The Hoboken Historical Museum will host a special event on Sunday, March 10, at 11 am, to celebrate youth baseball and its power to drive social change. Project Béisbol, a nonprofit group that promotes cultural exchange through youth baseball, is bringing a team of Colombian youth baseball players to Hoboken as part of the Sport for Social Change initiative. The team is in the second week of a two-week trip to Florida and the Northeast, after hosting a visiting U.S. team in November 2018.

On Sunday, the featured speaker will be Hoboken’s own Maria Pepe, a pioneer in breaking down gender barriers in sports. As a young girl in 1972, Maria was determined to play the game she loved as a member of Hoboken’s official Little League team, but the League denied her request. The National Organization for Women sued on her behalf and won a case in 1974 that led the Little League organization to amend its charter and allow girls to play. It was too late for Maria to play, but she opened the door for hundreds of thousands of girls to compete at a national level in the game they love.

Also speaking is Bob Foster, Hoboken Historical Museum Director, who will talk about the pivotal role Hoboken played in the birth of the modern game of baseball by hosting the historic match between Alexander Cartwright’s New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nine, June 19, 1849.

All are welcome to join us for this free public event