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Crafted some backstory, as our league is launching in 1982 as if pro baseball stopped existing after WWII and went strictly amateur / semi-pro.
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In the 1960s and 1970s, a remarkable and little-known chapter in the history of baseball unfolded in the heart of Texas. It was during this time that an underground baseball league emerged, featuring an extraordinary group of women who defied societal expectations and shattered gender barriers, known as the Lone Star Diamonds.
Founded in 1962 on a shoestring budget, visionary Evelyn Bennett saw the Diamonds as a platform where talented female athletes could showcase their skills and passion for baseball. In an era when women weren’t allowed to run in marathons or even play college sports due to outmoded ideas about their own bodies, Bennett gathered a group of talented players from all walks of life who shared her dream and made it come to life despite facing numerous challenges. These included playing their games under the cover of night, away from the prying eyes of a society that deemed sport to be the province of men.
In a short matter of time, the league gained a reputation for its electrifying games, attracting fans who were drawn to the sheer determination and skill displayed by these extraordinary women -- very quickly the league moved from the underground and became a family-friendly exhibition of raw athletic talent drawing fans from around the state. The league's success inspired other women across Texas to form their own teams, sparking a revolution that, with the founding of the Federal League, hints that the day has come for women to join the men in professional sports, competing on equal footing.
That’s certainly what inspired outspoken oil baron “Big Tex” Sanders of the upstart Texas Copperheads, who agrees that that it’s past time for “major league” baseball to be open to anyone who has the talent to play. The baseball world was shocked this week when, in the 25th round of the league-wide draft, the Copperheads picked Úrsula Loureno, a 24-year-old right fielder from El Paso, Texas, by way of Venezuela. She spent the last six seasons playing with the West Texas Windtalkers, one of the longest-standing teams in the Diamonds system, and though her talent level is not yet up to major league standards, Sanders believes she has the potential to work her way up through the newly developed minor league system to become a Copperheads starter one day.
It all starts with one player. Will Loureno become the first female player to make an impact in a male-dominated sport? Scouts say she has the knowledge of the game to make it, and she has the eye and discipline to avoid strikeouts and hit through the gap, while being a potent defensive presence.
One thing Sanders wants fans of the new league to know: “This ain’t no circus act I’m puttin’ on here. I made my money by keeping my eyes open and by being willing to take a risk when the risk needs takin’ ... and this kid’s the real deal. Come check out a few games this coming spring and tell me I’m wrong. But I ain’t wrong.”
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