Watch highlights from My Baseball Story panel with CC Ford and Donna Cohen at 2025 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference
At the seventh annual SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference on September 20, 2025, the My Baseball Story Panel included CC Ford and Donna Cohen, moderated by Kat Williams.
Donna Cohen is a leading lawyer and advocate for women in all aspects of business, sport, and entertainment. She is a member of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Diversity and Inclusivity Commission and most recently was elected to serve as a Trustee of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association Emergency and Education Fund. She is also an advisory board member for the new Women’s Professional Baseball League and a diehard Red Sox fan.
CC Ford is a retired Washington DC public school teacher. She graduated from DC Teacher’s College in 1972 with a degree in health and physical education. CC played on the varsity college baseball team in 1972 and went on to found the League of Women Bowlers.
- Video: Click here to watch a replay of the 2025 My Baseball Story Panel (YouTube)
Here are some highlights:
On how she started in baseball
- Ford: “It started out probably in my garage. The girls in the neighborhood sucked at playing anything sports-wise, so I used the garage wall. I’d get tennis balls from the tennis courts down the street and had this little lousy glove that Daddy used. I’d throw the ball against the wall and catch it and I’d get closer, closer, and closer. So I played that with myself to begin with. Then, most of the people that played sports in the neighborhood were, of course, the boys. So every day at the field across the street, I’d go over there and play with the guys. And they couldn’t pitch worth a darn, so nobody was hitting. I was like, ‘You know, I do better on the garage wall than y’all doing up here, so let me pitch.’ So I became the pitcher for the neighborhood.”
On attending tryouts for the new women’s professional league
- Ford: “I didn’t know what time they were practicing. I said, ‘I’m just going to sit all day. They’ve got to show up at some point in time.’ So I tried to get there early and these women were walking around with baseball uniforms and cleats clicking and clacking. … I walked through the gate crying. They said, ‘You all right, lady?’ I said yeah. And they said, ‘Well, you sure your oxygen is alright?’ I said yeah. They said, ‘Well, what’s the matter?’ I said, ‘I ain’t think I’d live long enough to see this in my lifetime.’ A women’s professional baseball team. You got to be kidding me, right?”
On society’s limitations on women
- Cohen: “Way back when, it didn’t even occur to me, quite frankly. Throughout my career as a lawyer, I faced a lot of that and it still didn’t occur to me. I was invited to teach at my daughter’s school when she was in middle school and people were asking me all kinds of questions about what it was like to be the first woman partner in a litigation firm, first in litigation as a female lawyer, and then the first woman partner in the firm. I really didn’t notice it at the time. I don’t think there was as much of an awareness. I thought of myself as a human, as a person, as a smart person, or as a lawyer, or whatever it is. But I never identified specifically with, ‘Are they treating me one way or another because I’m a girl?’ ”
On what the new women’s professional league means to supporters
- Cohen: “The women who came to tryouts and the allies who came to tryouts whether they were volunteering, whether they were trying out, umpiring, scouting, coaching, the women’s pro baseball league has gathered people who play for the love of the game.”
Transcription assistance by Kellen Furmaniak.
For more coverage of the 2025 SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference, visit SABR.org/women-in-baseball-conference/2025.
Originally published: September 25, 2025. Last Updated: October 6, 2025.