When our daughter was in Third Grade, she asked if we should start an all-girls Baseball league, together. I replied that we could but I wanted to see how far we could go with the existing Youth Baseball organizations in San Francisco. Having only one Fall Ball season under her belt, I volunteered to coach our kids in the San Francisco Little League (SFLL) and was accepted with the nominal experience as both athlete and coach.
She went on her way, designing team logos, experimenting with team names: she was raring to go. I thought offering to coach would be a great first step, figure out how a league was organized. Having at least one girl on the team would be a great way to discover how far the league was going to allow girls to achieve greatness.
When I went to my first Rookie draft night, I had the chance to pick two other girls for the team, who I picked early on in the draft. The dead silence in the room (I had already put our daughter around 7 in the draft – her brother as a pre-selected 4) seemed to indicate that I had caved, picking two girls, who, if evaluated only on the merits of their Skills Evaluation Session tests, were not right for the higher draft positions: it wasn’t that the room, all guys but for the woman Division Commissioner – and one of the team’s Co-coaches, was inherently biased towards girl Baseball players (or so I hoped at the time).
After the draft, the Commissioner, who was also the league Administrator, would not relent, asking me three times if our daughter might not want to play Softball instead (I didn’t know this at the time, but, the Softball division had grown very large, very fast, in just a few years.) “It is a lot of fun, playing with the girls,” she repeated. I respectfully declined, on our daughter’s behalf, stating over and over and over again that our daughter had no interest in playing Softball and preferred playing Baseball. Period.
For the next three years, contrasted with the apparent disparity in opportunities on the field, between the opportunities for girls and boys, we looked for other opportunities in our local area for our daughter.
In August 2005, The California Women’s Baseball League presented an opportunity to assemble a team of girls to play in an exhibition game with girls traveling from Australia. (They were on their way to Florida for the Women’s World Series.) That game, that took place in October 2005, lead to our efforts to start an all-girls Baseball league. I began to look for examples of existing, successful all-girls Baseball leagues, hoping to leverage the team assembled for the exhibition game to start the league, but, also, as the foundation for a touring Tournament team that could compete head-on with Boys Baseball teams.
What I discovered in my search for successful all-girls Baseball leagues was strong interest among families similarly affected by the dirth of opportunities for girls to play Baseball in their communities. By contrast, communities that were not supportive at all of girls playing Baseball, while throwing their weight behind Softball opportunities for girls, didn’t even let the girls know they have the option – the right – to play Youth Baseball: even, until they reach the age of 18.
This lead to our support of the recent, local efforts to launch a city-wide, Park & Recreation-supported all-girls Baseball division of the San Francisco Youth Baseball League (SFYBL).
Also, we have found a lot of support for girls who play Baseball in the Co-ed division of the SFYBL, where our daughter also receives supportive coaching and the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities: to be treated as a Player.
We found Tournament Baseball teams and training facilities in our region, but the high costs, tricky logistics, and tentative opportunities to play in games, make this a riskier proposition, whether a boy or a girl working hard to achieve greatness on the field of Baseball. The fierce competition in the Tournament realm seems to have the side effect of not encouraging kids simply to have a fun time playing Baseball.
The mandate of Little League seems different than the enticement of Tournament Baseball teams and training facilities – not to mention what we have learned from the experiences mentioned above; to quote from the Little League, Inc., web site:
“…Little League estimates the number of girls currently participating in Little League Baseball programs to be about 100,000…”
Yes, you read it right: Baseball – NOT Softball… “…in 1974…the [Little League, Inc.] baseball rules and regulations were made non-gender specific…” “…The move came amid lively debates on women’s rights. It was three years after President Nixon signed Title IX into law, giving women greater opportunities to receive scholarships and funding for college athletics. It also was three years after the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the U.S. Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification…”
The goal of Girls Play Baseball Dot Com is to make certain that girls who want to and do play Baseball are aware that they have a right to fair and equal access to the game, no matter which league, division or public association they want to try out for – either Co-ed or All-Girls; Little League or Pony League; Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth; T-Ball or Seniors; Private or Public leagues.
When our daughter was in Third Grade, she asked if we should start an all-girls Baseball league, together…
March 14, 2006 — girlsplaybaseballWhen our daughter was in Third Grade, she asked if we should start an all-girls Baseball league, together. I replied that we could but I wanted to see how far we could go with the existing Youth Baseball organizations in San Francisco. Having only one Fall Ball season under her belt, I volunteered to coach our kids in the San Francisco Little League (SFLL) and was accepted with the nominal experience as both athlete and coach.
She went on her way, designing team logos, experimenting with team names: she was raring to go. I thought offering to coach would be a great first step, figure out how a league was organized. Having at least one girl on the team would be a great way to discover how far the league was going to allow girls to achieve greatness.
When I went to my first Rookie draft night, I had the chance to pick two other girls for the team, who I picked early on in the draft. The dead silence in the room (I had already put our daughter around 7 in the draft – her brother as a pre-selected 4) seemed to indicate that I had caved, picking two girls, who, if evaluated only on the merits of their Skills Evaluation Session tests, were not right for the higher draft positions: it wasn’t that the room, all guys but for the woman Division Commissioner – and one of the team’s Co-coaches, was inherently biased towards girl Baseball players (or so I hoped at the time).
After the draft, the Commissioner, who was also the league Administrator, would not relent, asking me three times if our daughter might not want to play Softball instead (I didn’t know this at the time, but, the Softball division had grown very large, very fast, in just a few years.) “It is a lot of fun, playing with the girls,” she repeated. I respectfully declined, on our daughter’s behalf, stating over and over and over again that our daughter had no interest in playing Softball and preferred playing Baseball. Period.
For the next three years, contrasted with the apparent disparity in opportunities on the field, between the opportunities for girls and boys, we looked for other opportunities in our local area for our daughter.
In August 2005, The California Women’s Baseball League presented an opportunity to assemble a team of girls to play in an exhibition game with girls traveling from Australia. (They were on their way to Florida for the Women’s World Series.) That game, that took place in October 2005, lead to our efforts to start an all-girls Baseball league. I began to look for examples of existing, successful all-girls Baseball leagues, hoping to leverage the team assembled for the exhibition game to start the league, but, also, as the foundation for a touring Tournament team that could compete head-on with Boys Baseball teams.
What I discovered in my search for successful all-girls Baseball leagues was strong interest among families similarly affected by the dirth of opportunities for girls to play Baseball in their communities. By contrast, communities that were not supportive at all of girls playing Baseball, while throwing their weight behind Softball opportunities for girls, didn’t even let the girls know they have the option – the right – to play Youth Baseball: even, until they reach the age of 18.
This lead to our support of the recent, local efforts to launch a city-wide, Park & Recreation-supported all-girls Baseball division of the San Francisco Youth Baseball League (SFYBL).
Also, we have found a lot of support for girls who play Baseball in the Co-ed division of the SFYBL, where our daughter also receives supportive coaching and the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities: to be treated as a Player.
We found Tournament Baseball teams and training facilities in our region, but the high costs, tricky logistics, and tentative opportunities to play in games, make this a riskier proposition, whether a boy or a girl working hard to achieve greatness on the field of Baseball. The fierce competition in the Tournament realm seems to have the side effect of not encouraging kids simply to have a fun time playing Baseball.
The mandate of Little League seems different than the enticement of Tournament Baseball teams and training facilities – not to mention what we have learned from the experiences mentioned above; to quote from the Little League, Inc., web site:
“…Little League estimates the number of girls currently participating in Little League Baseball programs to be about 100,000…”
Yes, you read it right: Baseball – NOT Softball… “…in 1974…the [Little League, Inc.] baseball rules and regulations were made non-gender specific…” “…The move came amid lively debates on women’s rights. It was three years after President Nixon signed Title IX into law, giving women greater opportunities to receive scholarships and funding for college athletics. It also was three years after the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the U.S. Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification…”
The goal of Girls Play Baseball Dot Com is to make certain that girls who want to and do play Baseball are aware that they have a right to fair and equal access to the game, no matter which league, division or public association they want to try out for – either Co-ed or All-Girls; Little League or Pony League; Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth; T-Ball or Seniors; Private or Public leagues.