Rachel Gansner, who started all-girls baseball league at North Side park, dies at 45

Rachel Gansner, who started an all-girls fall baseball league in 2024 in Warren Park on the North Side, died Saturday after a long battle with stomach cancer. She was 45.

"Starting the league was an intense passion project of hers because she grew up loving the sport as a huge Cubs fan but wasn't able to play baseball as a kid because it wasn't an option for her," said her husband, Jeremy Gansner.

She started the all-girls league at Warren Park — located at Western Avenue and Pratt Boulevard — with about 25 players ranging in age from 6 to 9 that were spread among four teams: the Blue Sox, Comets, Peaches and Belles.

"Baseball is so hard. But when they finally had a hit or made a play or drove in a run, it wasn't just happiness, it was pride in themselves to see they were able to do it. And they kept getting better and better," said Jeremy Gansner.

"Rachel allowed them to feel that it's OK to fail, especially when your teammates are on the same page and support you and lift you up. And they became ballplayers. She really gave them the empowerment and tools to do that, and it's beautiful," he said.

Last year, the league expanded to form two age divisions — one for girls 6-9 and another for girls 10-12.

Mrs. Gansner's daughter, Eloise — known as Weezy — was in the league. Mrs. Gansner coached her team.

"Weezy blossomed into somebody who was confident and strong," said Jeremy Gansner. "It's going to be tough for her this year I think because one of her favorite things was having her mom as a coach. But her mom set her up for success."

The Gansner's 12-year-old son, George, helped out by serving as occasional umpire.

Jeremy Gansner kept score and did play-by-play announcing, occasionally handing the mic to kids who wanted to try their hand at announcers.

"The league is continuing this year," he said. "That's our hope and goal. I am going to work to make sure it continues."

Mrs. Gansner started playing baseball in a women's league in Chicago after college. She played second base and loved it immediately.

"She felt that it's a world where girls are pushed to softball, but it's not the same. It's the only sport where the male and female versions are different," Jeremy Gansner said.

When she started the all-girls league, Mrs. Gansner dropped pamphlets at North Side park district field houses, grocery stores, laundromats and coffee shops.

The infield of the baseball diamond they were going to use at Warren Park had become overgrown with weeds due to lack of use, and she spent many hours on her hands and knees over the course of several weeks, with the help of other volunteers, pulling them.

"She didn't want the girls to feel second rate with a weedy field," said Michael Phelps, who serves on the Warren Park Youth Baseball board.

Mrs. Gansner, who served as president of the board, also coached her son's team.

"She got us all to care and go along with her vision. She had that sort of force of character," said Steve Hendershot, a friend and volunteer coach.

"My daughter, Jade, plays baseball and she started on one of the co-ed teams at Warren Park that was mostly boys, but when she started in the all-girls league, all the sudden, she found her voice, her friends and got much better at baseball rapidly," Hendershot said.

Mrs. Gansner also founded a non-profit called Let's Play Too that focused on opening up the sport to girls.

Mrs. Gansner was born Dec. 15, 1980, to Judith Caplan, an education consultant, and Richard Caplan, an architect. She grew up in Lincoln Park playing softball and attended Francis W. Parker School. She later graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and earned a master's in education from DePaul University.

"She was a friend, a deep, tight friend, and she loved parties in our backyard when the weather turned nice and it became home base for barbecues and fires in the fire pit and staying up late with lights and music and with the kids running around enjoying neighborhood," her husband said.

Mrs. Gansner, who lived in Edgewater, was a die-hard Cubs. She was at first a tad concerned about marrying a guy from Cleveland — whose hometown team faced the Cubs in the World Series in 2016.

"But we agreed this relationship would work early on because never ever would these two horrible teams meet in the World Series," Jeremy Gansner joked about their thought process at the time.

The Warren Park Youth Baseball Board plans to name a field after Mrs. Gansner, and the name of the all-girls league that she created will also bear her name beginning next season.

Funeral services have been held. A kickball game to take place at Warren Park is being planned to celebrate Mrs. Gansner's life.