ST. PETERSBURG, FL. - On this night at the ballpark at Tropicana Field, baseball fans lined up to meet some of their favorite players. But there were two tables that fans visited the most. That’s because they were reserved for legends of the game.

Seated at those tables were six players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

The league was born in 1943 to keep baseball alive during World War II. It offered a chance for women to be legitimized in a sport that belonged to men.

“We all played with boys,” said Shirley Burkovich who played three seasons in the AAGPBL, including the Rockford Peaches in 1951. “That’s all we did – boys on the street and in vacant lots. Nothing for the girls.

“It was just like you were waking up and just went to heaven with your dream,” said Maybelle Blair, who played for the Peoria Redwings in 1948. “You’d always dreamed of but you didn’t think you would ever get to do that because girls didn’t play baseball. But by god we sure did!”

“We played every night, seven days a week with doubleheaders on Sunday,” said Lois Youngen, who played for three teams in four seasons in the AAGPBL. “We played over 100 games in a season. We had double steals, hit-and-runs, and we even stole home! We were good!”

The league ran until 1954. The players went back home and carried on life without much mention of their baseball careers. But that all changed in 1992 when director Penny Marshall brought their stories to the big screen.

The film was ‘A League of Their Own’. To this day it remains one of the most popular baseball movies of all-time.

“They didn’t know about us until the movie was made,” said Burkovich.

“We became known and we got to travel all over and they’re recognizing us in all of these stadiums,” said Sister Toni Palermo, who went into the convent the same year the league folded.  

“They don’t make people like that anymore,” said Tracy Reiner, who played Betty “Spaghetti” Horn in the movie. She is also the daughter of the late Penny Marshall. “The fact that some of these women hold records beyond some of the men who get paid millions and millions of dollars.”

“They didn’t know how important it was; they didn’t know how to talk about it,” said Patti Pelton, who played Marbleann Wilkenson in the movie. “So, now they have a voice.”

These players are now using their voice to advocate for young women who want to play baseball.

“It’s been more than 60 years since our league ended and girls’ baseball has done what,” said Sue Parson Zipay, who played two seasons for the Rockford Peaches.

“Why not a woman president, why not girls playing baseball, women in baseball,” wonders Anne Ramsay, who played Helen Haley in the movie. “Tell me, why not?”

“We have girls who are five years old, with their dads and their moms, coming out to visit these ladies and these movies stars, all of whom know every line from the movie,” said Donna E. Cohen, an attorney who also serves as an advisor for Baseball For All.

It’s that type of recognition that has allowed these women to spread their message both national and even international.

"There are 29 countries now playing. That’s almost one a year over the last 30 years,” said Reiner.

But the most important goal is to grow the game for women in communities through the country.

“We need four teams to have a league. Then we can play some matches and get this going,” said Parson Zipay.

And above all, let everyone know that women can indeed play the game.

“Yes we can play baseball and we’d like to get a league our own again,” said Blair.