Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield featuring Jamie Toole

Summary

The conversation centers around the inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL) in Springfield, Illinois, highlighting the excitement of the opening weekend, the community's support, and the significance of providing a platform for women in professional baseball. Jamie Toole shares insights on the challenges and triumphs of bringing the league to Springfield, the emotional moments during the opening ceremonies, and the potential for future growth and engagement within the community.

Takeaways

• The Women's Pro Baseball League's inaugural season has brought excitement to Springfield.
• Community support has been overwhelming, with fans traveling from all over.
• The opening weekend featured a sellout crowd and historic moments.
• The league aims to empower young girls to pursue professional baseball.
• The event showcased the talent of women athletes in baseball.
• Local businesses have rallied to support the league and its events.
• The league's presence is elevating Springfield's profile nationally and internationally.
• The opening ceremonies included tributes to past and present women in baseball.
• The season runs for seven weeks with multiple games each week.
• There are opportunities for local businesses to engage with the league.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together to Elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your day, y'all. Time to level up, time to crush it. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, Turf Connect coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through it together. We're going to Elevate Springfield. So you are listening to another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield podcast. As you know, we drop these segments each week. The Communities Grow Together segment will touch on all things nonprofit associations and how we as a community are working together so we can all grow together. This segment is brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency over on West Wabash. Whatever you need insurance-wise, whether that's business, life, home, auto, or anything in between, hey, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout or hey, stop by and visit them over on West Wabash. These segments are quick hits of actionable strategies and what's going on in our hair area to help you level up and grow together. Be right back after the break. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent's here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. And we are back. Hey, I am not in the studio. It is obvious to see, but I'm in a gorgeous location, Robin Roberts Stadium with friend of the show. You've seen him on here before. You know and love him. Mr. Jamie Toole, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Man, I'm doing great. It's it's it's hard not to get this smile. Uh I can't get the smile off my face. I know, right? 48 hours. Been a such an awesome weekend for our community and serving the ballpark and uh welcoming the Women's Pro Baseball League right here to Springfield.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

How about that? No doubt about it. Awesome first weekend. But for anybody that maybe hadn't heard about it, what kind of brought this to Springfield, the WPBL?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I I say Divine Intervention. Yeah. The best ability is availability. And when we were getting the ballpark moved over from the uh Springfield Park District, we were looking for programming and was just reaching out to anyone. Uh motocross and soccer, and you you name it. And my friend Justine Siegel, who's been she's sort of been the torch bearer for women's baseball for the past 30 years. And I've known her for about 15 or 20. And so I just gave her a call and said, Hey, how do we get a women's baseball game? Let's play one game and then maybe an exhibition or something like that. And she said, Hey, uh, do you have some time Friday to to go through that? Absolutely. I'll get on the call Friday. There's several other people, and I go into the call wanting one game, and I come out of the call getting the inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League. So it's been a really cool experience since last September to see it all come together and just to see and read all the around the globe. People talking about Illinois, Robin Roberts Stadium, and how cool it is for women to finally have their rifle stage on the professional baseball level.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Absolutely love it. Ton of work over the last year to get to this point, but you had the first game this past weekend, first couple of games, Saturday and Sunday, and opening night was a sellout, which is awesome, right? So who played in that first game?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, we had uh New York play in LA. So, you know, two pretty decent sized media markets. I mean Springfield, but New York played LA right here in Springfield. What was really cool about it is uh the LA team came back and won, and the latest was a really fun game. There was the first home run in the history. You can imagine the first of everything. The first base hit, the first home run, all these fun things. Uh the crowd was electric. They sat through a misting rain for hours, and uh, it was sort of a lightning in a bottle moment. You know, I was on the field. Uh they were kind enough to invite myself and Melissa to be a part of the opening ceremonies, and it was pretty emotional, I gotta tell you, because I was like, wow, I I had always dreamed of seeing this place sold out for a shoes game. And it's one of those things where maybe it didn't come the way you wanted it to come, but it came in a way that was super powerful, and I just it's just an awesome experience to be a part of.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah, no, it was absolutely great to see those pictures from the game. I wasn't able to make it that night, but to look at those pictures and see the stands absolutely packed, just love it. Love it for Springfield, love it for you, love it for the league, man.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Well, it's also unique having been with the shoes for five years and walking around the stands. Normally I know the majority of the people here, right? I only knew three or four people. Folks coming from Australia, from Japan, from Canada, Mexico, not to mention pretty much all 50 states. There's so many fun stories to hear people driving from Delaware, uh, driving from Maine, driving from Texas to come and be a part of that first game. So super historic, great for our community. Hopefully, we can continue to support these guys, and who knows, maybe get them back next year.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

No doubt about it. Tell me a little bit more about those opening ceremonies. You guys were a part of it, but what else went on there for that first game?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Well, it was really cool. So they had sort of the generations, right? They had a young girls team come out, and then they have the former uh ladies that played in the All-American Baseball League in the 40s, and then they had the modern players. So it was a really cool moment to sort of pass the torch, if you will, to the current players. Um and seeing so many little girls around the ballpark now saying, Hey, I want to play pro baseball, I can do it now. There's a class. But uh, they did a really good job uh streaming on the ESPN platform. Uh, they did a really good job with the presentation. The pregame included folks like Tony LaRussa from the Cardinals, James Stewart, Maybelle Blair, who's probably the most popular women's baseball player in history. I think she's 99 and she's still hustling around, quick-footed. Uh pleasure to be around her. Uh, and then we had what they call a viral moment with the national anthems. That was an interesting deal. But all in all, it was just such a beautiful ceremony. I'm so proud of the fans that waited again in the misting rain, and there was an hour and a half delay, and no one left. Yeah. No one left. The energy in the building was palpable and once in a lifetime experience.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

No doubt about it. Yeah, I was a little concerned about that early in the day. I was like, man, I hope this doesn't get the first game get rained out. Me too. Me too. Oh, I bet.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Then I tell everybody at conference, we're fine, we're good, we'll get the game, man. And then my heart's like, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. But it was it was a really great night. We we almost sold out Sunday, had another packed crowd here for San Francisco play in Boston, had two or three just amazing plays. I I want people to understand these are really talented women. It's not just ladies playing baseball. These are talented women, diving catches, home runs, double plays, bunting. I'm like, this is a really fun product. And to think that it's all starting here, and years from now, we'll all look back and be like, man, remember that started in Springfield, Illinois?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

History right here in Springfield. Love it. I'll tell you, the stadium looks phenomenal. We're as we were walking up to our spot here, this changeover from the shoes to the WPBL. You guys did a phenomenal job getting this all put together.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Well, so many people involved, so many helpers from the WPBL, local vendors like Ace Sign Company to the Fence. So many local people came to support this deal. And I don't ever remember every vendor that would show up, wow, this is a big deal. This is so cool. I've heard about it from this group or this group. And uh I I Sam Madoni tells a story about being uh a friend of his being in the in the airport in Louisiana, and person saying, Hey, where are you from? He said, Springfield, Illinois. And the lady says, Oh, that's the home of the women's pro baseball. Oh, come on, yeah. So which is kind of funny. It just started up, but so many people put their heart into this thing. Justine Siegel, Keith Stein, the entire WPBL crew. Um, it was it's really just been such a surreal thing to see it come together as fast as it did. Flip the ballpark from shoes to women's baseball, and hopefully they they consider this home. And again, we can get them back here for 27.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah, I think you flipped it in what, like two days, it seemed like. I mean, you yeah, just you finished the shoes season not too long before you started the women's season.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

We were already unzip tied and unscrewing things, uh, probably pre-game on Sunday, the 26th. So ready to flip this place, and we were able to do it, and it looks beautiful, it looks great on TV. You can stream all the games on ESPN streaming. I just encourage you to take a look. It's sort of fun to see this ballpark streaming all over and highlights on Sports Center, coverage in every major media outlet there is. Good morning, America, CBS morning show, ESPN, and it's fun, it's great for our city because Springfield is a great place. I love being able to showcase all the fun things about being here in Springfield. We sold out of every local craft beer that we have. Oh, really? Every single one, you know. So all those local craft beer products, people are experiencing them all over the globe.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Uh-huh. Love it, love it. No, the how they are producing the show and everything for ESPN and have that right here where everybody can see that anywhere is just phenomenal. I love that. I love that. So if they haven't tuned in yet, make sure they do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

But absolutely. You got to tune in to ESPN. I think scripts are streaming a few games. And then internationally, I think YouTube, uh, they're streaming internationally, which are their numbers are crazy. So uh a lot of people are tuning in to see what this thing's about. How does it last? How does it go? So, off to a good start. Hopefully, we can pack these seats here over the next couple of weeks and the springfold businesses. Come out and support this thing, catch a catch a game, you know, bring your daughters out here, let them know. Hey, there's a new opportunity to play professional baseball for you young ladies.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

That's right. Well, my wife and I were just talking about that on the way in. We need to get our girls here for a game here real soon. So, how many, how many total games are there now? There's been a couple already, but how many, how long is the season?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So it's a seven-week season. Uh, they they opened on Saturday, Sunday. Uh, this coming week's more of a traditional set of games. They play Wednesday through Sunday and two games Saturday. So six games a week for the next six weeks, and then there'll be a sort of a truncated playoffs. All the teams will make the playoffs and then the championship series. So we're running through about September the 22nd. All the information is at women'sprobaseballleague.com. Their socials are just going nuts. People's content is really it's a really fun follow social to follow. Learn more about who these ladies are, where they're from. There's like a firefighter that's playing in the league, that's their job. There's there's so many sort of human interest stories too, which is fun to follow along with. But I I hope all of Springfield can at least get out and take part in one game.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

No doubt about it. And before the season started, you did uh what was it, the lead-off luncheon with all the players and everything? How cool was that?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

That was super cool. Uh thankful to Mayor Busher. She gave uh the key to the city to the ownership group of WPBL, which is really they were blown away. They were so excited. The folks over at uh the Crown Plaza did a sensational job. And uh just to introduce these ladies and sort of welcome them with open arms, you know, that they haven't ever had a platform like this where this is their place. And you know, coming back to getting the ballpark that was important to the league is they wanted a place where they couldn't just sort of be a halfway tenant. They wanted to sort of own the facility for two months. And we were able to accommodate that and and so far so good. It's just for our community again. The people all over the globe talking about Springfield for women's baseball now, which is it's kind of a cool thing to do. It is very cool, yeah. It's uh love Route 66 and Lincoln and all the fun things about Springfield. But wow, it's kind of cool to have some positivity all over the globe coming this way.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

No doubt about it. This is certainly elevating Springfield, Jamie. Come on now, let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

If people want to get tickets, they head over to the WPBL website, where they go.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, women'sprobaseballleague.com is all the information, all the tickets. Um, and then they can reach out through us, uh, Jamie at uh Five Tool Ventures if they want to book a group, be a sponsor, get involved. Plenty of opportunities for those things, recognizing folks on the field, first pitches, you name it, right? Kids are on the bases. All the things that are fun of minor league baseball games are incorporating. These games are fun. Heck yeah, they are. They play seven innings, they play with aluminum bats, but outside of that, the bases are 90 feet, pitching mounts, the same measurement. So come on out, take part in it. And if you're a local business uh that wants to do things like catering, reach out to us. There's a lot of need. I can't wait to look back at the end and see what the economic impact has been because I think it's gonna be very significant.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

It's gonna be huge. Yeah. So businesses out there, get in touch with Jamie. Great partnership opportunities out there. Come on out, everybody else, see a game, support this league. It is phenomenal for Springfield, it's phenomenal for this league, it's phenomenal for everybody involved. I just love it.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Well, Jamie, appreciate you spending time with me as always, brother.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Absolutely. Elevate Springfield, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

That's right. Well, we're gonna let Jamie get back to elevating Springfield and the WPBL for that matter. For the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody, on another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Thank you again to David Hills, American Family Insurance Agency for partnering with us on this segment. A take what you learned today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together. That's right, y'all. We're gonna Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity, look no further than Stangemin Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing. Every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbors trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmentTreeService.com. Sangman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.