Dirt in the Skirt for a Good Cause

With my upcoming book release next month for Nola Fran Evie, which is about three women in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, I thought this was a perfect current event to share with you guys.

I stumbled across an awesome news story courtesy of the AAGPBL Players Association’s Facebook page.

Yesterday the San Rafael Pacifics, an independent professional baseball team, wore replicas of the Rockford Peaches historic uniforms during a game to honor Breast Cancer survivors.

And, yes. They were men in darling pink dresses…

We’ve seen men in professional sports support Breast Cancer Awareness with different pink accessories—gloves, cleats, hats—but never before have they played like this!

They are the first men’s professional baseball team in history to wear dresses. Love it!

Two of the uniforms were autographed by Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, who starred in one of my all-time favorite movies and the reason I was obsessed with the women’s league from a young age, “A League of Their Own”. They were auctioned off with proceeds going to a breast cancer foundation in California called “To Celebrate Life”.

This was a very cool way to honor these women—the brave gals who played in the All-American Girls Professional League seventy years ago and the courageous women battling Breast Cancer today. I applaud these men for dressing up and getting some “dirt in the skirt”.

As many of you know, back in February I found out that my mom was battling her second stint with Breast Cancer. If you missed the posts, you can read about the experience here “This one’s for you, Mom” and here “We Surpass the Tough”.

My mom is doing beautifully.

She “got lucky” with Stage 1, but the emotional scars are just as challenging as the physical ones, and she’s still on a very challenging journey to healing. But, as I’ve said before, she’s a trooper and she’ll kick ass as she always does.

I don’t think we can ever raise enough awareness for Breast Cancer, so I was delighted to see a fresh take on a good cause with these ball players. I’m sure my mom will be tickled when she reads this as she recovers from one of her final surgeries this week.

If you want to check out the full story, there’s a good one right here on Yahoo Sports.

And just for fun, I wanted to leave you all with a few photos of the gals of the All-American Girls Baseball League wearing the original uniforms from 1948. I especially love the pic of the girls huddled around the magazine together.

(All images are courtesy of Florida Memory.)

  You may have noticed I added a little countdown on the sidebar for the big book release. Twenty-four days to go…woot!!!