Jean Fruth, one of MLB’s preeminent photographers, speaks with Jill Cole (PA, Eugene Emeralds) about her documentary, women in sports and all things baseball.
Changemakers: Jean Fruth – Inside America’s Favorite Pastime – Mon, Feb 2, 2026 at 7:00 pm
About Jean Fruth: Jean Fruth’s trajectory as one of baseball’s preeminent photographers has taken her on a round-the-horn tour of the sport’s most indelible landmarks. Growing up in New York City, Jean’s earliest memories are of her Grandfather listening to his beloved New York Mets on a tiny transistor radio. In school, Jean fell in love with the alchemy of photography. When she moved west as a young adult she immersed herself in the business, becoming a portrait photographer in the wine country of California. When life got busy and she found herself spending hours at the field of her son’s Little League games, she started shooting the action, eventually submitting images to the local paper. That’s when the local editor spotted her keen eye for sports photography and invited her to submit more. Jean tried her hand at different sports but found that nothing compared to the art and poetry of baseball—to outsider’s: a slow-moving sport, to the aficionado: an orchestra of strategy, timing, and sheer athleticism.
