In the sixth inning against the Sioux Falls Canaries, the 23-year-old lefty pitcher for the St. Paul Saints, an independent minor league baseball team, headed for the mound … and into history.
Facing off against three batters on May 31, 1997, this pitcher wasn’t making the most exciting debut. Except for one small detail: Ila Borders was the first female pitcher to grace the diamond in integrated men’s professional baseball.
Back then, all professional sports were dominated by men. Women’s soccer had only made its Olympic debut the year before, and the WNBA’s inaugural season began weeks after Borders threw her debut professional pitch. It would be another 11 years before Danica Patrick would become the first woman to win an IndyCar race. The first female to win an athletic scholarship was a golfer in 1973, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s when a woman — yep, Borders — finally won a scholarship to play men’s collegiate baseball. Women had been officially banned from professional baseball in 1931 by Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. He ruled them out after a 17-year-old girl struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game.
Borders’ long walk to the mound that day was a big first step. But as any toddler will attest, not all first steps go well. She hit the first batter she faced; later she balked, giving up three earned runs without recording an out before being yanked. Even though it was an independent league game against the Canaries — and despite her being paid just $750 a month — the pressure was intense.