Meggie Meidlinger - Baseball Architect & USAWNT Baseball Sportswoman of the Year

• Celebrating Jackie Robinson Day with USAWNT Baseball pitcher & Architect, Meggie Meidlinger
• Look back at Meggie & the USAWNT Women’s team history
• Meggie’s love of baseball and architecture blended together
•  Work completed on UGA's Baseball Facilities – Foley Field – Athens GA
• Architectural Planning & finding solutions
•  Bullpen and Pitching Lab Design
•  Baseball Journey and Mentorship in Uganda
•  See Her Be Her Documentary film of Jean Fruth & Jeff Idelson - https://www.grassrootsbaseball.org/seeherbeher
• Film focus on women in baseball from Japan, US, Uganda, including Maybelle Blair
• MLB 
•  Impact of Jackie Robinson and Trailblazer Series
• Working with young women at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex (JRTC)
• The values and impact of Jackie Robinson on and off the field
• Honoring Jackie’s memory & the Robinson family
• Trailblazer series at JRTC - https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-brings-back-trailblazer-series-to-promote-youth-girls-baseball
•  Looking to the future with new Projects  
• The importance of specialized Women's Sports Facilities starting to evolve with some of the professional women’s leagues in soccer and WNBA
•  You have been listening to BaseballBiz On Deck with Mark's special guest, architect & USA Womens Baseball National Team pitcher, Meggie Meidlinger whose contributions excel beyond taking the mound. Thank you to Meggie as we celebrate Jackie Robinson Day in 2025.
• Giving Back to the Game: with Baseball at Heart 
• Learn more on Facebook about Baseball at Heart

 Just a reminder you can find Mark on Blue Sky at @baseballbizondeck.b sky.social You may also find BaseballBiz On Deck on iheart, apple, spotify, amazon music & at www.baseballbizondeck.com

Special Thanks to X-Take-R-U-X for the music Rocking Forward

Transcript

Architect Meggie Meidlinger USAWNT Baseball Pitcher
 Sportwoman of the Year

Welcome to another Women in Baseball edition of BaseballBiz On Deck. Today's guest, Meggie Meidlinger, has contributed to the game as an accomplished architect and a pitcher for the USA Women's National Baseball Team. Meggie most recently was awarded Sportswoman of the Year by USA Baseball. Meggie continues her success in architecture with the recent renovation of the University of Georgia's baseball Foley Field.

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Welcome to Baseball Biz on Deck. I Mark Corbett host and with me today I have a lady who just, uh, it's amazing all the things that this person puts into their life.

[00:00:12] Mark Corbett: We're talking about the relief pitcher for the USA Women's National Baseball team who took Japan, who thought they had a great thing going after 39 games of wins, and this relief pitcher came in and put an end into that. She's an architect. She has done a lot with missionary work and with folks in Uganda.

[00:00:28] Mark Corbett: We've talked about some of these things in the past. I'm talking with about Ms. , Meggie Meidlinger. Hey Maggie. How you doing today? 

[00:00:33] Meggie Meidlinger: Hey, Mark, thanks so much for having me on today. I. 

[00:00:36] Mark Corbett: Oh gosh. It's great to have you back. There's just so much going on and, and like I said, we've talked about your career in baseball before, and I want to talk a little bit about what you're still doing with that in the past.

[00:00:46] Mark Corbett: But right now I wanna speak to what you've been doing as an architect because. I, I've had Janet Marie Smith on here before, lady who's pretty instrumental in putting everything together for Camden Yards and a whole renovation going on at Dodger Stadium this year. And it's, it's amazing to see her work.

[00:01:05] Mark Corbett: So I, I saw some of the work that you did as an architect for the University of Georgia's baseball team, and that that had to be something. I saw some of the photos, I gotta tell you, Meggie, it looked like it was a, I was in an MLB , locker room. I. 

[00:01:23] Meggie Meidlinger: Well, it, that project was just an incredible project to be a part of.

[00:01:28] Meggie Meidlinger: Um, getting to combine my passions of baseball and architecture was just a dream come true for, for me. Um, as a kid, I wanted to be both a professional baseball player and an architect, and so to get to have a project that combined those two passions together was, uh, something else, Mark and just, um, great to be a part of.

[00:01:45] Meggie Meidlinger: And I, I do have to touch on that. Janet Marie Smith is a, a huge inspiration for me as a female sports architect and, and what she's done for architecture and ballparks across America is just something incredible. So, uh, she's an incredible human being 

[00:02:00] Mark Corbett: and I, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to chat with her too, because.

[00:02:04] Mark Corbett: It's, people need to be aware that, I'll be quite honest with you, I didn't know who she was until I started doing overall homework on Camden Yards. I said, 'cause I, I think of Larry Luo and all that, but I don't, I didn't think of the person who was actually behind the urban design. The person who actually.

[00:02:20] Mark Corbett: Put all this together and actually brought some people together with varying attitude, attitudes or ideas and, and making it work. So kudos to her as well. Just amazing work. Well, well, let me ask you about that, because anytime. I would imagine architect is, you have to have kind of like a, a project manager mindset.

[00:02:40] Mark Corbett: There's elements of things that have to get done. There's shareholders involved, you know, certain deliverables from certain people. How, how would it take just to do the, the mapping out of planning for this. 

[00:02:52] Meggie Meidlinger: , all of the above. , like you said, Mark, all of the above, uh, is under the responsibilities of the architect.

[00:02:58] Meggie Meidlinger: And, , I got to be a part of the project from interview to design and, , managing the construction documents and then being out on the job site. , so , being a part of it from start to finish was just something else. And yeah, , as the project architect, you. You have to rally all the consultants together and organize, client decisions.

[00:03:16] Meggie Meidlinger: And, and for me, as the role of an architect, my job is to make a client's dreams, become a reality, and, and to work with the visions and, and what the coaching staff, what the athletic department has in mind for the facility. And being able to create a space that, um, allows those visions and dreams to, to come true and work for the efficiency of the ball program.

[00:03:37] Meggie Meidlinger: And, um. Become a state-of-the-art facility and, uh, be competitive within the SEC, so, 

[00:03:43] Mark Corbett: well, it's certainly state-of-the-art. I hopefully we can get some photos I can post later on too, of what you all achieved because it is just absolutely amazing. Maggie. I, I, I looked at it, like I said, it, it ravels what I've seen of a lot of the major league baseball.

[00:03:55] Mark Corbett: Uh, what for the, just the locker room itself. But you're working with the NCAA and you're working with the SEC and there are certain criteria, I'm sure, I mean as far as the depth of the field, there are certain things that are unique. 'cause I thought maybe the NCAA came up with some new regs for 2025, a couple of years ago, uh, where there's a certain framework you had to work within.

[00:04:19] Meggie Meidlinger: Yeah, I mean, we always have to, . Apply to all the NCAA rules and regulations along with SEC, I mean, that goes anywhere from certain criteria of the field and having a, a equal visitor's bullpen to home bullpen and, , camera locations for broadcasting. And so, our scope of the work is not just, the finishes and programming, but it's, it's coordinating all of those things from broadcast camera locations to making sure we're adhering to all those regulations.

[00:04:44] Meggie Meidlinger: And it was such a fun project to be a part of, to, to get, to understand all the programming elements that they were wanting to, , add on to their existing facility , and working around all the existing conditions of, of what they currently have and within our parameters of the site. , and getting all those additional elements into the site was, um, really fun to be a part of.

[00:05:05] Mark Corbett: Well, , that's interesting 'cause you're not working with a blank slate. You, you're having to work around a structure that's there. 

[00:05:11] Meggie Meidlinger: Correct. And an existing seating bowl, you have site parameters. We had Rutherford seat, right, uh, Rutherford Street right behind it. So we're dealing with different grade changes.

[00:05:20] Meggie Meidlinger: So in order for the, the height of our batting tunnels and pitching lab we're, what we're really doing is coordinating with the site standards of Rutherford because we are entering off of that street for our new entry and, and then coordinating with the back parking lot. So there were a lot of site studies that we did.

[00:05:35] Meggie Meidlinger: We looked at several options. . I think that's one of the things that people don't always realize with architecture and design , is every single study under the sun has been, , looked at , and studied and, um, pros and cons. And we had looked at it down the first baseline, the third baseline, how would it, it would extend around the outfield.

[00:05:52] Meggie Meidlinger: And so, , always working within budgets and, and needs and programming, um, to just come up with a, a really quality design that would be efficient for the team and, and all their uses that they needed. 

[00:06:04] Mark Corbett: One thing I I'm curious about too, 'cause we talked, I think before about this having the perspective much as you mentioned, as a baseball player, not only that as a pitcher.

[00:06:14] Mark Corbett: What about the bullpen area? What, what does that look like? 

[00:06:19] Meggie Meidlinger: Honestly, I'm, I'm thrilled about the bullpen and the pitching lab area in this project. Mark, taking several perspectives. I mean, I'm, I'm still currently a player on the USA Women's National Baseball Team. I also have the privilege of coaching several MLB events with the girls.

[00:06:33] Meggie Meidlinger: And I've had the privilege to be in so many incredible stadiums across the country and across the world, and, and seeing how they're laid out, what I like, what I don't like. Um. And then from a fan perspective too, I'm a huge baseball fan. Honestly, my favorite seat in any ballpark is I always go by the bullpen.

[00:06:48] Meggie Meidlinger: And if you can sit right behind the plate of the bullpen, you get to see every single pitch that pitcher is working on. You get to see the break of the ball and , you get to see their warmup routine and what all that they need with, uh, med balls and plyo and j bands. And to me, I, I was really exci, I'm excited about this whole project, but the adjacencies that we are able to acquire for both the home bullpen and the pitching lab for this project, what we did is, um, we actually flipped the home.

[00:07:15] Meggie Meidlinger: Uh. Home bullpen, uh, were the visitors. We did a little flip there and with the dugout. So UGA was originally on the first base line for their dugout and bullpen, and we switched them to the third base line to be closer to all the new player spaces that, that we are giving to them. And so the adjacency we have roll up.

[00:07:34] Meggie Meidlinger: Doors. So you literally walk right from the pitching lab right out into the bullpen. Uh, rubbers pitching rubbers are all lined straight from inside to outside. You have the flexibility to bring any of the technology that you need outside. we're able to fit in two turf mounds and one dirt mound. The whole field is turf, but you go and travel to many different SEC fields and.

[00:07:55] Meggie Meidlinger: You have a dirt mound. So giving those players the ability to, to train and practice as they need to, depending on who they're playing. , and then the really cool thing is, is how we redevelop the entry before the main entry was right behind home plate. And that's where a lot of the premium spectators get to park and then walk down.

[00:08:13] Meggie Meidlinger: But the majority of the folks coming to the stadium , are parking out behind, , the left field and center field fences, , and coming far from campus. And so to give them an entry that's a little bit closer, , for flows in and out of the stadium. , so now when you enter off of Rutherford, right when you enter through the gates, you have.

[00:08:29] Meggie Meidlinger: You have that moment seeing the stadium and seeing the field immediately and Wow. And I, I don't know about you, Mark, but I still remember my first stadium that I went to was Camden Yards, , done by Janet Marie Smith. And, , that moment as a kid, you know, you hear the crack of the bat. I. The, the crunch of the peanuts and just right when you walk in through that threshold of a ballpark.

[00:08:49] Meggie Meidlinger: And so that's what we are trying to do at UGA is right when you walk through the threshold, you get to see the field you are led right out onto standing room only, where you look down right into the bullpen, which like I just said before, I love that atmosphere of. You can grab a beer, grab a burger or a hot dog, and, and you get to see what the pitchers are working on and, and have that engagement.

[00:09:09] Meggie Meidlinger: Um, we also added brand new seats, , four top mesh seats that are right behind , the bullpen on , the plate side. So, oh, man. Getting to see all the, the movement that I was just talking about of how the pitchers are working on their breaking ball, fastball locations, all of that. And so giving that.

[00:09:25] Meggie Meidlinger: From that, that pitcher's mentality that I have of wanting those adjacencies and flow and, and being able to see the field from where you're warming up to, to the fan side as well, of getting to experience all of those atmospheres of the ballpark, but not only the ballpark, but but of the bullpen as well.

[00:09:41] Meggie Meidlinger: I. 

[00:09:43] Mark Corbett: I can't wait to come up here and visit and see this, my gosh, you, you 

[00:09:46] Meggie Meidlinger: gotta come to a game. They're doing extremely well this season, which is so cool to see. 

[00:09:52] Mark Corbett: Well, it sounds like they got a good start, a good starting point, so that's good. And so it's Foley Field at the University of Georgia, correct? Is that That is 

[00:09:59] Meggie Meidlinger: correct.

[00:09:59] Meggie Meidlinger: Athens, Athens, Georgia. Alright. 

[00:10:02] Mark Corbett: Okay. Yeah. Well, I said I can't wait to come up here. Oh, I did see something on social media of you and your other friends from the architecture Went to a Braves game, it looked like. 

[00:10:11] Meggie Meidlinger: Yes, we sure did. Uh, we, we have a yearly tradition that we go to opening day at Truist Park every single year.

[00:10:17] Meggie Meidlinger: So the only year we missed was the inaugural season. But, uh, we've, we've made it a point to make it to opening day every single year. Yeah. 

[00:10:25] Mark Corbett: I used to watch the Braves so much 'cause they had two of our former rays here. Well, Charlie Morton and, uh, Travis d'Arnaud. Yep. I know both, both of them are somewhere else now.

[00:10:34] Mark Corbett: How they're, how are they doing this year? I haven't kept up with them. 

[00:10:38] Meggie Meidlinger: Uh, the Braves are maybe not off to the best start, but, uh, you can't tell a whole lot from the first, uh, few weeks of the season, so we're still gonna give 'em a little bit of time. 

[00:10:48] Mark Corbett: Yeah, I, I would hope so. Yes. I know. I, I see somebody say, who was it the night?

[00:10:52] Mark Corbett: Was it the Cubs? Beat the Dodgers. Like the Cubs were in double digits and the Dodgers are like, I dunno, a couple of runs. And it's like, good. Great. Yeah. This game, you never know what's gonna happen with 

[00:11:04] Meggie Meidlinger: it. You never, that's the great thing about baseball is uh, you never know and the whole game can change by one pitch.

[00:11:10] Meggie Meidlinger: And that's again, one of the cool parts about being a pitcher is you can have so much control and you're involved in literally all the action while you're pitching of, of every single pitch. Um. Which, yeah, a game can change in an instance, 

[00:11:22] Mark Corbett: you know, I, I don't wanna get up too much, but it just tickles me when I'm watching some of these games and it's a national game, and you look at these young people who are out there on the mound in the field, and guess what?

[00:11:33] Mark Corbett: All, all the great things you do and all the mistakes that you make are there for everyone to see. And whether it be World Series Game Five, and who's gonna cover first, or. The Rays the other night and uh, uh, his think it was the fifth inning also, and they gave up eight runs. And it's like, what? But it's, that's, that's the excitement of baseball.

[00:11:55] Mark Corbett: 'cause you never know. You never know. Absolutely. But you celebrated baseball in more than just, I wanna talk about working with youngsters and all that in a moment, but, um, I know you do with Uganda as well. Mm-hmm. And did the architect as well as the, the baseball player go there? 

[00:12:15] Meggie Meidlinger: Uh, I, I think I, I know what you're asking, Mark.

[00:12:19] Meggie Meidlinger: And, uh, so what originally got me over to Uganda was I was working for a ministry doing architecture work. So. Gotcha. I originally went to Uganda , to do architecture and, , I missed playing baseball, and so I. Wanted , to teach a few others baseball as well. And, , you can't travel anywhere and know that you're living there for a long time without taking two mitts.

[00:12:38] Meggie Meidlinger: So that, that's how we started playing. And, . I've been fortunate enough , to help start women's baseball over there. And now, , Ugandan women's baseball has expanded to eight different regions in Uganda with several hundred girls playing baseball now, which, , is, , really incredible to see the growth in just a short amount of time since 2019.

[00:12:56] Meggie Meidlinger: So, wow. , https://baseballatheart.org/ , has been doing an incredible job of, , starting women's baseball over there. 

[00:13:03] Mark Corbett: Well, I wanna thank you and all the good people who are behind that and uh, and sometimes in the world today, it's hard to find good moments and folks making a difference in other people's lives.

[00:13:11] Mark Corbett: So thank you for making a positive move there. And I know that was also celebrated, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong with a film feature, https://www.grassrootsbaseball.org/seeherbeher. 

[00:13:22] Meggie Meidlinger: That is correct. , "See Her Be Her" just came out, um, came out in the fall. It's an incredible documentary. I highly recommend anyone listening here today to, to check it out.

[00:13:31] Meggie Meidlinger: It's now available on Amazon Prime. , it follows, , women from all around the world and they're. Baseball journey. And so Kelsie Whitmore on Team USA has highlighted, , it covers folks from Japan, Canada also follows a player from Uganda. So it, it does have lots of footage from Uganda and how, , baseball is growing there.

[00:13:51] Meggie Meidlinger: And so highly recommend it. , everybody , should go check out, see her, be her on Amazon Prime. 

[00:13:57] Mark Corbett: And who was , the person, , the lady who put most of that together? Uh, photographer, uh, 

[00:14:01] Meggie Meidlinger: Jean Fruth, uh, Jeff Idelson and Jean Fruth are the producers of See Her Be her both incredible people. I, I have the privilege to call 

[00:14:09] Meggie Meidlinger: both of them dear friends of mine and, , they did an incredible job and, .

[00:14:13] Meggie Meidlinger: Just the footage. there's also a, a companion book that goes with the documentary, see Her Be Her, and it's a compilation of all the photographs that, that Jean has taken all around the world covering women's baseball, which is, is just incredible. 

[00:14:28] Mark Corbett: I love her work. I mean, all along I've been following her photography as a matter of fact.

[00:14:31] Mark Corbett: Tamara Holmes was the first one who introduced me to it. She had this image, I forget who, it's one of the catchers, forgive me, Tamara, but that she showed me up. It was like, wow. But to follow Gene after that and and see that come up. I know it was, it was during the World Series, I think it was between games.

[00:14:47] Mark Corbett: MLB ran that on the MLB network. 

[00:14:51] Meggie Meidlinger: They did. 

[00:14:52] Mark Corbett: And that was a night I couldn't get a connection, so I, I, I bought it on Amazon shortly there when it became there. Uh, available shortly thereafter. But yeah, it's, it's a great film and you know, folks, you should check that out. It does say a lot about the game, about the women in baseball and, uh, you have some really sharp professionals, like you're saying with Jean and Jeff, what they assembled with that.

[00:15:14] Mark Corbett: So that had to be a lot of fun. 

[00:15:16] Meggie Meidlinger: Absolutely. Oh, it was, it was so much fun. 

[00:15:18] Mark Corbett: All righty. Uh, let's cut back for a moment now. Most recently. After doing all this architectural work, like I said, you, you're, you're not a one-woman show you I, well, you're a one-woman show. You just got a lot of different players in, in it.

[00:15:31] Mark Corbett: I mean, whether it be the architect, whether it be the baseball player, but also as a coach and a leader. And, and talk about what you, uh, where you at this last week? I believe it was, 

[00:15:40] Meggie Meidlinger: yeah, just this past week. , got back from the MLB and USA Baseball Trailblazers series. , this is, , Mark, this is incredible event.

[00:15:48] Meggie Meidlinger: It. First started in 2017. , this particular event was an event for 12 to 14-year-old girls. So we had, uh, about a hundred girls show out for this event. , MLB hosted it at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex, down in Vero Beach, Florida. , incredible complex. . We always have this tournament. , we always have the Trailblazer series right around Jackie Robinson Day, which is April 15th, which is tomorrow.

[00:16:12] Meggie Meidlinger: Happy Jackie Robinson Day. Um, and just the impact that Jackie had as a trailblazer that, , I. Everything that he stood for, his character traits, , how he carried himself as a person, as a baseball player, on and off the field, , are just character traits that we wanna resemble and carry forward. And he was such a trailblazer to allow so many others to play baseball.

[00:16:36] Meggie Meidlinger: , so we always loved this, this Trailblazer series to celebrate Jackie, everything that he stood for, and allow girls to continue to blaze the trail and allow opportunity for more girls to play baseball. 

[00:16:48] Meggie Meidlinger: Well, thank you for that. Tomorrow is Jackie Robinson, Dave number 42. Everybody should be wearing that tomorrow and I'm excited about that.

[00:16:55] Meggie Meidlinger: But what you're talking about all that he did, a lot of folks can simply say, oh, Jackie Robinson, he was the first man, uh, crossing over from the Negro Leagues into Major League baseball. But it didn't end there. And anybody who's read the books or scene 42 has a glimpse. Some of that, but what they don't necessarily think of is Jackie Robinson beyond baseball and all that he did was a civil rights leader, and he was out there, he was.

[00:17:23] Meggie Meidlinger: He was, when everybody else was afraid to, to speak out, he was speaking out. And there are some folks out there who would probably like to erase or modify that history, but it's their boys and girls. And so when you do have heroes like Jackie Robinson out there, it behooves all of us to share those stories and make sure that people remember what he's achieved and to honor that legend as well.

[00:17:47] Meggie Meidlinger: Now. There're still members of the Robinson family around, I mean, at the Trailblazer series. Uh, do you, do you get some visitors from them? 

[00:17:56] Meggie Meidlinger: Absolutely. , in the past years, , I. Both Rachel Robinson, , has been able to join us. , Jackie's granddaughter has been able to join us and just getting to hear from them , and stories of, of Jackie and, um, is just incredible to hear those firsthand stories.

[00:18:12] Meggie Meidlinger: And so, , that's just an incredible honor to have gotten to meet them. , and. And just share in his legacy , and for so many of these girls to just hear these stories. , so many of these girls are their only, are the only girl on their boys baseball team at whatever team they are, , playing with back at home.

[00:18:29] Meggie Meidlinger: And, um, one of the things that's so special about the Trailblazers series for me is. I tell many of these girls when I was their age, I, it was pre-social media, pre-google searching. And so honestly, Mark, I, I did not know other girls were playing baseball. , and so for these girls to have a space to get to meet and see other girls playing baseball, to know that they're not alone to, 

[00:18:52] Meggie Meidlinger: form this baseball family and community, , is really something special to be a part of. So I feel so honored that I get to coach, , this event , and several other events with MLB for, for these girls playing baseball, , as an extreme honor for me. 

[00:19:06] Mark Corbett: Well, I wanna thank you for that. And you even have some legends from the All American girls occasionally coming out there as well, don't you?

[00:19:13] Meggie Meidlinger: We sure do. We, uh, Maybelle Blair joined us along with Janine Lesko, and, , the two of them are, are incredible. And if you ever get a chance to just sit down and hear stories from either one of them is, , absolutely incredible. And so they were both there this past weekend. , they get to speak with the girls, , share knowledge and encouragement, and share their stories.

[00:19:33] Meggie Meidlinger: And, uh, it's always a joy to see the two of them. 

[00:19:36] Mark Corbett: I'm glad to hear that. I mean, the, the whole thing of it is, and I'll just spout off here, we've got a brand new granddaughter and alls I can think of is I wanna make sure she has every opportunity and she's just two months old, but I'm gonna find the right size.

[00:19:49] Mark Corbett: glove for her, put her in her, in her hands here shortly, 

[00:19:52] Meggie Meidlinger: so never too early to start playing a game of catch. 

[00:19:56] Mark Corbett: I love it. I absolutely love it. Thank you. 

[00:19:59] Mark Corbett: So what else is on the agenda for you? What's, what's has caught your attention or something that you're working with right now? 

[00:20:06] Meggie Meidlinger: Yeah. I think, , just sports projects, , are incredible. I mean, tying it back into what we just did with the Trailblazers series, , we know the importance of sports and, and then combining sports with architecture, the importance of, .

[00:20:17] Meggie Meidlinger: How buildings can impact spaces, right? The, the places that you have to, to train to, to be an athlete, to reset your focus, , and the spaces that you train in are, are important. It all feeds into the mindset that you take out onto the field. And so, , something that's very important to me, Mark, is. Women's sports facilities.

[00:20:36] Meggie Meidlinger: , thankfully we've seen a lot of growth with WNBA and, and women's soccer. But, um, I think there's a ton of design, , components that can happen there, right? Like I, it, it's not just a copy and paste of NBA to WNBA, , it's a design space where you can completely reimagine all of those facilities, right, .

[00:20:56] Meggie Meidlinger: It's not just a locker room, but how is it simply catered to a female athlete? How do you have to reimagine things? , down to the training facility, down to nutrition for women, down to, . What does the training look like differently of even , the training room , and the heights of those, and, um, how can we reimagine all of those facilities and, and give, uh, female athletes the, the elite performance centers, , that they deserve.

[00:21:21] Meggie Meidlinger: And, , catering down to everything, to, to childcare, to, anything else that they might need to help cater to their careers. And so, , as a female athlete, as a female architect, that is something that's, um, very passionate on my heart and on my mind For, for next projects here, Mark. 

[00:21:40] Mark Corbett: ? Well, I'm glad to hear that you'll 'cause a lot of times I think. Those of us who aren't in the know say, Hmm, well it's just another place. So they, they can do it cookie cutter. They, they can just pick up that blueprint from 15, 20 years ago and just slap it down over here and it'll be just fine.

[00:21:56] Mark Corbett: You know? But we all know the truth as, as much better than that as far as trying to make something that is, um. Contemporary that fits the needs of the athletes and the fans of today? You know, uh, to me, I'm, I'm, I like that mindset. 'cause sometimes I don't feel like it's always deployed as well as it should be.

[00:22:17] Mark Corbett: The one size fits all ain't the way it go boys and girls. 

[00:22:21] Meggie Meidlinger: It's not. And, um, I, I think. All these female teams, whether, you know, we now have a professional hockey league, um, we have professional women's volleyball. This is such an incredible time of growth for women's sports and, . All of these teams deserve a cutting edge elite facility, , for their players and staff.

[00:22:42] Mark Corbett: Well, great. I'm, I'm glad. It sounds like a really great mission for everybody who's looking at development for women's sports to make sure they've got that on their checklist and make it happen. So thank you for that Meggie, I appreciate it. 

[00:22:54] Mark Corbett: Wow. Whole lot going on. You know, I, I'll say it again. Meggie what I like about you is you, we can't just put you into one little column and say, Hey, this is who you are.

[00:23:03] Mark Corbett: I mean, why you, you achieved so much. Whether it be with the USA Women's National Team, you know, as re relief pitcher, and I, I love just that you devastated Japan after 39 wins. Uh, that 

[00:23:15] Meggie Meidlinger: was a such a fun game and uh, that was such a. Team effort with the Jill's home run hit down the, the left field line and Jamie Baum pitched an incredible game, that game.

[00:23:25] Meggie Meidlinger: And, , so just full team effort there , to defeat that de defeat Japan, who is an incredible team and, and deserves all the respect, but, um, a lot of fun to, to finish that winning streak for them. 

[00:23:39] Mark Corbett: Well again, that, and then when looking at you as an architect and looking at you, what you've done also in Uganda, you know, like I said, you're not just fitting into one column.

[00:23:47] Mark Corbett: You're a person who's done a lot in Excel with each one. So thank you for that as I, I appreciate all you've done and all you continue to do. So thanks again for showing joining us on the show today, Meggie. I appreciate it. 

[00:23:58] Meggie Meidlinger: Well, thank you so much Mark. Always appreciate getting to be on your show and, uh, thank you for everything that you've been doing.

 You have been listening to BaseballBiz On Deck with Mark's special guest, architect & USA Womens Baseball National Team pitcher, Meggie Meidlinger whose contributions excel beyond taking the mound. Thank you to Meggie as we celebrate Jackie Robinson Day in 2025.

 Just a reminder you can find Mark on Blue Sky at @baseballbizondeck.b sky.social You may also find BaseballBiz On Deck on iheart, apple, spotify, amazon music & at www.baseballbizondeck.com

Special Thanks to X-Take-R-U-X for the music Rocking Forward

Tags: USAWNT, UGA, Foley Field, Architect, Meggie Meidlinger, NCAA, MLB, See Her Ber Her, Jean Fruth, Bullpen, Pitching Lab, Trailblazer Series, Jackie Robinson, Jeff Idelson, Georgia, Athens, Bulldogs, Braves, MLB