‘See Her Be Her’: Documentary focuses on women’s baseball. Can it grow the game?

A new documentary aims to inspire a generation of girls by showing that women can and do play baseball. Grassroots Baseball put the thesis of its co-founder’s documentary, See Her Be Her, to the test in a Sunday morning screening at the AMC Fashion District theater.

Philadelphia was the seventh stop in a 12-city tour for the film, which follows six women’s baseball players competing in the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup. Directed by Jean Fruth, the film details the lives of the athletes as they balance playing baseball for their countries.

A 40-minute panel featuring Fruth, Denae Benites, Monica Clark, Beth Devine and Bonnie Rosen followed the 1-hour, 50-minute movie. Benites is a catcher for the U.S. women’s baseball team and is featured in the film. Clark serves as the coordinator of youth baseball and softball development for the Phillies, and Devine is the executive director of Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative, a nonprofit that promotes community engagement with youth sports.

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Rosen has served as the head coach of Temple’s women’s lacrosse program since 2007 and was a two-time gold medalist with the U.S. team at the 1997 and 2001 lacrosse World Cups. Rosen began her athletic career playing baseball on a boys’ team.

The documentary covers three continents and features the national women’s baseball teams from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The film also documents a trip with some of the U.S. team’s players to Uganda, as they encourage girls in that country to get involved with baseball. Overall, the film advocates for increased visibility and resources for women in baseball, and access for girls wanting to play the sport.

“It’s my first film,” Fruth said. “I thought I’d start small and do seven countries, three continents, and four different languages. The story just got bigger and bigger, and it had to all be told. The goal from the very beginning, before I met these incredible women, was to create visibility.”

The theater was mostly full for the 11 a.m. screening. Many of the attendees were girls and young women, some of whom played for Philly Girls Baseball, a league that organizes girls’ baseball teams for athletes ages 8-18.

“Some parents are on the fence as to whether they should support their daughter and their dream of playing baseball,” Fruth said. “This film makes a difference, and they see how it’s played around the world and how big it is. People just don’t realize how many women are out there playing baseball.”

Benites’ teammate on the U.S. national team, Kelsie Whitmore, emerges as the focal point of the film. Whitmore, a pitcher and outfielder, was the first woman to play in multiple independent professional baseball leagues, including the Atlantic League and the Pioneer League. She played a key part in the Americans’ second-place finish at the 2024 World Cup.

Along with the modern-day trailblazers, the film takes a look at the history of women in baseball. It traces back to the 1940s with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the inspiration for the fictionalized 1992 film A League of Their Own.

See Her Be Her also details the stories of female Negro League baseball players who were barred from playing in the segregated AAGPBL, as well as a lawsuit on Maria Pepe’s behalf in 1975 that paved the way for girls to play Little League Baseball.

Baseball Hall of Famers Ichiro Suzuki and Cal Ripken Jr. were interviewed for the film, as was former Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. In the film, Rollins says his desire to play baseball came from watching his mother play softball. He also speaks on the growth of baseball for boys and girls in Uganda, where he has spent time promoting the game as well.

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The film tour is a test of the documentary’s mission statement. By making women playing baseball visible on the silver screen to girls across the country, Fruth and Grassroots Baseball are working to inspire the next generation of women’s baseball players.

“The visibility of a film like this and putting things out there on a bigger stage can only help,” Devine said. “We see what’s happened with the WNBA and with women’s soccer, and I think it just has to catch.”

At the end of the panel session, Benites issued a challenge to the audience in the theater.

“I want you to show this movie to at least one person that you know [who] was not here today,” Benites said. “That’s going to be an important piece of women’s baseball. … Women’s baseball is a movement, and we need to keep pushing it forward.”

See Her Be Her is available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime.