Like many young female athletes, one of Addie Frank’s favorite things to watch growing up was the 1992 film, “A League of Their Own.” Though the movie is fictional and slightly dramatized for Hollywood, its characters and premise are based on the very real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) that formed during World War II.

Flash forward ten years, and Frank finally has the opportunity to live out her childhood fantasies of playing in the big leagues — something she, and many other female baseball players, did not see as a reality until now — thanks to the formation of the brand-new Women’s Professional Baseball League. 

“I heard that the league might form about a year ago, but it was only really within the last few months that it really seemed to get real,” Frank said. “Being able to play baseball professionally is just something I never thought was going to be possible for me until now.”

Confidence boosted by the fact that she is already on the 40-player roster for the U.S. women’s national team, Frank decided to try out for the new league. Over 600 women — ranging in age from 17 to 40 years old — from across the country and abroad traveled to Washington, D.C. this August with the same idea, though due to Frank’s position on the U.S. roster, she was able to skip the first two days of tryouts, allowing her to be fresh and rested for when it was her turn to show off her skills.

“It was a regular baseball tryout with infielding for position players and outfielding for outfield players, bullpens for pitchers and hitting for position players,” she said. “The other girls had to go through speed tests and throwing tests and hitting tests.”

After just one day of tryouts for Frank and three days of tryouts for the majority of hopefuls, she and approximately 100 other talented players received the news of their eligibility for the upcoming draft in October.

“There will be 90 players drafted for six teams,” Frank said. “So I haven’t made it all the way yet, but I am draft eligible. I was very nervous that I wasn’t going to be selected and wasn’t sure that I was going to make the cut, so when I found out that I made it that far, I was very excited.”

The six teams have yet to be announced, though each is expected to represent a city. As it is the league’s inaugural year, all the teams will be stationed in one or two locations; those locations, too, have not yet been announced, though Frank shared that they are rumored to be in the Northeast. 

Whether Frank is drafted or not, the fact that she made it this far in the process is a feat in itself and goes to show that one should never give up on their childhood dreams, no matter how big.

“I always just wanted to play. I liked hitting the ball as hard as I could and as far as I could. (In) T-ball, I would always try to hit the ball into the woods from the field; sometimes I did,” Frank said. “Striking out all the boys was a lot of fun. I think I mostly stuck with it because I was able to compete.”