Announcing finalists for 2022 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award
We are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2022 Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee. Each of these finalists has made important contributions promoting the participation of women in baseball, on the field and off.
The winner of the 2022 award will be announced during the SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference on September 16-18. All baseball fans are welcome to register for the three-day virtual Zoom conference. Click here to sign up.
Here are the finalists for the 2022 award:
Penny Marshall left her mark on the world of women’s baseball with the 1992 movie A League of Their Own. For millions of young women, the movie has served as an inspiration and an education. She showed the world that women have a long history in baseball and it should be celebrated. The importance of the movie was reinforced in 2022 with the release of the new Amazon Prime series, also titled A League of their Own. Before making a name for herself with one of the best baseball movies of all time Marshall worked as an actress, writer, and director. She is best known for her role as Laverne in the TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley. Her directing roles include the films Big and Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
Justine Siegal continues to promote and advocate for women’s participation in baseball every day. She is the founder of Baseball for All, a nonprofit organization that has made it possible for thousands of girls from all over the world to play baseball with and against each other. She earned her Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Psychology, giving her another tool to use in working with all players. She has coached at the collegiate level, pitched batting practice for several Major League Baseball teams, served as a coach for the Brockton Rox, and as an instructional coach for the Oakland A’s. (She donated her jersey to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.) She also worked with Team Israel during the 2017 World Baseball Classic and served as a coach in Japan and Mexico in 2019. She is currently the Baseball Coordinator for the Amazon Prime show A League of Their Own. She has played a major role in helping with MLB’s Trailblazer Series and Breakthrough Series, giving additional opportunities for young women to learn and play together. In 2021 she joined the efforts to promote college baseball opportunities for women, leading to the first ever college women’s baseball tournament in 2022.
Janet Marie Smith is the Executive Vice President of Planning and Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her architectural work over the past three decades has changed the face of baseball. Her most recent project involved the renovation of the Worcester Red Sox’s Polar Park, which was completed for Opening Day 2021. Since 2012, she has overseen the improvement/expansion projects at Dodger Stadium and Campo Las Palmas, the club’s home in the Dominican Republic, which under Smith’s direction, underwent a major renovation to make it one of the best Latin American facilities in baseball. In 2020 she oversaw renovations at Dodger Stadium that included a new center field plaza as well as new escalators and elevators. She is well-known in baseball for her work on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set the standard for a new wave of ballparks after its opening in 1992. Smith worked for the Orioles from 1989-94 as Vice President of Planning and Development during the design and construction of the park. She later rejoined the club from 2009-12 to direct renovations and expansion of the Orioles’ spring training facility in Sarasota, Florida, and upgrades to Camden Yards. From 2002-09, she served as Senior Vice President of Planning and Development for the Boston Red Sox, overseeing the preservation and expansion of Fenway Park. She was president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development and Vice President of Planning and Development for the Atlanta Braves from 1994-2000. She helped transform the 1996 Olympic Stadium into Turner Field and oversaw development of Philips Arena, then home to the NBA’s Hawks and NHL’s Thrashers. She was elected to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020.
Marcenia Lyle “Toni” Stone was one of three women to play in the Negro Leagues in the 1950s. In 1953 and ’54, she played second base for the Indianapolis Clowns and Kansas City Monarchs. She hit .243 for the Clowns in 50 games in 1953 before her contract was sold to the Monarchs for the 1954 season after which she retired. Before helping to break the gender barrier in the Negro Leagues, Stone was a three-sport athlete in baseball, tennis, and track and field for Humbert High School. She also pitched for the Twin City Colored Giants and then moved to San Francisco, where she played ball with the barnstorming San Francisco Sea Lions. She had a short stint with the New Orleans Black Pelicans before joining the Negro Southern League and playing three seasons with the all-male New Orleans Creoles. Stone worked as a nurse when her playing career ended and has received numerous honors, including having a field named in her honor in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1997.
Suzyn Waldman is a pioneer in the field of sports broadcasting, serving as color commentator for the New York Yankees since 2005. Her work in radio led to her election to the Radio Hall of Fame on July 25, 2022. She has covered the Yankees for over 35 years and is the first woman to be a full-time MLB broadcaster. Her career began in musical theater until she joined WFAN in 1987, when the idea of a female sports broadcaster was basically unheard of. In that first year, she also covered the New York Knicks basketball team as well as co-hosted a daily radio sports show. In 2019 she called the first MLB games played in Europe. She has also performed the National Anthem at numerous Yankee games over the years and served as a mentor for countless women who have made their way into the world of sports broadcasting and commentating.
Other nominees included: Amanda Clement, Ila Borders, Lillian Hopkins, Connie Wisniewski, and Kuma Gupta.
In 2017 SABR’s Women in Baseball Committee established the Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award — “The Dorothy” — named in honor of Dorothy Seymour Mills and her lifetime of contributions to promoting women’s baseball.
Eligible candidates for the Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award include any person with a sustained involvement in women’s baseball or any woman with a longtime involvement in baseball in any fashion — player, umpire, writer, executive, team owner, scout, etc. Candidates do not have to be living; it can be awarded posthumously. Self-nominations are accepted.
Previous award winners were Claire Smith (2021); Effa Manley (2020); Rachel Robinson (2019); and Perry Barber (2018).
To learn more about the legendary baseball historian Dorothy Seymour Mills, click here.
Originally published: August 30, 2022. Last Updated: September 2, 2022.