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BY: Nathania Seales Oh

In Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey, Jean Hastings Ardell co-authors the deeply moving memoir of Ila Jane Borders, a woman shattering gender stereotypes in a male-dominated profession while navigating her secrecy, shame, and eventual acceptance of her sexual orientation.

Throughout the book, Ardell points to transformative moments of fight in Borders’ life: as a youth at home and in the church, as a childish woman on the baseball field and in male locker rooms, and at a Christian university where she played before being signed to play professionally. There are moments of levity alongside anecdotes of profound loss and rejection that show the reader Borders’ way to authenticity and success.

Ardell has worked in Orange County, California as a freelance writer for nearly thirty years. While she has covered a variety of subjects, she always returns to baseball. Her first book, Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime, appeared in The L.A. Times bestsellers list. Making My Pitch: A Woman’s