Beth Greenwood knows what it means to make history. This August, she'll take the field as a catcher for the Boston Hunters in the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL), helping launch the first US professional women's baseball league in more than 70 years. When the season concludes, she'll begin another historic opportunity as a member of the inaugural cohort in Simmons University's groundbreaking Master of Science in Management program — the nation's first MSM focused on the business of women's professional sports.
Long before either milestone, Greenwood's love of baseball started with pickup games in the backyard with her father and brothers, wearing her father's left-handed glove.
"I was always the only girl on the team," she recalls. The few times this wasn't the case are memorable. "There was one other girl when I was 8 years old, and we were in a recreation league," she recalls. "The coach didn't think girls should be playing baseball."
That didn't diminish her commitment to the game. "One boy on that team threw so hard that no one wanted to catch from him. I said, 'I'll catch!' I just wanted to play."
The Path to Collegiate and National Play
Greenwood played through middle school, sometimes making the team, sometimes cut, often told she wasn't "big enough or strong enough" to play with the boys. In high school, she was pressured to switch to softball to land a college scholarship.
"I have nothing against softball, but it's a completely different sport," she says. "I would tell people that I play baseball and they would say, 'You mean softball, right?' As if there was no way I could make it into a baseball league, or that I didn't know what I was talking about."
For her undergraduate degree, Greenwood searched for schools with engineering programs that would also give her the opportunity to try out for the team.
"I was surprised by how many coaches wouldn't respond to emails, or had zero interest in letting me try out," she says. "You can turn me down because I'm not good enough, but not because I'm a woman!"
Once accepted by the University of Rochester, she visited campus and met the baseball coach. "He told me, 'as long as you're good enough to play, it doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl or purple.'"
The opportunity was there, but the challenges were real. She didn't make the collegiate team her first year, but was later selected as one of the top 40 players for the Women's National Team (WNT) from 2018–2022. Still focused on making the college team, she came back her sophomore year and made the practice roster, then was fully rostered in her junior and senior years. In 2021, Greenwood was cited as the first American woman to catch in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball game, and the first female baseball player in the history of the Liberty League (NCAA's Division III).
Given the vital rapport between catcher and pitcher, Greenwood would be in the prime position to detect any difference between catching for either gender.
"It depends more on the pitcher's personality," she says. "The catcher's job is to make the person on the mound look amazing. Does the pitcher need me to be high energy, or do they need me to be cool, calm, collected?"
That said, the shared experience among women who play at this level leads to instant rapport. "I got there with the men, but it took longer for them to trust me, to see that I could handle this. They saw me catch high-velocity pitches in practice, take a 90 mph pitch to my ribcage and not be afraid of it. With women, I don't have to prove myself; I just get to play baseball."
After college, she made the WNT top 20 roster, and had the opportunity to compete in the World Cup in Canada. In 2024, the WNT won silver, second only to the Japan National Baseball Team; a team they had beaten in regular play, marking the first time Japan had lost an international competition in twelve years.
"It was a crazy experience; I tried to stay in the moment," says Greenwood. "You're so focused on being there to help your team, plus representing women's baseball and showing young girls that they can do this, too."
Making History in the Inaugural Women's Pro Baseball League
Greenwood's approach to balancing academics and athletics during her college years led to opportunities that combined both passions, first as a baseball research and development fellow for the Philadelphia Phillies, then as their minor league development coach.
"I got that role in research and development because of my engineering degree," she says. "I worked in the biomechanics lab and helped with their data. Later, because of my playing experience, I had the opportunity to coach. I wouldn't be where I am now without both the degree and the team." In 2025, she became the assistant baseball coach at Vassar College, where she learned more about managing and understanding different personalities, on and off the field.
Representation in the sport remains important. Throughout college, Greenwood worked with Baseball for All, the largest girls baseball organization in the US, running clinics to coach female athletes. For the last two years, she served on the board.
In August 2025, the WPBL hosted tryouts in Washington, DC, attracting over 600 women from 10 countries to compete over four days. A month later, a list of 120 draft-eligible players was released, followed by the announcement of four inaugural teams: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. In November of 2025, the official draft was released, and Greenwood was selected by the Boston Hunters and signed for the inaugural season, which begins in Springfield, Illinois, in August 2026.
"I feel honored to be a part of it, and I'm so excited," says Greenwood. "I always knew that women's baseball is amazing and should be appreciated and recognized, but I knew it would take time. The fact that I'll be a part of it means a lot."
She's also excited for the fans to experience women's baseball, and these particular players. "What's special about our league is that every player has an amazing story," she says. "It's not just a matter of someone who was super gifted and made it to the professional league. Everyone is so unique, and there will be a player for every fan to relate to, even if baseball wasn't your thing."
To pursue this next phase of her career, Greenwood had to leave her position at Vassar. "I only have so long to play professionally. It's a dream I've had my entire life and didn't know if I would have the opportunity."
This July, she started a full-time staff role as director of baseball development for Baseball for All. "We're heading to the national tournament this summer, where 900 girls will be playing." Previous tournaments, which meet annually in Rockford, Illinois, have gathered up to 500 girls, making this the biggest event yet. "It will be amazing to have 900 girls in one place to play baseball."
Greenwood will have a chance to attend part of the Baseball for All tournament before starting her first WPBL season. The Boston Hunters have already been celebrated at Fenway Park, where Greenwood was invited to give a first pitch — another valuable opportunity for representation in the sport. As Greenwood says, "If you can see something, you can be something."
Studying Women's Sports at Simmons
When the baseball season wraps up in September, Greenwood will start her next adventure at Simmons in the Master of Science in Management with a concentration on Business and Leadership in Women's Sports program.
"I think I found this program now for a reason," says Greenwood, who first learned about it on social media. "It's fitting that Simmons is offering this opportunity, and that I would find my way to it. My whole life, I've been around men. It will be cool to be a part of a school that prioritizes opportunities for women!"
Greenwood sees the program as an opportunity to develop her skills to plan for a future in the sport. "What I really want to do is become a manager or general manager of a team, especially a women's baseball team. I've developed my understanding of on-field responsibility and player development, but this program offers a chance to learn the front office side of operations."
She's also excited to encourage other women to enter the sports industry, including non-athletes. "There are ways to stay involved in women's sports beyond playing and coaching."
The degree at Simmons is timely, given the growth of women's sports in the past five years. "It's been incredible to watch," says Greenwood. "Growing up, people believed there were only a certain number of viewers who would watch a sport."
That perception of limited resources offered few opportunities for female athletes to get the attention they deserved. "Now, my success will help other players succeed as well. It's an incredible environment, with teams supporting each other, fans and players lifting each other up. It's representative of the progress we've made, the work we've done, and all the women who came before us to pave this path."
When the Boston Hunters take the field this August, it will be another step toward making the path to professional baseball easier for the girls in the stands.
"Attending women's baseball events has allowed me to find my best friends, the people I click with because of our shared experiences," says Greenwood. "On the college team, I knew I stood out. But I surrounded myself with other female athletes who had the same goals, so it wasn't that weird. Your big, crazy goals don't seem so crazy if you surround yourself with people who share them."