A brilliant insight into the life of a woman attempting to break into men's baseball.
If you are good enough and determined anything is possible.

Ila Jane Borders memoir of her pursuit of a professional baseball career is timely and enlightening. While I’ve certainly been aware of the barriers to women in many professional fields, I was astounded at the persistence of the criticism, and outright vitriol, Borders faced simply for playing baseball. It’s even more astounding to me that these attitudes and actions persisted through the ‘90s and that some of the cruelest taunts and actions were directed at her from adults (many of them parents) while she was still a child. Again, all because she was a pitcher, a good one, on a team and in a league where every other player was a boy.

Of course, the flip side, particularly when she reached college level baseball, was the adulation and media sensation surrounding her as the first modern female playing at that level of the game. This memoir is much more than a rehashing of the taunts and adulation surrounding Borders’ baseball career, I wouldn’t even say it’s much the focus of the book, but it is what made one of the deepest impressions on this reader.
Like many Americans, I have more than a passing knowledge of the sport of baseball. I played that, and softball, in my younger days on youth leagues and intramural teams in college. Even so, I learned A LOT about the sport in Borders’ book, a great deal more about the strategy of pitching to any individual batter and the strategy of pitching over the course of a game and a season. Borders’ father had been an accomplished ball player himself and continued playing in adult leagues. He had a strong sense of how to develop a young person, in this case his daughter, as a pitcher over the course of her childhood. That meant he had a good sense of physical conditioning and of teaching pitches that were age appropriate for a developing body. He developed his daughter in the game with an eye to the future and a long career, not just for the season. Clearly that was critical to her baseball success.

Her father was less than perfect, though, as a parent or coach, certainly as a husband, and the story also weaves in Borders’ home life as a child and her emergence into adulthood. This, of course, is one of the interesting and troubling aspects of professionals in any sport. Just as Borders was finding her way as a person, she was in the spotlight for exceptional athletic ability, the possibility that she would become a “first” in professional baseball, being called on to exhibit a level of maturity not normally expected of someone still in their teens.

Through it all, and again not the focus of the book, Borders was grappling with her sexual identity. She understood fairly early on that her physical attraction to women would not be accepted in the sport. It also ran afoul of the values of the many faith based school institutions where she received her education. The absolute isolation of her experience is palpable, all the more so because I think the reader of the memoir sees it even more clearly than Borders herself.

I personally appreciate how Borders maintains her spiritual faith, her trust in God’s higher power, throughout her life and in each of her struggles, whether on or off the diamond. Her story is honest about her perception of her experiences and the feelings that came with them. It’s a life and as such cannot be categorized as any one type of story: the pro ball player’s story, the women in a man’s world story, the coming-out story, the allowing Christ in your life story. Borders’ memoir is all of these to a certain degree and in the end, her story will leave you with the satisfied feeling that humans, any of us, can achieve and endure much more than we think we can.

Baseball, like many other sports and occupations, is called “a man’s world.” However, one woman was determined to make a career in baseball. Ila Borders had the drive to do so within her from her Little League playing days. Her story, both inside and outside the sport, is captured in this inspiring memoir, co-written with Jean Hastings Ardell.

While Borders was not the first woman to play in men’s professional baseball, she accomplished many firsts: the first woman to be the winning pitcher in a men’s professional game in the modern era when she got her first win for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in 1998, the first woman to receive a baseball college scholarship, and the first woman to start and win a collegiate men’s baseball game.

Even with all of these accomplishments, and despite her constant drive to succeed in baseball until her retirement in 2000, Borders tells her story of constant worry. She is conflicted about her sexual orientation, as she is attracted to women but was fearful of coming out because of her status on men’s baseball teams. Whether it was because of anxiety about the reaction from her teammate’s wives or girlfriends, her fear that she would be a distraction to the team (especially true when she played for professional teams) or her difficulties with dating in general, her story about her struggles with this part of her personal life make for engaging reading. Between her courage on the baseball field, her courage when she finally came out, and the success that came to her after baseball with her career as a paramedic and firefighter, her story is truly inspiring.

Her descriptions of the game are those that only someone who has played and understands the intricacies of the sport can communicate. Whether she was talking about the way she changed the speed of her pitches to keep batters off-guard or the shenanigans that would take place in the bullpen during the games, readers who love baseball will love being taken inside the game and the players.

While the baseball scenes are well-written, this is a memoir that is even better during the sections describing the author’s life outside the sport. While some may believe sports figures do not make good role models, Ila Borders is one that does. Her story should be read by anyone interested in baseball or just a feel-good story in which it is proven that one can overcome many obstacles to live a happy and productive life.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing. As an avid sports fan, especially of baseball, I loved reading about Ila's experiences. Ila described her games so fantastically, I felt like I was listening to the games on the radio. I was so emotionally invested in her journey and I rooted for her every moment I was reading.
As a female sports fan, I've experienced the sexism that is in men dominated sports and I can't imagine everything Ila has gone through. I've never met Ila, and I doubt I ever will, but I'm incredibly proud of her and everything she's accomplished. She didn't let the sexism stop her and she's extremely inspiring.
Making My Pitch is an insightful look into baseball and what it takes to be a pitcher. It showcases how unnecessarily difficult it is for women to break into the sport, even when they have the skill and talent to be one of the best.
I definitely recommend this book to any sports fan, especially young women. Ila tells it like it is and will show you a new perspective on baseball. She's inspiring and brave and I'll always remember her story.