Justine Siegal is making quite an impression on Major League Baseball as she continues her batting practice tour across spring training camps.
The 36-year-old is making history as the first female to pitch batting practice for a major league team, and she made her third stop at Tampa Bay’s spring training grounds in Port Charlotte, Fla. on Wednesday. Siegal’s BP session definitely turned a few heads in the Rays’ camp, including manager Joe Maddon, MLB.com reports.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Maddon said. “She repeats her delivery, has a nice stroke and she keeps the ball low, just where hitters like it.”
Siegal previously pitched for the Indians’ and the Athletics’ training camps in Arizona, but she said Maddon was the first manager she talked to when pitching her BP idea during the winter meetings.
“I started going face-to-face with all the managers, and now here I am,” Siegal said on Wednesday. “Joe was the first manager I actually talked to. And it was so affirming to have him actually say, ‘This is a good idea. We can do this.’ So that first night to get a positive response really helped set the tone.”
Also impressed by her BP session were the players. Siegal pitched to Robinson Chirinos, Elliot Johnson, Jose Loboton, Sam Fuld and Joe Inglett, and Fuld noted that she could have a future in throwing BP for a major league team full-time.
“And the more she pitched, she would only get better,” Fuld said of Siegal’s session.
Siegal didn’t mention the next stop on her tour, but she said that she’d “love to throw to more teams,” if the opportunity came her way.
