OAKLAND — Kelsie Whitmore’s list of “firsts” just got a little longer.
The Southern California native was the first woman to play in the Atlantic League and the Pacific League. Now she will be the first woman to sign a contract with a Pioneer League team as the Oakland Ballers announced on Wednesday that they were adding the trailblazing pitcher after a successful tryout last weekend.
She was part of three signings the Ballers announced, as well as St. Francis High grad Andrew Martinez and Vacaville’s Connor Caporale.
While Whitmore’s ultimate goal is to become an immediate impact player for the Ballers, she is also hoping her journey inspires more women to play baseball.
“I’m gonna do my best and whatever I can to encourage and inspire other women and young girls to continue playing the game,” Whitmore said. “I know some were told they couldn’t, but hopefully I can motivate and encourage them through the way I play on the field for them to continue doing what they love.”
Kelsie Whitmore, the first woman to appear in a game in the independent Atlantic League last year, faces batters during the Oakland Ballers open tryout, Saturday, April 6, 2024, at Laney College in Oakland, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
After playing baseball at Temecula Valley High School, Whitmore received a scholarship to play at Cal State Fullerton where she played softball for five seasons. During that time, Whitmore trained and practiced with the Fullerton baseball team.
But even after a very successful collegiate softball career, which included being named Big West Player of the Year in her senior season, Whitmore knew baseball was going to be her future.
“People would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I knew. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I stopped telling people because I got shut down a lot,” Whitmore told the Titan Magazine last year. “I always knew that there was going to be a girl one day, and I thought, if there is one, I want to be that girl who makes it.”
Whitmore spent two seasons with the Sonoma Stompers and two with the Staten Island FerryHawks before becoming a free agent for this upcoming season. When she got the call from Executive Vice President Don Wakamatsu, asking her if she would try out for Oakland’s new baseball team.
“He said he wanted to see me perform,” Whitmore said. “So I took a chance on the tryout. I felt like I had nothing to lose.”
Whitmore’s array pitches impressed assistant general manager Tyler Peterson and coach J.T. Snow. She is primed to be an integral piece to the Oakland bullpen this season.
“With Kelsie we had heard a lot about her coming into the day and she impressed our coaches when she got her opportunity,” said assistant general manager Tyler Peterson in a team release. “Her pitches offer a different look to hitters, similar to how a knuckleballer or submariner would.
While Whitmore has played multiple positions throughout her baseball career, she will focus this season on pitching. In Staten Island, she played mostly as a relief pitcher but said she is happy to contribute wherever she can.
Given her career stats, there is room to improve. In 25 ⅔ innings over parts of four seasons with Sonoma and Staten Island, Whitmore has an 11.92 ERA.
The Ballers took to social media on Thursday to defend Whitmore’s signing.
“Hey haters, the Pioneer League has seen pitchers the likes of: Pedro Martinez, Jim Kaat, Trevor Hoffman, Clayton Kershaw, Jake {Peavy}, Dontrelle Willis, and now Kelsie Whitmore,” the Ballers wrote on their Twitter/X account. “As has been reported, we didn’t make Kelsie an offer right away, instead we gave her a shot to make the team. She showed up and impressed us.
“Now we will give her a shot to contribute to the team. We believe she will take advantage of that opportunity as well.
“If you want to discount her, or us, without even watching her play, maybe we aren’t the right team for you…
“We hear there is a team moving to Sacramento that you might want to support instead.”
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For Whitmore, Oakland was an almost-perfect landing spot at this time. The close proximity to family in Southern California along with a cultural comfortability in the Bay Area made the Ballers an even more desirable place to continue her baseball career.
Whitmore is Filipino-American and recently won the Silayan Filipina National Organization Panama Legacy Award – an honor given to someone of Filipino ethnicity who has made significant contributions to the Pinoy community.
“With me being Filipino, it’s definitely something I’m proud of and want to represent,” Whitmore said. “There’s not a lot of Filipinos in the baseball world. I would love to see more people of Filipino, Asian-American and Pacific Islander backgrounds coming out and supporting the Ballers.”
Martinez, who is from San Francisco and went to St. Francis HS, was twice drafted out of UC Santa Barbara – first by Miami in the 33rd Round of the 2018 MLB Draft and then by Baltimore in the 24th Round in 2019. He spent three years in the Baltimore system, reaching as high as High-A Aberdeen, before spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons in independent leagues.
Caporale is a pitcher from Vacaville who spent his college career at Simpson University in Redding, CA. After three seasons at Simpson, Caporale spent the summer of 2023 in the Coastal Plain League with the Wilson Tobs in North Carolina, before getting his first professional experience with the Westside Woolly Mammoths of the United Shores League in Michigan.
The Ballers will start their inaugural season on May 21 in Kalispell, Montana, against the Glacier Range Riders. Oakland will make its home debut against the Yolo High Wheelers of Davis on June 4.
