She’s no ordinary ballplayer
Lausanne’s Remi Schaber isn’t just a girl who plays baseball; she starts, bats third and pitches.
Remi Schaber knew she loved baseball when she began practicing with her dad and older brother Chase in the backyard as a kid.
She wanted to be better than her brother. That was one of her earliest doses of motivation to prove herself against boys.
"I'm really competitive, throughout everything I've done. Even in PE and with grades and stuff I just try to be the top person," Schaber said. "When my brother started playing I was like I'm going to do what he did. I was like I'm going to be better than he was and keep getting better. And it grew from there."
Now the 5-foot-9 junior starts at third base for Lausanne (4-4) and hits third in the lineup. She's hitting .250 with an on-base percentage of .420 and a pair of doubles. She's believed to be the only girl in the Memphis area playing varsity baseball this season.
"Good arm. Hits for contact. Has a little power, can hit for power," Lausanne coach Chris Mitchell said. "I would say speed is in the average range. Good hands. Good fielder on defense. Overall, a pretty complete player for us."
She also makes appearances as a relief pitcher. She's 1-1 on the mound with a 0.70 ERA.
"She has a great curveball and she has a sneaky fastball," Whitehaven infielder Galvin Sims Jr. said. "And her change-up is pretty good too, when you're not expecting it."
Schaber was one of 34 players picked for the USA Baseball women's national team development roster in 2019.
"Every now and then there's some teams that don't know who I am and they're like 'oh they've got the girl pitching' or 'oh they've got the girl hitting third.'" Schaber said.
"The teams that know me, it's cool and they give me the respect I've earned through years of playing. But it's always fun to see teams that don't know me and I get to show them what I'm made of."
Sometimes, Lausanne catcher Brandon Bruckman can see the surprise on opposing batters faces as Schaber takes the mound.
"It kind of makes the batters think that they need to do better," Bruckman said. "Once they get up there, it's all the same, you're just trying to compete as a batter. But when they see her come on the mound, I can tell that they're like ‘oh, it's different.'
"They don't want to be struck out by 'the girl'."
When she first started playing for Lausanne as a freshman, the Lynx found practicing with Schaber different as well. She said that the team was welcoming from the start, but she could tell some of her teammates thought it was weird playing with a girl.
That changed once she picked up a win on the pitcher's mound for the JV team.
"All of these guys have come out here and they've only played with dudes," Lausanne infielder Jackson Seltzer said. "But coming out here and seeing a girl do just as well as everybody else has definitely changed some people's perspectives and it's cool to see how some people react and change their minds."
She's also inspiring girls who come see her play. Lausanne doesn't have a softball team, but Schaber said she never played softball anyway. TSSAA rules allow girls to play
baseball. Boys are not allowed to play softball under the state association's rules.
"Remi, we're coming to your game, you've got to hit a home-run for us," her friends tell her before games sometimes.
She laughs and goes, 'Um, I don't think that's how it works but I'll try my best.'"
"I've seen a couple of girls come to our games and they're like ‘oh, that's Remi, that's our superstar,'" Bruckman said. "Because they're feeling represented. Sometimes my friends come to the games just to see her play."
Schaber said she didn't have any female role models in baseball to watch when she was a kid. She turned to the movie "A League of Their Own" for inspiration instead.
"All the girls that I know that play baseball, they were like yeah that was my number one movie too," Schaber said. "There never was a specific person, but looking at that movie I was like 'that's what I want to do.' As I got older I realized there were more women in baseball and I started recognizing names."
One name that stood out was Bianca Smith, who was hired in December by the Boston Red Sox as the first Black female coach in professional baseball history.
"That was a really cool moment for me because she's a woman of color coaching in a Major League organization," Schaber said. "I think it shows that hard work is what really gets you there and if you really want something you have to put the work in to get there."
Schaber said she dreams of playing college baseball and making the USA baseball women's national team one day.
But for now, she's breaking stereotypes and setting an example for other girls who dream of playing baseball here in Memphis. Just by sticking with the game she loves.
"I think it's definitely an example that you don't have to go by the stereotype of girls play softball, boys play baseball," Mitchell said. "I think it's an example that if you put in the work and prove yourself there are opportunities out there."