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 outsiders, it’s a slow-moving sport; to aficionados, it’s an orchestra of strategy, timing, and sheer athleticism.
Through her journey, Jean has recognized the transformative power of baseball to help young people develop strength, skills, friendships, and to learn and practice the concept of teamwork. As a result, together with her partner, former Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, she formed a non-profit organization called Grassroots Baseball, to promote and celebrate the amateur game around the globe, with a focus on encouraging interest and participation at the youngest levels. She is documenting their journey in a series of books, starting with Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin (Simon & Schuster, 2019) with an introduction by Cal Ripken, Jr., and an afterword by Johnny Bench.
