Women's baseball making a new Home at Holman Stadium

By Tom King

Sunday, June 4, 2006

Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)

June 4, 2006
Section: Tom King

The New England Division of the North American Women's Baseball League opening day: June 10, at Holman Stadium
internet: Visit the league's site at www.nawbl.com
FYI: Saturday night's Pride game in Lynn was rained out.

Nashua will play a doubleheader today at noon Lisa Plawecki is 47 years young, and went through a tough winter where she was ill much of the time.

After this winter, the East Hampstead resident decided it was time for her to do everything she's always wanted to do, and playing baseball is currently Plawecki's greatest ambition.

"When I was in high school, I was going to play professional softball and (I) got hurt," said Plawecki, who is making the transition from softball to baseball. "It's always been softball. (It's) a little tough getting used to the smaller ball, but I'll get better with practice."

And thus Plawecki was part of a group of about 25 women, ranging in age from 15 to her 47, attending Saturday's tryout at the Hampshire Dome in Milford for the North American Women's Baseball League.

The women's league will have more tryouts and scrimmages next weekend, and players from other countries, as close as Canada and as far away as Japan are expected to fill out the rosters.

The NAWBL will play at Holman Stadium and hopes to consist of four teams with at least 12 or more players. The league also plans to play about 10-12 games and have an all-star travel team.

The NAWBL previously played its games the last three years at Fraser Field in Lynn, Mass., financially buoyed by Nick Lopardo, owner of the North Shore Spirit, which battles the Nashua Pride in the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball.

How has this come to Nashua? Simple. Pride owner John Stabile was approached by long-time Lopardo comrade Al Melanson, who is the commissioner of the league. Melanson thought at first Lopardo would go for one moreyear, but realized that was a long shot and felt Nashua and Stabile would be a good fit.

Stabile said that first he had to get the Pride back on track, but that he was interested farther down the road. That turned out to be now, as his new hire, Pride general manager Robin Wallace is a major figure in the women's game nationally and is the NAWBL's executive director, as well as a player.

"This could be all part of the family thing that Nashua can thrive on," said Stabile, whose wife Ginny encouraged him to become involved. "It'd be nice if the men's thing can support the women's thing and we make a doubleheader out of it. If we can bring just another aspect of bringing people in, get it to be part of what they do in Nashua, I mean, what do we lose?" When the NAWBL was in Lynn, the league formed an all-star travel team, but Stabile says he wants to familiarize himself with the NAWBL before committing to anything on that level financially.

The NAWBL will be something for Stabile and fans to get used to, especially the way the women's game is played.

"There wasn't enough pitching," said Tianna Carr, 20, of Beverly, Mass. Carr will be staying at Rivier College, along with some of the other players, for the summer so she can eventually play (she's recovering from knee surgery). "So we had some innings where there were walks and things would drag on. But other than that, it was good."

"They (fans) should check it out, at least. I think it's like one of those sports like soccer; if you get more people involved, it's going to take off." Can that happen?

Fan wise, some of the curious may come, depending on when the games are scheduled - mainly on weekends and most likely before Pride home games.

They are in need of a couple of coaches as well. "We've never really marketed," said Wallace, who is in the National Women's Baseball Hall of Fame and played for Team USA, "and we had a couple of hundred people per game, with no advertising, no promotion, etc. It's something new and different.

I guess the women's game is like the purest game - baseball how it's meant to be played. For fans who like the old game, they should come and check the women out." "We've gotten a lot of girls who have come out for the league," Colleen Dolan of Revere said. "Fans we try to recruit. But a lot more came last year because we got the word out. They are aware that women are playing baseball, and we're getting bigger as the years go. It's a lot more challenging than softball. A lot more difficult."

Stabile will operate the league on a budget of $26,000, and has asked Wallace and Melanson to live within it. He says he's being charged $300 a game rental for Holman by the city, but since it's not professional, he's hoping "they'll see the wisdom of what this can do, and waive that $300 fee, because no other amateur teams pay.

"Hopefully, they can see the wisdom of that." "It's about providing an opportunity for girls who have been denied a chance to play baseball," Melanson said. "We don't want baseball to be the national pastime for only half the population.

After age 12, these girls have no place else to play. "We've developed into the finest women's baseball league in the country." But, as Melanson said, there isn't much help from other organizations, such as USA Baseball.

There are other leagues around the country as well, and Melanson says if you want to see players play with passion, that you'll want to see this.

There was a lot of hustle, clapping and emotion at Saturday's tryout. Women's baseball appears to be drawing interest worldwide.

Women's baseball is growing in Australia, and some girls from there have traveled overseas to play in the NABWL. A couple of Australia's coaches, including Darren King, came over to check up on the start of the league this year as part of his vacation (it will also include a stop in New York next week to see Sox-Yankees).

"I think it may be growing at a faster rate (in Australia)," King said. "I'm not sure how many girls play over here, but in six years we've probably grown four times the size in Sydney."

It's hard to see that kind of growth here, but you never know.

Women's baseball in Nashua is something new and it should be something fun.

Copyright, 2006, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H. All Rights Reserved.