(June 30, 2008 – Toronto, Ontario) -- Anyone who has followed baseball for the past few decades knows there's a special place within its ranks for players who can most easily be described as different. Bill "Spaceman" Lee is one of them. What I didn't know is that Bill Lee came by his major league pitching talent naturally. His aunt is Annabelle Lee, who is one of the people in Lois Siegel's terrific documentary Baseball Girls, which is now available on DVD from the National Film Board.

Siegel is an award-winning, Ottawa-based director, photographer and musician who turned her attention to the role women played in baseball at a time when it seemed like everyone was looking at the sport. Production began in the summer of 1992 and continued over the next two summers. The $700,000 documentary was released by the NFB in 1995. The feature film, A League of Their Own had been released in 1992 and Ken Burns had released his multipart TV series, Baseball, in 1994.

Speaking to Northernstars.ca, Siegel said, "I started research on my film in 1991, before "League" came out. Ken Burns was also working on his film at the same time. There was some footage that he had borrowed from the Northern Indiana Centre for History that I wanted to use. They told me he had it. I called Burns' office and one of the people working there kindly agreed to mail me the 16mm film once they were finished with it if I promised to return it to the society. That was amazing. We both used the footage. It was documentary footage of the All-American Girls Professional League."

But as Siegel is quick to point out, her film isn't strictly about girls. "We covered the history - from the earliest years, including the Bloomer Girls to the Colorado Silver Bullets, a hard-ball team. And we filmed during a reunion of the All-American Girls Professional League. A League of Their Own is based on this league. We also covered children and housewives in amateur leagues."

"Meghan McCready was 7 when we filmed her. She, essentially, opens the film to explain the game and her connection with it. She's wonderful. She was the only girl on her neighborhood all-boys team. Her dad was a film director at the National Film Board of Canada. That's how I discovered her. We were at lunch one day, and I mentioned that I was looking for a young girl to be in my baseball film. He said his daughter played baseball. I met her and she was perfect."

Siegel has kept in touch with some of the people in her film, and kept tabs on many others. "And then there's Julie Croteau who took her high school to court in 1989 when the coach claimed she wasn't good enough to play in their all-male league. She filed a sex discrimination suit against her high school. In 2004 Croteau was selected as a coach for the United States Women's National team, which captured Gold at the 2004 Women's World Cup of Baseball in Edmonton. In 2006, Croteau served as manager of the 2006 Women’s National Team that represented the United States at the Women’s World Cup in Taiwan."

Shot across Canada and in parts of the US, Baseball Girls gave Siegel the chance to meet some of her own interesting people. "In Anaheim, Gene Autry, though holding a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Angels, was in control in name only due to poor health in his advanced years. Autry’s wife Jackie, 20 years his junior, was the decision-maker. We focused on Jackie, but Gene was there too. We were allowed to film during a game. We were stationed at the corner of the 3rd base dugout. Barry Perles, cameraman, wore a bicycle helmet for protection. I can't remember if I did or if my soundman, Hans Ooms did. We had to constantly dodge foul balls. Very dangerous. I have one of the balls as a souvenir." That's Siegel in the pink cap on location during the making of Baseball Girls.

She also got to meet Bill "Spaceman" Lee who told her about what his aunt, Annabelle "Lefty" Lee, had contributed to his success. Lee said of his aunt, "She taught me how to throw a curveball and screwball. She kind of refined my pitches," reports Siegel. "We filmed him and we filmed Annabelle at the reunion of the All-American Girls Professional League."

Baseball Girls uses animation, archival stills and live-action footage to document the history of women's participation in the largely male-dominated world of baseball and softball. In its review of the film, Eye Magazine wrote, "Smart, strong and snappy, much like its subjects."

You can order Baseball Girls online from the NFB.