Whenever Olivia Glasser steps on the baseball field, she is usually the only girl on the diamond. So when the 13-year-old Lyndhurst native not only gets to play the game she loves with other girls, but some of the best in the country, like she has at the Trailblazers Series, it’s an experience she values greatly.
“I honestly love the Trailblazers Series,” said Glasser. “I love going there. I love meeting everyone. I do play the best of the best and there is real competition there.”
For the third year in a row, Glasser was one of 96 female baseball players to compete in the Trailblazer Series, a program run by MLB and USA Baseball. The annual event is held in April at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida.
Once there, the girls are split into four teams and play a series of games as part of MLB’s celebration of Jackie Robinson Day.
“I’m usually the only girl on my team here, so getting the chance to play with a bunch of girls who go through the same experience as me as being the only girl is fun,” Glasser said. “I get to talk to them about things that usually the boys don’t experience.”
On three of the four teams Glasser plays on – NJ Invaders, Lyndhurst Bears Travel and Lyndhurst Rec-Bogle – she’s the only girl on the field. Glasser does also play for Ball Girls Baseball, an all-girls team.
For Glasser, who catches, plays the infield and has recently tried her hand at pitching, being the only girl on the team is something she’s become accustomed to.
“We’ve been teammates since we were all like four so they just think of me as a teammate,” said Glasser, who will be an eighth grader at Lyndhurst Middle School in the fall.
While Glasser’s journey as a girl in baseball is uncommon, she doesn’t have to leave her neighborhood to see an example of what is possible. Around the corner from the Glassers is Alexia Jorge, who played baseball at Lyndhurst High and for Team USA before making history in 2022 when she played for College of St. Elizabeth.
Jorge has become a role model and mentor for Glasser as she follows the same path in baseball.
“It was really big for me because I saw her playing (for Lyndhurst) and then I was like I’ve never seen another girl play before,” Glasser said. “She got what I was going through (at the time) because there was a point where I wasn’t getting treated well for playing baseball and she helped me through it. She went through the same thing.
“(Alexia) helps me a lot with stuff. She was one of the main reasons I got into all of these all-girl tournaments and she helped me with catching.She’s the one that got me into catching. She’s always been a role model for me, not only in baseball, just in general.”
According to her father Brian, a one-time standout at Hudson Catholic and a detective in the Jersey City Police Department, Olivia has been into baseball for as long as he can remember. He recalls a picture of Olivia hitting off a tee on her own during a family party at a young age and jokingly calls it ‘“this is where it all began.”
Now, Olivia Glasser is continually working at her game, training at Metropolitan Baseball in Lyndhurst, Tally Baseball out of Jersey City and the Ani Ramos Catching Academy in Fairfield in addition to working with Jorge on catching and hitting.
In addition, Glasser plays basketball and volleyball and runs track.
One sport, Glasser has no intentions of playing anytime soon is softball.
“I never had thoughts of joining softball,” Glasser said. “I’ve been asked to join and I just don’t find any interest in it. It’s similar to baseball, but it’s not what I enjoy.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)