A unique women's slow pitch tournament that started with a Facebook post is returning to the Barrie area this Civic Holiday weekend - bigger than ever.
Dirt In The Skirt will bring together 24 teams and about 300 women for two days of baseball, entertainment, and fundraising on July 31 and August 1 at the Barrie Community Sports Complex on Nursery Road in Springwater Township.
The event was created in 2024 by founder Jenny Hastie after she reached out to the local slow pitch community to see if women would be interested in a charity tournament where players wore dresses.
"I just put a small post on my Facebook, seeing if some ladies - I'm part of the Barrie baseball community here, slow pitch community - asking if anybody would be interested in doing a tournament with our dresses, make it a charity tournament," Hastie said.
The response was immediate.
"We had such a great reaction. We ended up having 12 teams sign up in 24 hours."
The first tournament featured dresses inspired by the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, starring Madonna, Geena Davis, Lori Petty and Tom Hanks, honouring the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s.
The event raised $2,300 for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Simcoe County chapter.
After a long wait, DITS expanded to 24 teams last year, with about 300 women taking part and $6,000 was raised for Hospice Simcoe.
Hastie says this year's tournament will continue the charitable focus, supporting the Women and Children's Shelter of Barrie and CMHA.
"We're doing it again this year, bigger and better," Hastie said. "It's just to uplift and empower the community, and with our tournaments, raise some money for local charities."
The popularity of DITS has also led to the creation of a women's slow pitch league.
The league now has six teams playing Tuesday nights at the Tree Nursery Diamonds in Midhurst.
Hastie says the league takes inspiration from entertainment-focused baseball, including Banana Ball-style rules and choreographed dancing.
"We have kind of taken a little bit of Banana Ball style rules and the choreographed dancing," she said. "We choreograph ourselves. We don't have professional choreographers."
She says the goal is to create an experience where players of all skill levels feel welcome.
"You can be any skill level, which is the nice part about our league and our tournaments," Hastie said. "It's for every woman. You can be brand new or experienced."
The Civic Holiday tournament will be free for spectators.
Friday night will feature three games to begin the round robin portion of the event.
Saturday will include all 24 teams, along with karaoke, competitions, a home run derby, a pitching competition, tug of war, raffles, awards and prizes.
Organizers will also be collecting donations for the Women and Children's Shelter of Barrie.
While baseball is at the centre of the event, Hastie says DITS is about much more than the game.
She remembers playing rep fast pitch as a teenager and being one of only two girls on the team.
"That was hard. That was really hard," Hastie said. "I definitely didn't feel super welcome."
She believes women's sports are changing, giving younger athletes more opportunities.
"Women's sports is actually growing so much, and there is a new professional women's baseball league starting up in the United States," Hastie noted.
"So there's actually hope for younger girls to turn their passion and their love for the sport into something more."
Hastie says the DITS community has become a place where women support each other both on and off the field.
"The whole point of it is empowering and uplifting women, women supporting women," she said.
She points to the response after one player was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.
"We all banded together, and everybody was helping to raise money for her family, gift cards, helping with gas and food and everything," Hastie said.
The tournament has already attracted attention beyond the Barrie area, with interest from communities across North America and around the world.
"We've had requests from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Australia, all over the United States," Hastie said.
She says the future could include DITS chapters and tournaments in other communities.
"I mean, it would be really cool to just start chapters all over the world, and that kind of seems like the direction we are going in."
