All About Sports

Jennie Finch was born on September 3, 1980, in La Mirada, California. (Click here for a complete listing of today's sports birthdays.) Jennie’s parents, Doug and Bev, already had two boys, Shane and Landon. Both loved baseball and played competitively. It wasn’t until Jennie took up the game, however, that the family really got serious about it.

La Mirada offered organized ball on a year-round basis. Jennie joined her first league, L’il Miss T-Ball, after her fifth birthday. She was one of those kids who excelled at a number of sports, but her greatest love was always for baseball.

Jennie’s hometown was close to Dodger Stadium, where the Finches had season tickets on the third-base line. Bev, the baseball nut in the family, listened to Vin Scully on a pair of headphones while she took in the action. As soon as Jennie was old enough, she began accompanying her mom to Chavez Ravine, bleeding Dodger blue and rooting for heroes like Kirk Gibson, whose dramatic homer sparked LA to a World Series title a few weeks after Jennie turned eight.

Doug did whatever he could to accelerate his daughter’s progress. He constructed a batting cage in the backyard and hired a fast-pitch instructor for Jennie. Later, he transformed a small trampoline into a pitch-back she could use on evenings when he worked late.