I am so excited to be representing North America at the 2009 Hong Kong International Phoenix Cup. There are not many international women's baseball tournaments that exist, maybe two total, so this is truly an opportunity of a lifetime. We will be playing teams from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Australia. I am training hard so I can help my team win the gold cup.
Almost more important than winning, is the global networking that will occur. We all have a common goal of further developing women's baseball. There is so much we can learn from these other countries. Asia is way ahead of us in terms of organized women's baseball. Japan has girls baseball leagues, competitive high school and college teams, and even a woman that will play for a professional men's baseball league.
America has not quite embraced the idea of women playing baseball. Here, it is illegal for a woman to play in the major leagues. We are seemingly condemned to playing softball. One of our goals as a team, is to invite international teams/players to national tournaments in the states. There is a pro-league in development right now. In order for it to work, it would have to generate enough interest from fans to make a profit, and recruit enough talented players to create solid, competitve teams. If it does happen, my dream of playing professional baseball may finally come true!
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Hi! My name's Hanna and I'll be playing on the South Korean team in this year's Phoenix Cup. I was googling around for an updated tournament website and ran into your blog. I'm a second generation Korean American born and raised in California, but I'm currently working in Korea. I came over about a year and a half ago for grad school and randomly found a women's baseball team to play with! Back in the States, I've only played on intramural and parks & rec softball teams w/ friends for fun... never anything competitive. The tournament this year will be the first of its kind for me :) I really look forward to meeting you and the rest of the Liberty Belles! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Jen and Hanna, I am coaching the Aussie team, and really looking forward to this year's tournament. Make sure you come and say hello sometime!
ReplyDeleteHanna ... would I be right in guessing you are Heather Novotny's "KAT"? (Korean American Teammate) .. if so she told me a bit about you and how happy she is that you joined the Sunrise team!
I'm also looking forward to seeing Ahn again, she doesn't use email much so I never get to speak to her.
Only a couple of weeks now!! YAY!!
Hi Gossy! Yes, I am the alleged K.A.T., hahaha...Heather and I are texting each other as we speak! I've heard a lot about you too.. Heather and Hyangmi have mentioned you the most, so your name is as every bit as household as mine is ;) We're so excited about the tourney! Hopefully we go as far into the tourney as possible so we have an opportunity to play each other! Cheers, Hanna
ReplyDeleteYes - I'm really looking forward to the tourney too! Gossy, you are right, Hanna is my KAT^^!
ReplyDeleteJen, I also randomly ran into your blog while searching for more information about the HK tourney. I'm very interested to meet you. I'm from Chicago, and will be returning one day. I've played fastpitch most of my life (which, I somewhat guiltily admit here, I love), but now I play baseball in Korea (with women's and men's teams and my "KAT"). My brother is the team leader of the Aussie team, so Gossy here and I are good friends. Anyway, I look forward to talking to you about Chicago baseball and Second City!
See you soon!
Heather Novotny
Hi Hanna, Gossy, and Heather!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my site! I feel like an idiot for not finding these comments sooner! I can't wait to meet you all in Hong Kong! Will you all be staying at the Newton Hotel? What brought the two of you to Korea to play ball? Do they have professional playing opportunities there? I'm anxious to learn about the different women's baseball programs worldwide. It seems most countries are ahead of the US in terms of organized women's baseball. I'd be willing to move anywhere to play pro baseball!
heya Jen! Actually, Heather and I both kinda fell into baseball here... I came out here for grad school and randomly found a women's team to play with. Whereas, Heather met the Korean team when she came to HK as a guest of the Aussie Hearts at last year's tournament.
ReplyDeleteWomen's baseball is actually not that well-established here as it just became organized a few years ago. There are about 20 or so teams total right now, but a good number of the women on the team are beginners.
Our team has about 3 or 4 of the first women baseball players in Korea... and they're all still pretty young. So that'll give you an idea :)
I'm totally looking forward to watching all the teams play. I've actually never seen, let alone played in an all-women baseball game. Our team usually practices w/ little leaguers or men's teams, so it'd be nice to see how we compare :)
Welcome to the world of women's baseball Hanna! It can be a strange and interesting beast. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI thought for sure I'd be the only Asian American at the tournament, but it looks like I'm in good company! How do Korean men feel about women playing baseball? The men I've run into who see me practicing have been really supportive, some have even tried to recruit me for their teams. I just wonder how much culture comes into play.
Gossy, what is women's baseball like in Australia? I've heard you have a great program. Jenn Zielke's been playing out there and she seems to really enjoy it. Are their professional opportunities for women to play baseball in Australia? We haven't had any in the states since the early 90's.
Heya Jen!
ReplyDeleteThe Korean men could not be more cooler... I'm actually playing on 3 different teams right now (two men's teams and the one women's team going to Hong Kong).
When I got to Korea, I just ventured out to the nearest field with an extra glove and started throwing against the net until I saw someone who looked like they'd be interested in playing catch :) (which btw, they call 'catch ball' here, hehe)
and then we randomly started accumulating more and more guys from random teams around the city and became regulars at that field. A couple months ago, we decided to just start a team, get unis made, and joined the local league. That's OUR house now :) and I'm lucky enough to be a pretty household name around there, haha!
and my other men's team I play for is my company team, which plays in the "Publishing" league. Joining that team was pretty smooth, but of course, at first, you'll hear the unnessesary "oohs and ahhs" for simply CATCHING a ball, haha. But whatevs... that's something we all get used to as a minority anywhere.
But yea, baseball's pretty big here, but only among the men. Women's teams are very scarce still.
The North American team seems really stacked! Have you guys had a lot of time playing as the Liberty Belles? Did you guys get selected through tryouts?
Very cool Hanna! Keep at it! Actually this is the first time we're all playing together as The Liberty Belles. The girls are from all over, including one from Canada. How the team formed? Well that's a long story. I'll have to fill you in when I see ya in HK! Only a couple days now!
ReplyDeleteAwesome Blog Jen! I came across your site randomly as well. It is great to see baseball being promoted for women - I stopped playing in my early teen years because there was no avenue for me to continue where I lived. Hanna, I wonder if you might provide more info on what cities would be ideal for a woman looking to play baseball. I will be moving to Korea to work after I graduate from University here in the States next year and would love to be able to play again!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback! I'll forward your message to Hanna in case she misses it here. That would be so cool if you got to play with Hanna in Korea!
ReplyDeleteHi Jen! Thanks so much! Your writing is really inspiring. We need more voices like yours. I am still in the "I can't believe there might actually be an opportunity to play" phase after rather recently deciding to do some basic research and see what is out there. I am being constantly inspired by the number of women who have had the courage to do what seemed impossible to me as a young teenage girl feeling the pressure to quit the sport and move on to other things. I'll stop before I write a novel :) but let me just finish by restating, Thanks!
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