How Maybelle Blair Shattered Glass Ceilings For Women & Queers In Baseball

"I hid for 75 to 85 years, trying to hide my gayness," expressed Maybelle Blair, a pioneering baseball player who publicly opened up about her queer identity at 95 years old in 2022. "I was a new girl at 95," she added in an interview with The Guardian. Blair has been an advocate for the empowerment of women and queer people in sports. “I think it’s a great opportunity for these young girl ball players to come to realize that they’re not alone, and you don’t have to hide," the athlete said. 

How Maybelle Blair Got Into Sports

Born on January 16, 1927, Blair grew up watching her brother and father play baseball while she was made to be on the sidelines and record the score. Enthusiastic to play, she started an all-girls softball league in her school when she was just in the fifth grade. Her hard work and determination paid off, as she was later scouted for the big leagues. 

Blair attended the Los Angeles School of Physiotherapy, after which she worked at a treatment centre in California before beginning a long 37-year career at the aircraft manufacturing company Northrop Corporation, where she started as a chauffeur and then the manager of highway transportation, being one of the three women the company employed as managers at the time.

During World War II, fear spread across America that baseball would go extinct as men were getting drafted. However, Blair and 600 other women took matters into their own hands and formed the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943 through 1954), which inspired the classic film A League Of Their Own (1992), featuring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, and Madonna.

Blair has been an active collaborator in different projects of the AAGPBL Players Association since its foundation in 1982, serving on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Fundraising Committee. In 1988, the association helped open a permanent display for the league's contributions to baseball at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, giving recognition to women. 

Blair is also a founding member of the International Women's Baseball Center (IWBC), a nonprofit building an educational centre and museum in Rockford, Illinois, the home of Rockford Peaches, a team that played in the AAGPBL. At the age of 97, she determinedly continues to work for the appreciation of women and sexual minorities in sports across the world.

In 2022, during the promotion of the Amazon Prime series adaptation of A League of Their Own, Blair made a surprising revelation, coming out as queer. While her teammates and close ones already knew, the promotional event was the first time that she publicly opened up about her sexuality. "Out of the clear blue sky, I just blurted it  out," she told The Guardian.

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In a bid to undo the fear and trauma she endured in her days, Maybelle Blair wishes to make the sports landscape more accepting for LGBTQIA+ folk and other marginalised communities. “I think they should be able to have a home of their own for baseball. I’ve got a few things I still have to do before I get six feet under," she told the outlet, expressing an inspiring determination.