Janiliz Rivera, the MVP of the 2021 Puerto Rican Women’s Baseball League, says women's baseball is on an exciting journey and she can't wait for the next World Cup. Speaking on the latest edition of The Global Game, the WBSC official podcast (in Spanish), Rivera is especially excited with the growth and development of women’s baseball across the five continents.
“I love the fact that women’s baseball is growing at a worldwide level, because it helps to get recognition,” Rivera said. “Women can also play the game, we’ve got talent. I’m happy because the sport is improving, with more events, more qualifiers, World Cups. Good things keep happening for women’s baseball.”
Rivera, 23, lead Lobas de Arecibo to the Puerto Rican Women’s Baseball League title in December last year with a pair of wins in the three-game final series, including two shutouts. She is also a Puerto Rican Women’s National Baseball Team member, who represented the island at the 2018 WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup, helping her team to finish in ninth place.
The WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup - celebrated by the WBSC Women’s Baseball Commission to mark International Women's Day earlier this month - is the biggest stage for the discipline. “To represent your nation, to wear your country’s uniform, to be in the spotlight....it filled me with pride,” Rivera said.
She was Puerto Rico’s top hitter in the 2018 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup in Viera, Florida. She posted a .571 batting average with 10 RBI and seven runs scored. She said it was one of the greatest experiences of her life.
“I had a good performance in the last World Cup in Florida. But it also gave me a hint of what I need to improve for the next global events,” said Rivera, who aims to represent Puerto Rico again in the next World Cup, with the Group Stage starting in 2023 and the finals slated for 2024.
Rivera started playing baseball at the age of five. She said baseball is in her blood, since it’s a family heritage that has been part of the family for generations. “My grandfather and my father played the game. When I was five or six years old, a boy’s team needed one player and my mother allowed me to go play with the boys. Baseball has been always in my blood.”
In the last few years, the baseball world has seen women reaching some top-level positions in professional organisations at managerial and front office roles, including Major League Baseball (MLB), appointments which give Rivera even more motivation to succeed on and off the field as her career develops. “It’s an inspiration for everyone to see women like us, that love the game, to reach these kind of positions. It’s an extra motivation to keep fighting and working for our sport in our countries.”
Asked about what women’s baseball need to keep growing and moving forward, Rivera has no doubts. “I believe that women should have more opportunities to play the game. We also have talent, we can compete at the world level. We need opportunities to show what we’re capable of doing.”
