Growing up in the Netherlands, she was frustrated to find there were no all-girls teams she could join.
Unfortunately, women wanting to play baseball in the Netherlands have two options; turn to softball or join a men's team. "I wanted to play baseball and I was told I wasn't allowed to play because I was a girl. There was only one option for girls, and that was to play softball."
She decided to change that by forming a team of her own. "My main goal was, and is, that no other 12-year-old girl, or woman of any age, will hear she can't do something just because she's female."
While juggling her full-time role in customer solutions at the software company TOPdesk, Ivette began recruiting players. Recruitment started regionally with 25 women, but women started joinging from around the country. Ivette's team eventually became the first national women's baseball team in the Netherlands. The Women's National Baseball team was formed.
The current team was the only team from Europe to compete in the Woman's Baseball Worl Cup held in Vera, Florida this year in August.
Although the 12 competing teams from across the globe might have little in common, they share their love for baseball. Van Putten said the sense of community is what keeps her coming back for each World Cup, held every two years. Her "baseball family" is always looking out for each other.
"For me, that's the amazing thing. To meet up with all those people because then you get to exchange stores, you get to motivate each other," Van Putten said. "Once you're in the family, you're in the family. It doesn't matter who you are, everyone is helping each other out. It's really, really cool."
As more people take an interest in women's baseball, she hopes the sport will gain traction in the Netherlands and more girls and woman will play baseball. Then, hopefully, other countries in Europe will form national teams. This is the first time the world cup was held in the U.S. She believes that if baseball giants including the U.S. and Japan pay more attention, the rest of the world will follow.
An increase in popularity can also mean an increase in funding for such programs. Ivette's team is currently overseen by the National Baseball Federation, but the organization initially offered no financial support or sponsorship. With this being the fifth World Cup for the team, the federation just recently offered the team a bit of money, but not enough to cover their training and travel costs across the Atlantic. To support the Team's tournament question, Van Putten's employer, software firm TOPdesk, paid for the team's World Cup uniforms.
Ivette found a stark contrast when her team visited Japan for the 2014 World Cup. Members of the Japanese Baseball Federation were surprised to discover the Dutch team had to pay its own way to the tournament. Once this was discovered, officials from the city of Ureshino, Japan, said they would be honored to host the team, and even paid for all of the team member's expenses. City officials there said they wanted to be more sport-centric with the coming 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Japanese woman's baseball team has the luxury of support unlike many of the tournament's other teams. The Japanese women compete in each world cup and often experience long winning streaks. Japan has currently won 27 games in a row and 6 consecutive World Cups.
"Japan is so into their women's baseball team, they're the top. They are number one, untouchable. But that's because they pay so much attention to sports, especially baseball -- and women's baseball." she said. "But it's amazing they would do something like that for others."
Ivette has spent the last 10 years organizing her homeland's team and getting it sponsored by private parties, so it can compete in this year's World Cup. The team's coaches and physical trainer are all volunteers who spend months out of the year working with the team for the same reason Ivette started it - for the love of the game.
"It's not only special because it's the World Cup, but it's also special because it's women's baseball together from all over the world," she said. "That almost never happens."
Ivette is no stranger to the male-dominated arena. She started her career in 2002 as a support technician in TOPdesk's Dutch office where male employees outnumbered the women by more than 100. Customers would even call and ask to speak to a male colleague, not believing that a woman could help with their IT problems.
"I would be offended, especially when I knew the answer. In the beginning, I didn't know all the answers, but I learned quickly never to say 'I think.'" she said. "If you say 'I think' then the person on the other end of the phone would say 'but hold on, you don't know. So give me a guy who does know.'"
Ivette says things have changed drastically in the last 16 years. Her office is now an even mix of men and woman. She hopes the same happens for baseball.
"For me, it's about the young girls who are told 'no', and I just wanted to have that changed'" she said. "It's not only the sports. It's all about empowering girls, empowering women to do whatever they want to do instead of facing all of these limitations."
The Netherland's Women's Baseball team are currently ranked 8th in the world and hope to be invited in 2020 to the next World Cup.
