Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball gave Cindy Brough an opportunity to be the first female coach in the state.
Baseball is in Cindy Brough’s blood. Her late father, Bob Trout, was a minor league player in the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) organization in the 1940s, and grandfather, Roy Trout, has a baseball field named after him in Paradise, Pa. So naturally, her dream was to coach in the major leagues. But when every Major League Baseball team in the 1980s said no to her, one organization said yes – The American Legion.
“While I didn't get to achieve my goal of coaching professionally, I may have been able to achieve a more important goal with all of the young (Legion Baseball) players that I got to help achieve their goals,” said Brough, who resides in Orlando, Fla. “And how appreciative I am that it was The American Legion, that these veterans who had faced hard times themselves and been through a lot and didn't give up, turned out to be the ones that gave me my chance when others said no.”
Brough became the first female Legion Baseball coach in Pennsylvania in the 1980s where she coached the Conestoga Valley Legion Baseball team, which became the District 10 champions in 1986. But she only ever saw herself as a baseball coach, even among the naysayers.
“I got a lot of pushback from fans and parents (for being a female coach). There was a lot of negativity because I was there,” she said. “I saw the good that my father and grandfather did coaching baseball, and I wanted to follow in their footsteps and do that as well. And a gentleman named Stanley Reinhard Jr. (then activities director for Pennsylvania American Legion) saw that. He provided support from the Legion and through his leadership and him explaining to everybody who I was and what I was doing, and really being a mentor and supporter for me, he won a lot of people over for me. And the Legion stood behind me.
“I wasn't being a wave maker. I just wanted to coach what I loved, and I knew.”
And baseball, Legion Baseball, is what Brough knew.
Her father and grandfather coached Legion Baseball teams in the Lancaster, Pa., area. And it was her father who taught her everything about the game.
“I was my father’s shadow,” Brough said. “I wanted to play baseball, but this was in the 60s and 70s and girls could not play baseball. So my father instead allowed me to practice with his (Legion Baseball) teams. And then he taught me the game from observing everything about the game.
“I decided that I wanted to be the third generation in what we considered the family business of baseball. But as you can imagine, in the late 70s and the 80s, we were the only ones that thought that was possible. My father gave me the opportunity to be his assistant coach for one of his Legion teams. And then when I was ready, he stepped aside, and I took over the (Conestoga) program.”
Their Legion Baseball teams – Conestoga Valley and Christiana – even competed against each other, “so he became my mentor, my father and turned into my opponent,” Brough added.
Along with Legion Baseball, Brough coached high school baseball and was hired on as the business manager for the Harrisburg Senators in 1986 when the Pirates' Double-A affiliate was moving to Harrisburg. Even after her time coaching American Legion Baseball ended, the Department of Pennsylvania once again showed Brough they supported her.
In 2014, Brough was inducted into the Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I’m going to cry just thinking about that moment,” Brough said. “It felt to me like what it must have felt to my grandfather when the (Paradise) field was named after him for his work in promoting baseball and giving opportunities to young players. And what my dad must have felt when he (along with her grandfather) was inducted into the Lancaster County Sports Hall of Fame. It just felt like acceptance, and what I did mattered and the things that I was able to do for my players as human beings. I was able to help them with their troubles and some of them even with mental health. I was able to help them, and it had an impact on them.”
Brough said it was her resilience among the naysayers and the Legion’s support that gave her players inspiration.
“I had a couple of them tell me that they were going through bullying, and they were going through things in their lives that they thought was going to ruin their lives,” she said. “And when they saw how I handled what was coming my way and how the Legion was supporting me, that they felt hope and that they felt that they could handle anything. I had one young man come to me, and I know that he had the opportunity to have his life saved just because he was able to see this and how the Legion backed me.”
Brough loved coaching American Legion Baseball and living up to her father’s words of “You’re on this earth to do for others.” Coaching was her way of serving, and educating youth on teamwork, the life skills baseball provides, and what the Legion stands for.
“The greatest part of coaching was coaching for The American Legion because of what the Legion stands for. The Legion stands for everything that I was raised to believe in which is country, contribution, conducting yourself with integrity.”
Brough has six grandchildren, five of whom are girls. And she wants them to know “that what you’re able to do in life is not limited to what it says on your birth certificate. I was told to go home to the kitchen more often than I can count by umpires.
“But I really want to thank The American Legion for their support and their acceptance, their inclusion.”
- Baseball