USA Baseball star Naomi Ryan is having best week ever at World Series

LOS ANGELES — What do Jennifer Hudson and Clayton Kershaw have in common? Until Saturday, not much. But now, they can both say they had the pleasure of meeting someone who, depending on whom you ask, represents a large part of the future of the sport.

Naomi Ryan, 17, is the youngest player ever to play for the USA Baseball women’s team, which was formed in 2004, and she is having the best week ever. But how she went from the national stage to the biggest stage of the national pastime is the type of experience that only comes with a bit of luck, a lot of gumption and a heap of support.

“I work for the Commonwealth of Virginia and we do this training about phishing emails, and how they target it for you. They really know you,” Cornelia Ryan explained with a laugh from the Loge level at Dodger Stadium, where she and her daughter were taking in Game 1 of the World Series on Oct. 25. “So, I get this email and it’s from someone who says they are J. Hud’s producer. And they want to consider Naomi for some MLB promotional stuff. I’m like, ‘I’m being scammed. This is what they warned me about in that training I took last week.’ ”

But she soldiered on, using the age-old axiom that we all tell ourselves, just to make sure we don’t make the most obvious mistake in the world. “So, I reply back to the email and I’m like, ‘Sure.’ I mean, we’ll just see how far this goes, how far this scam goes. I won’t give them my credit card.”

Turns out, it was all very real and, next thing you know, they’re on a flight to Los Angeles, responsibilities be damned. When Hudson — the former American Idol standout, Dreamgirls star and EGOT winner — comes calling to help your daughter with her dream, you take a chance.

So, she sent an email.

“‘Sorry, job. I know we’re in the middle of stuff. I know this sucks, but yeah, I’m gone. I’ll be in LA.’ I sent the same email to her school, ‘Look, I know she’s got physics, but…,’ ” Cornelia Ryan described, still incredulous that any of this ever happened.

Once they got to the set of The Jennifer Hudson Show, the whirlwind of excitement and slight confusion meant that even though Naomi thought she’d be doing something cool with J. Hud, neither she nor her mother had any real idea of what to expect or when.

Which is exactly how the show wanted it, for the big reveal.

“They told me we were doing something after the show. So I was just like, ‘Oh, we’re just going to get to watch it.’ And then they surprised me,” Naomi Ryan said, sporting a blue USA Baseball jersey on this day, differing from the white one she wore on the show. “I couldn’t think at all. I was like, ‘Oh, my god. What’s happening right now?’ We were both shook.”

“I was proud, but I was nervous. I’m like, ‘Please don’t let me fall.’ That’s the only thing I can think of. And then Jennifer Hudson’s super sweet. She’s like, ‘Hey, come on, give me a hug.’ I’m like, ‘I hugged an EGOT,’ ” Cornelia Ryan boasted with the kind of pride that sistas of a certain age emit when they get to share their stories and glories in safe spaces with each other. “I’m one degree from Beyonce. No. but seriously, it was amazing.”

Major League Baseball gifted the tickets to the show, and Ryan was picked by the Baseball and Softball Development Department at MLB. As part of the girls’ baseball MLB Develops programming, she was identified for the national team. Having participated in the Trailblazer Series, Elite Development Invitational and Breakthrough Series under that umbrella, she made the squad. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Her manager, Veronica Alvarez, loves the teenager’s game. Ryan hit third in the lineup and won All-Tournament first base at the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup in August, where they took silver. Not that Alvarez is still not thinking about that part.

“Naomi is a special player, right? We have a lot of special players on our entire team, full of really strong, resilient, athletic women that are kinda pushing through the resistance of women in baseball. But Naomi has fit right into that,” Alvarez said. “She’s our youngest player on the national team. And it’s incredible that she physically and mentally was able to jump right in and be at their level. It’s amazing to have her as a representative for all of us.

“I think that our team is the best in the world. We just played a World Cup and we got silver. So technically, you know, the results were not the best in the world,” she continued. “The level of play that the women bring every day, we’ve been able to go from the U.S. Women’s National Team not medaling since 2014. We had a World Cup in 2016 and 2018 we didn’t medal in. I became the manager in 2019 and we kinda revamped the program.”

The overall state of women’s baseball is hard to determine. Most people are still in some form of League of Their Own mode, or they just can’t fathom that it’s not softball. The road women’s baseball has traveled is one shunned and often scorned.

“It’s legit baseball, it’s some of the best athletes I’ve ever been able to coach and be around. It’s just phenomenal to watch. And I think that if people saw that product, if people saw women playing at that level, they would understand and buy in,” Alvarez explained. “It’s not softball.”

A documentary about women’s baseball airs on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on MLB Network. Coach Veronica, as Naomi calls her, is definitely in the film.

“It showcased our women’s national team and other national teams. But somebody just posted on that and somebody in the comments said, ‘Women softball’s the best.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Alvarez said with a laugh. “It’s mindblowing for women, for people to be able to see the word baseball, see a baseball, see women throwing overhand and still relate it to the game of softball. And it’s not anything against the game, it’s just the fact that we could both exist. We can both coexist. They’re both great sports, but this particular group of women, Naomi Ryan, wants to play baseball. She does not want to play softball, because they are two different sports. And it’s okay.”

One reason why she doesn’t want to play softball is obvious: she’s a damn good baseball player. Do you know who told her that? Her head coach in high school. Yes, she plays with the boys like so many others in her position. But at The Miller School in Albermarle, Virginia, the man who runs the program isn’t just any other guy. He’s Billy Wagner.

Yes, that one. Billy the Kid. The one who looked like just another dude walking down the street in terms of body type but lasted 16 seasons in the bigs as a pitcher. He was a seven-time All-Star, is one of only eight big leaguers with 400 career saves, and is on a LOT of people’s long lists for Cooperstown (he is in the Houston Astros Hall of Fame). Yes, it is a somewhat random name in the pantheon of people who have graced a big league field, but it is the kind of person who has seen the top and is used to overcoming major obstacles.

As the story goes, after a relatively tumultuous upbringing and breaking his right arm twice playing football, he just…started throwing left. And that got him to the majors. So, if anyone understands longshots, Wagner does.

“When I took over coaching in high school, I coached against her brother. Anyway, he was going to Pitt, and he killed us all the time. He was so awesome. So I knew of the family. I didn’t know about her,” Wagner noted. “I got a call asking if I would meet with her about coming to Miller. And so she comes in and she’s really quiet. She’s sitting in the table and you got our athletic director, myself, her parents, and I’m just kind of sitting there and listening to the spiel. And next thing I look over at her and I said, what do you want out this? What is this end game for you? Because I don’t know what she’s looking for. She goes, “I want to be the first major league woman’s baseball player. I said, ‘there was somebody that once told me it was possible and I’m not going to be the person that tells you it’s not.’

“When you think of girls playing, she’s just not typical. She throws 79 to 81 [miles per hour], 82 tops. Then she’s got good command of a curve ball. She knows how to hold a runner.”

Being a girl on a high school baseball team is one thing. To be fair, that’s not that uncommon anymore, which is great. But being a national team member is another matter and quite impressive.

Leadership has a lot to do with that for Naomi.

“She’s the easiest person to coach on the team. Because I don’t have to worry about her worrying about hitting home runs or exit velo. She’s truly competing to throw strikes, make pitches, get on base, and lay down her bunt — to do whatever it is to win,” Wagner beamed Friday. “And it’s rubbed off a lot on our team because our team knows how I feel about doing the little things, and she exemplifies exactly what it is to be that type of player.

“For our team, it wasn’t a big deal because I think a lot of our guys had heard about Naomi. And so it only took a little bit for them to go, ‘Oh, well, she could play.’ And they voted her a captain on our team. I mean, she’s the only returning captain we have, and I’ve never had a captain, let alone a girl, a captain as a sophomore.”

As for meeting Kershaw, her mom tried to sneak a curveball past her this time.

“We were walking into the stadium, I was like, ‘Am I meeting Clayton?’ And she’s like, ‘No, you know I would tell you. We’ve had a lot of surprises; I would tell you.’ And I could tell she was lying because she was smiling so much,” Naomi Ryan said, recalling the hours earlier in the day. “So, we’re walking and then I see him behind the batting cage and I’m like … my friends wanted me to blog, so I take a video of him. I was like, ‘Guys, I think I’m about to meet Clayton Kershaw.’ So, soon enough, I met him, and, thanks to my coach and his connections, I was able to meet Clayton.”

Wagner called in a favor to the league to make his player’s already incredible trip that much more memorable.

“The first time I met him, I told him my dream. I told him I wanted to play in the MLB, and he said he’d give me a hat and an opportunity,” Naomi Ryan said of Wagner. “I think he’s kind of found a connection with me because he’s also been the underdog in some situations. So, it was like, ‘I’m going to help and find any way for her to be able to reach her goal.’ I mean, he’s done that.

“With anything, even when I played basketball, I was still quiet, but I think he’s [Wagner] really helped me be more confident in myself on and off the field. Also, I’ve gotten messages from parents on Instagram saying how inspirational I am to their daughter. That’s kind of like a full-circle moment for me, because I was in their position not that long ago.”

As for the game, the mom and daughter are Yankees fans, while the dad and brother, who did not make the trip, are Mets fans. It was still iconic, even though their favorite team lost.

After Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman sent a ball deep to right field sending Chavez Ravine into a frenzy to take the series lead, she said plainly. “That was the best baseball game I’ve ever seen.”

Considering what that whole day had in store, it’s easy to understand why.