Playin’ for Leighton: How Peaches baseball creates opportunity for girls

Leighton Accardo was always surrounded by baseball.

Her father, Jeremy Accardo, was a Major League Baseball player, with stops at the San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, and Cleveland Indians. He has also coached in the Mets and Brewers organizations.

“She grew up on the field,” Carly Accardo, Leighton’s mother, said. “She was only a couple months old at her first spring training, and we were at every game. Then, Jeremy would have her in the locker room in the clubhouse and the kids would run the bases after Jeremy’s games. She just loved it.”

Leighton always thought that if boys could play baseball, she could too. In 2015, 3-year-old Leighton was playing t-ball in Gilbert on an all-boys team – but she wanted to switch to another.

"(She) noticed that, you know, there was one girl on another team, and one girl on another team,” Carly said. “And she said, ‘I want to be on that team next year.’ And I said, ‘Well, why do you want to be on that team?’ She said, ‘Because there’s a girl on it.’ And I was like, oh, maybe this would be more fun for her if she had some more girls."

Carly said she convinced enough girls to play t-ball to make up a team, and Peaches was created. As Leighton and her teammates grew up, they moved through the youth baseball ranks, and more girls wanted to join the program. While Carly couldn’t coach more than one team by herself, she said, parents stepped up to make Peaches a multiteam league.

But at the four-year mark of Peaches in 2019, Leighton was diagnosed with cancer.

Her diagnosis didn’t affect her competitiveness, Carly said, and Leighton still wanted to play sports. Carly said Leighton still played baseball and hockey – another sport she loved because of Carly’s Canadian roots and Jeremy’s time with the Blue Jays – with some adaptations because of her tumor.

Leighton’s tumor pushed on her sciatic nerve and it paralyzed the lower half of her left leg. So, Leighton had ankle-foot orthoses to stabilize her leg, Carly said, and there were times she could play with those braces.

Leighton and the Accardo family became close with the Arizona Coyotes after they honored her at a Hockey Fights Cancer night, and the Coyotes also helped Leighton in her goal to get back on the ice.

"There were a couple of baseball games she did get back in and she did get back on the ice a couple of times,” Carly said. “The Coyotes built her a skate that she could get her paralyzed foot into, so she did get back out there but not obviously, to the extent before she was diagnosed.”

When Leighton died of cancer at age nine on Nov. 24, 2020, she left an impact in multiple sports.

The Coyotes mourned Leighton’s death and inducted her into their Ring of Honor in April 2021, along with establishing a girls hockey scholarship in her name.

Leighton’s legacy also lives on as Peaches has grown into a 16-team girls baseball league.

Usually, Carly said, an all-girls baseball team will only play against other girls' teams at events like the Baseball for All national championships held last weekend in Mesa. But Peaches girls' baseball teams play against each other in fall and spring seasons in the East Valley League.

Peaches started playing in Baseball for All’s national tournament in 2019, and Carly serves on the organization’s board of directors.

“The Arizona Peaches is a testament to the power of a mother’s love,” Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball for All, said. “... Carly Accardo and the Accardo family are incredible people. They live selflessly, and they’re building for others. And Leighton will never be forgotten. She’ll forever be a part of our community.”

Baseball for All aims to give opportunity for girls in the male-dominated sport, with a similar mission statement to Peaches. In December 2021, Baseball for All and Peaches partnered for the Leighton Accardo Series, a two-day tournament in her honor.

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Carly said she appreciates girls coming together to play baseball, as it keeps Leighton’s memory alive. Girls at Baseball for All’s opening ceremonies said they were “playin’ for Leighton.”

“She's relevant and present every day of our lives,” Carly said. "... When these girls all come together, it's like Leighton’s just like totally rejuvenated in all of them. That whole weekend is like a weekend to remember Leighton and honor her and play for her because they know that if she was there, she'd be playing her butt off.”

Baseball for All also gave out two Leighton Accardo Memorial scholarships at its 2022 national tournament, held July 21-24 in Mesa. The two girls who received the scholarships this year didn’t know Leighton personally, Carly said, but they’re still affected by Leighton’s love for baseball.

“They didn't know her, but now they do,” Carly said. “And they won that scholarship, which means they're going to tell people about Leighton and they're going to tell people why they got it and how amazing she was. So, it just keeps Leighton relevant, it keeps her present and it keeps her a part of that tournament even though she's not physically here.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Playin’ for Leighton: How Peaches baseball creates opportunity for girls