EVANSTON — Being a lifelong baseball fan, Evanston's Tanya Wiens was excited when she saw an announcement in the New York Yankees magazine about the NYY Women's Mini-Fantasy Camp. The Yankees are her favorite team, and she loved playing baseball, so she applied to attend.

The camp was held in Tampa, Florida, at spring training at the George Steinbrenner field on Jan. 16-19, 2014. All Major League Baseball teams hold fantasy camps, but the Yankees are the only team that has a camp for women. 

Retired Yankee players give their time to the camp and play on the teams with the women. Each year, the players are different depending on who has the time. When Tanya attended, the list of famous Yankees included Jorge Posada, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, Mickey Rivers, Homer Bush, Shane Spencer, Gene “Sticks” Michael, Oscar Gamble, Roy White, Chris Chambliss and Bucky Dent.

Applications included a medical history and release, signing waiver claims and an $1,800 fee. Women were accepted on a first-come, first-served basis if they passed the medical release. Wiens had to pay for the round-trip to Tampa, but all other expenses were covered by the fee. The camp organizers kept track of the expenses each participant incurred and any money remaining after the camp ended was donated to the Sloan Kettering Hospital.

In a return packet from camp organizers, Wiens received information about exercises to do to prepare for the physically-taxing camp, rules and what she should bring with her. She needed to send measurements and her shoe size, as the camp would provide the baseball uniforms.

Wiens played shortstop and right field so she brought her own glove. Seventy-five women of all ages and from all over the United States and Mexico were selected to attend the camp. Wiens was three months shy of being 60 years old, and one woman from Hawaii was 82. 

A highlight of the camp was the arrival of Dolly Niemiec Konwinski, one of the actual players on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s which the movie “A League of Their Own” was based on. Konwinski played second and third base for the Grand Rapids Chicks from 1949 to 1952.

Konwinski, 81 years of age, had appeared at the 2012 National Sports Collectors Convention to talk about her playing days. She was also in the movie as one of the extras playing baseball on Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.

Wiens had her picture taken with Konwinski. She said it was wonderful meeting Dolly, who had many stories to share about her days in baseball and her impressions of the movie.