In the midst of a long workday at the office, some people stretch their legs by voyaging to the water cooler or somewhere nearby for lunch.
Katie Griffith? She likes to throw 70-mph fastballs.
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Barely three weeks ago, Griffith moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles for a job with the Gateway Grizzlies, one of 12 baseball teams in the Frontier League. Although she took a desk job, her real vocation is on the baseball field, where she often takes breaks to test her pitching arm. She’s currently training in hopes of becoming the team’s first female player.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Griffith began playing softball at age 7 and later pitched for the University of Georgia’s softball team. After graduation, she put her journalism degree to work in L.A., before taking a position as a softball coach for a private school. She then met former Atlanta Braves player and pitching coach Tom House, and that’s where her big-league aspirations began.
Last October, after realizing she “knew the material that Tom was teaching and the science behind it,” she told House, “I’m going to try this.” His reply: “Yeah, I think you could do it.”
“Other coaches, I think it would be easy for them to be like, ‘Sure, let’s try. It’ll be a gimmick. It’ll be good press, a side show sort of thing,’” she says. “But he legitimately thinks I can do it.”
In January, Griffith became the first woman to play in the California Winter League. That’s where Grizzlies owner and general manager Rich Sauget saw her pitch one inning. “It was a good one, thank god,” Griffith says with a laugh.
“I saw her and thought she was a good athlete,” recalls Sauget. “You can tell she’s got a lot of poise out there. There were two or three hundred guys out there, and she looked relaxed, comfortable in that environment—she fit in.”
Sauget invited her to work in the Grizzlies’ office and to train. “I had never been to St. Louis before two weeks ago, so it felt like I had a soft place to land and train,” Griffith says. “If I would have stayed in L.A., I had a full-time job that would have not allowed time to train. It’s like everything came together; now it’s up to me to make it work.”
Her new job’s flexibility allows Griffith to spend hours pitching, running, and working out at the gym. She’s currently working toward throwing in the 82-to-84-mph range, before the Grizzlies host tryouts April 24.
So how do the other players react when they see Griffith? “I usually have to introduce myself and spin into [asking them], ‘What’s your workout today?’ or ‘What position do you play?’ or something like that,” she says. “That kind of puts it together in their head that I’m there for baseball.
“Everybody’s been super nice,” she adds. “If anybody has had anything bad to say, they haven’t said it to me. That’s fine. They’re not slowing me down.”
“Watching her determination and approach to things,” says Sauget, “I anticipate she’ll do very well.”
Griffith hopes that she can play for the next few years and then stay in baseball any way she can, whether through management or coaching. “I don’t think I can let it go,” she says.
Last year, Justine Siegal became the Frontier League’s first female coach, joining the Normal Cornbelters’ staff, after coaching for the Oakland Athletics’ instructional league in Arizona. In 1994, Kendra Hanes played in 10 games for the league’s now-defunct Kentucky Rifles. Then, on May, 31, 1997, Ila Borders became the first woman to pitch in a minor league game, playing for the Northern League’s St. Paul Saints.
Like those before her, Griffith hopes to inspire other girls. “They can be like, ‘Oh, there’s a girl out there. That’s kind of cool,’” Griffith says. “They don’t have to want to play baseball, but they can be like, ‘There’s a girl out there in the man’s world. What can I do?’”
Opening Day for the Gateway Grizzlies is May 12. Purchase tickets on the team’s website.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Hanes played in the Frontier League years ago and that Borders pitched in the Northern League.
