Women’s Baseball Finds a Home in Rockford

When most people think of women’s baseball, what comes to mind is the film A League of Their Own, the 1992 box office hit which tells an interpretative version of real-life events surrounding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which existed from 1943–1954, with Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell and others playing the parts of key players on the Rockford Peaches.

That movie put Rockford, Illinois, firmly on the map as the home of women’s baseball past. Now, the community is working toward making the destination the present and future of the sport.

Dr. Kat D. Williams, chief executive officer of the International Women’s Baseball Center, has a dream for Rockford. She wants it to be the Cooperstown of women’s and girls’ baseball.

“There’s a home for men’s professional baseball in Cooperstown,” said Williams. “There’s a home for Little League in Williamsport. And there is no home for girls and women’s baseball. We have established that in Rockford and we’re now attempting to build an actual physical facility.”

World Cup Action Coming to Rockford

Williams’ dream has three phases: renovate Beyer Stadium (home of the Peaches), build an activity/recreation center and erect the first museum dedicated to women’s and girls’ baseball.

The price tags for this vision aren’t cheap, but Williams has the passion and enthusiasm to push this agenda forward. And she has a little bit of timing on her side. The World Baseball Softball Confederation recently selected Rockford to host the 2026 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Group Stage.

“Internationally, girls’ and women’s baseball is extremely popular,” Williams said. “And the home for it is in Rockford, so we are trying to build on that. To have the World Cup stage come to the home of the Rockford Peaches is some of the most amazing symmetry I can even imagine.”

Rockford will host the Group Stage competition from July 22–26. Williams and GoRockford have bid to host the actual World Cup competition in 2027 and are awaiting word on that bid.

“This is the best pure baseball people are going to see,” Williams said. “We need to put people in the stands. We need to make sure people understand the significance of this. Most people don’t even know there is such a thing as a Women’s Baseball World Cup. But there is and it’s only been in the U.S. one other time. We need to show that we can do it better.”

John Groh, president and chief executive officer of GoRockford, has his focus on which events he can help bring to the city to further its reputation as a host.

“Our community has sports in our DNA, especially competitive amateur sports and what we’ve built over the last couple of decades with soccer and softball,” Groh said. “From a destination marketing perspective, we’re adding another pillar to our product lineup and really leaning into women’s baseball. That opens us up to a whole new multi–generational market.”

This first phase of Williams’ dream — to renovate and update Beyer Stadium, where the Peaches played for 11 years — is underway. The updates include new bathrooms, the installation of an outfield fence, lighting and an overhaul of the playing surface.

The World Cup Games will not be played at Beyer, but instead at Rivets Stadium, home of the Rockford Rivets of the Northwoods League collegiate circuit. Beyer Stadium will be used during the World Cup for ceremonial purposes, as well as practice and potentially exhibition games for some of the international teams that arrive in Rockford early.

“We are in good shape to get phase one finished and we will then turn our attention full force to phases two and three, which is the biggest haul,” Williams said.

A Museum of Their Own

Across the street from Beyer Stadium is where the International Women’s Baseball Center facility will be built. The venue is “first and foremost for the community in which Beyer resides, which is an underserved community,” Williams said. “So we are attempting to build a home for girls and women in baseball, but we’re also building a community center in a neighborhood that desperately needs it.”

“People already make a pilgrimage to Beyer Field where the Peaches played,” Groh added. “This larger vision for an international center, a hall of fame and an activity center for neighborhood youth, honors the legacy of the Rockford Peaches and the women who played in the 1940s and 50s.”

The overall project has a price tag of around $20 million, with the bulk of that going toward the community center and museum. The City of Rockford has committed $300,000 each year for the next five years and Illinois Senator Steven Stadelman has committed $400,000. Major League Baseball has contributed $250,000.

But fundraising efforts are still ongoing and needed.

“The IWBC is a non-profit that’s only 10 years old and until I was hired as CEO two years ago, everything we did was volunteer,” Williams said. “We have come a long way in our 10 years. And now we’re in a position where I think with the World Cup, getting Beyer renovated and the other things that we’re bringing in, that’s going to go a long way in fundraising.”

For the city of Rockford, the attention that women’s baseball continues to bring to the area is welcomed from a tourism standpoint.

“We see people who come here for soccer or volleyball or wrestling and they do come back,” Groh said. “And we think it will be the same way during the World Cup Group Stage and we hope to host the World Cup in 2027 and further build upon our commitment to women’s baseball. Sports tourism has been a way that we’re able to differentiate and improve our community in multiple ways.”

It would be hard to find anybody more dedicated to, or passionate about, women’s baseball than Williams. She is aware that hosting World Cup games is a full circle moment for the IWBC and Rockford and imagines what it will be like for Japan’s Ayami Sato — one of the best female baseball players ever — to step on the field at Beyer Stadium where the Peaches played.

But Williams makes sure the vision remains on the overall project, not just the play on the field.

“We are very careful not to focus only on the Peaches or the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, because women have been a part of baseball since baseball’s inception,” Williams explained. “But that league and the Rockford Peaches — if people know anything about women’s baseball, that’s what they know. And we are very aware of that. But we also don’t want to stop there because women did not start playing baseball in 1943 and we did not stop in 1954 when that league ended.

“With the help of GoRockford, the city government and Rockford University, we all have the opportunity to prove that we are up to this task of creating something special for women’s baseball.”