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| Playing first (error free!) |
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| Sliding back into first after an attempted steal. Safe! |
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| Fan club |
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| Lots of long days |
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| Before the championship game against the LA Waves |
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| Congratulating the LA Waves |
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| Receiving her silver medal |
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| After the championships! |
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| Celebrating afterward at our favorite burrito place |
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| A few days later, supporting one of her teammates in another tournament. Other members of the team showed up too, showing awesome support. They all play on teams and in divisions where they are the only girls out of hundreds of boys (many girls don't even know that they can play baseball). |
This experience has been really interesting. For the record, K was opposed to it from the beginning, not seeing any need to play in an all-girls tournament. She even asked the coach if boys could sign up if they wanted to (he told her that they could not, though I later learned that he was wrong about this). She truly doesn't understand, considers it unnecessary and discriminatory, and me a hypocrite for encouraging her to do it.
Her logic is hard to argue with... and yet. And yet! There is so much obvious discrimination in baseball, even tournaments and leagues that overtly and without apology have a "no girls" policy. When I recently politely asked one athletic organization to reconsider, they didn't even give me the courtesy of a reply.
And then there is the less overt discrimination, the comments I've heard, the actions taken. One at a time, they are one-offs, ignorant or careless thoughts, perhaps even misinterpreted. But the list is startling and my conversations with K have made me re-gather those incidents in my mind. I'm blown away by what in the legal world of employment discrimination we would call a compelling body of evidence, a clear pattern, a hostile environment.
The goal of Baseball for All is to encourage more women to play baseball, ultimately so that there are more pro players who are women. Two young women who played baseball through this program just played the first all-woman battery (pitcher and catcher) in a pro game last week, which is totally cool. I see this program as supporting the young women and girls who are pioneers in this worthy effort.
Less convincing is a sub-goal, perhaps not of the organization but of some of the players, to have more all-women teams and leagues. From what I saw of the players this week, that may be an attractive option for some, but for many would kill the joy of the sport by separating them from too many of their teammates and friends. More girls in the sport is a worthy idea, but separate gender teams misses the point for many of these athletes.
K wants to believe that she lives in a world where gender discrimination is a thing of the past. She wants to be a baseball player, not a female baseball player. I appreciate her angst... heck, I agree with it. And she's too young for me to burst her bubble... plenty of time to learn about the realities of the world without having your face rubbed in the limitations that can exist for women. She's still at an age when kids deserve to have their idealism supported so that their visions of the world carry hope to become reality.
The good news in reflecting on the reality of girls in baseball is that the discrimination I have seen has never been from the players (though others on her team reported different experiences). Despite some parents, K's presence is influencing boys in ways that are clearly powerful and good. When every boy on a Little League team rises to his feet in excitement simply because she is at bat, when kids' parents report to me that their sons were up at night worried about having to face her the next day as pitcher, when the kids argue about who has played with her longer and who knows her better, when younger siblings write (and draw) fan mail for her, those are kids who are learning not to look down on women, to see women in every situation as strong and capable, and to respect the diversity of talents that women bring to our communities, workplaces, and governments. To honor her and other athletes like her through this tournament was an honor and a privilege.
