:29

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.