It certainly didn’t look like Opening Day. Rolling wisps of fog hung over Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill., and a cold rain fell on the bundled up crowd who were in attendance for the opening contest of the Women’s Professional Baseball League. They were there for baseball; they were there for history.
Denae Benites obliged.
The Team USA national team catcher, Bananaball star and captain for the WPBL’s New York Heights worked the count to 2-2 in the fourth inning. She got a curveball low and away. She didn’t miss.
“It was honestly a good pitch, and I just went down and got it,” Benites told MLB.com over Zoom. “When I first hit it, I didn't know it went out, so I sprinted out of the box. As I was rounding first, I heard my first base coach start screaming, and then I heard the crowd go crazy. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I think I just hit it out!’”
There it was: The first home run in the first game of the brand new league -- the first American women’s professional league since the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League of “A League of Our Own” fame.
Benites didn’t want to forget a second. She recalled her first home run, which she hit for Team USA at the Women’s Baseball World Cup, when everything sped by too fast, her memories reduced to a blur.
“I just really tried to slow it down, take in the moment,” Benites said. “I knew that was going to be one that was important and would stick with me forever. So I really wanted to look at the fans, see their reaction, see the energy that they were giving.”
When she crossed the plate and ran through a tunnel of her teammates’ arms, she showed off the moves and natural charisma that has already made her a face of the new league.
“I love to dance. I love a high-energy situation,” Benites said. “It was my idea to tunnel it up and just get a little ‘hey, hey, hey’ through the line."
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Benites hasn’t stopped hitting. Entering Wednesday’s action, the Heights’ catcher was leading the WPBL in home runs (7), average (.769), on-base percentage (.767), slugging (1.615), and OPS (2.382).
Though she leaped ahead of the league, smashing five home runs in her first four games, superstar two-way player -- and fellow USWNT teammate -- Kelsie Whitmore has stormed back and now trails by just one home run, 7-6.
It’s the league’s first season and there’s already a home run race.
“I think it's a really cool thing that we’ve got that going on,” Benites said. “I'm happy for Kelsie. I love her to death, on and off the field. I'm happy that she's performing and putting up numbers, and I think it's driving me a little bit more to get that extra edge. But at the end of the day, we're not really focused on home runs. We're not focused on who can put up bigger numbers. We're just focused on trying to get our team to win. That's all it's about at the end of the day: Just trying to win.”
To look at those numbers, you’d think that the 24-year-old catcher has been launching dingers her whole life. But this is new. She may be a star in the WPBL, but she never hit a home run back in Little League or high school.
“This year, I have really focused in the weight room,” Benites said. “I knew that part of my game was lacking a little bit, especially behind the plate as a catcher. I wanted to build myself up in such a way that nobody could replace me. Nobody can take me off the field. I want to be on the field for every play, every game, and so I knew I needed to lock in and get myself ready.”
That drive to play baseball has been with Benites her whole life -- despite the lack of infrastructure or support available to women to play it. She became the first woman to play varsity baseball in Las Vegas, where she grew up. Before the WPBL came calling, and in between USA national baseball camps and tournaments, she has kept herself in shape by playing men’s rec league baseball. Sure, there were other sports: “Why not softball?” people suggest. But Benites, like so many other women – including the WPBL’s Brittany Apgar – didn’t want to play that, though. She wanted to play baseball.
She often uses a quote that she attributes to her former USWNT teammate, Tamara Holmes: “You wouldn’t ask Sabrina Williams to play ping pong.”
“Through our baseball journey, we're always told that we have to play softball or we can't play baseball,” Benites said. “But you don't see people telling other female athletes that they can't play that sport. You don't see people telling basketball players that they can't play basketball and they have to play different sports. It’s just that comparison, like, 'Why are you telling us that we can't play the sport that we fell in love with when you wouldn't tell another famous athlete that they can't do their sport?'”
With a shock of blonde hair and a sparkling No. 2 chain around her neck, Benites radiates star power each time the camera cuts to her. It makes her a natural fit in Bananaball, where she plays for the Loco Beach Coconuts. The league, for all of its strange rules, Tik Tok-ready dances, and general, neon-uniformed silliness, has become a welcome home for women’s bat-and-ball stars. Benites, Whitmore, fellow USWNT and WPBL star Ashton Lansdell (often a foil for Benites’ off-the-field antics), and softball players like all-time NCAA home run leader Jocelyn Alo have all suited up to play Bananaball.
“Getting the opportunity to play Bananaball has given me a space to train every single day,” Benites said. “Whether it's the weight room, the facility, practicing on the field with the guys – their talent is elite. They've definitely taken my talent to a new level, and they've helped me grow.”
It has also given her space to shine. While Benites bursts with confidence during our conversation, that’s not always been the case. This game has not always welcomed her with open arms.
“It's been a hard journey because, as a woman playing baseball, you're always told that you can't be there,” Benites said. “You're always told that you shouldn't be there and that you can't do these things. It's a really hard mental battle to follow something that you love and constantly be told that you know you don't belong here.”
She credits Bananaball and its joyous crowds for helping her grow, to become the Benites you see today – and that’s beyond the daily trips to the weight room that has turned the catcher into a late-blooming slugger.
“Bananaball is a different world. It brings a lot out of you. It teaches you that there’s people out there that love you, that support you,” Benites said. “There’s always going to be those negative people that have nasty things to say. You can’t let what people say affect you and how you feel about yourself.”
Now, though, Benites feels like she belongs. She knows she’s a face for the brand new league and role model for a new generation of women ballplayers. Fans and teammates have come to expect homers when she comes up to bat and celebrations when she stomps on the plate.
It's a lot of pressure. She's thriving with it.
“I'm right where I'm expected to be, and I'm just trying to make the most of it,” Benites said. “We're trying to create these opportunities to last for a long time. We don't want this to be a one-and-done thing. We want this to continue to grow, continue to support women that fall in love with baseball and want to follow their journey.”
And when she thinks of her first home run, perhaps remembering all the years she spent getting to that point?
“That was just a cool moment and nobody can take that from me,” Benites said. “My name will be in the history books forever.”