Legendary female athletes hold court at All-Star DEI panel

SEATTLE -- Anyone who thinks women’s sports aren’t on the rise need only have tried to find a seat -- anywhere -- at the MLB panel discussing just that topic on Sunday afternoon at PLAY BALL Park.

The Clubhouse where the discussion was held bulged at the seams as fans crammed in every available space, filling the benches, outer perimeter, aisles and even the floor in front of the stage for the chance to be inspired by four gold medalists and the first girl to win and throw a shutout in Little League World Series history.

The five -- Olympic gold medalists Lisa Fernandez, Jennie Finch, Natasha Watley and Jessica Mendoza, and former Little League star Mo’ne Davis -- did not disappoint, sharing their message of being strong as athletes and as women during MLB’s Unfiltered DEI Panel: Women in Sports.

• MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard: Tuesday on FOX, 8 p.m. ET

“I think it's important that, as females, to be able to be role models to be able to know that we can do it all, right?” said Fernandez, who’s widely considered to be the original motivator behind the women’s softball movement. “We can have families, we can have careers and if we have the right support system, there's nothing that we can’t accomplish.”

“You can be anything that you hope and you want to be,” said Finch, the current face of softball royalty. “We all have a certain superpower. … We all have greatness and that greatness isn't like anybody else's.”

Each of the women who spoke hailed from unique backgrounds, but they are united in their passion for sport, a platform they used to help carve their path. Each blazed her own trail, fighting to help women and girls become not only recognized but revered as athletes.

Finch -- who happily admitted Fernandez was an idol growing up -- is a softball pitching legend whose name graced the back of around 50 girls’ jerseys in the audience, participants in this year’s Jennie Finch Classic. This is the way of the movement, with each generation of female athletes building on the foundation laid in the past and then working to influence the next.

Exposure is a key step in the continuing push for women’s equality in sports as much as it is essential to educate, Watley said.

Shortly after she returned from the 2008 Olympics, Watley shared her success story and medals with a school in south Los Angeles. The children were impressed, but one girl raised her hand …

“And she says, ‘Miss Tasha, that sounds so cool. What is softball?’” Watley recalled. “... And so at that moment, I was like, ‘I gotta do everything in my power to make sure that every young girl knows about this game.’”

The Natasha Watley Foundation began the next year, with the mission of “diversifying the game of softball at every level through character, community, coaches, and competition while removing the barriers of gender, race, and resources to create more opportunities for girls and women to be leaders on and off the field.”

“I think you have to see it to be it,” said Mendoza, who won gold for Team USA in 2004 and is now a broadcaster on ESPN. “I encourage all of you -- the dads out there, the moms -- [to] put in front of your young girls more women, whether it's on television, whether it's an article in a newspaper; shoot, finding them on Instagram. Speak their language: Find them on social media.

“[Find] strong women that are not only involved in baseball but [who] are out there doing amazing, amazing things. Because I do know for you guys to be able to see it, you'll understand, ‘Shoot, I can do anything.’”

The 22-year-old Davis, who 10 years ago was the first Little Leaguer to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, showed the world that girls can not play with the boys but dominate them. She recently expanded her influence to the Major Leagues by landing an internship with the Dodgers.

Davis has her sights set on working in a front-office role in MLB one day, and she gave the panel audience still more to think about: Sports can lead to a wealth of opportunities on the field and off it, too.

“My greatest accomplishment I would probably say is going to school for free,” said Davis, a recent graduate of Hampton University. “My parents don't have to pay, and getting that education because that was something that I've always wanted to do. … Baseball has really opened a lot of doors and has put me in a position to grow and introduced me to people that want to see me grow.”