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No-hitters, Increased Participation, and an Olympic Opportunity… Baseball
for Girls and Women Growing Quickly in Stature Around the Globe.
April 26th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under
Women's baseball — It seemed like a simple enough idea, or maybe a ploy for
extra media coverage to garner an Olympic bid, when a few weeks about
International Baseball Federation president Dr. Harvey Schiller announced
that baseball would add a women’s discipline to its bid for 2016. After all,
the IBAF was rebuffed by the International Softball Federation in January to
join forces in a combined bid, so was this announcement a media ploy to get
back at softball?
“Not at all,” Schiller said recently. “I was one of the people (at the
Atlanta Olympics) who helped bring softball into the Olympics, and I believe
both sports belong on the Olympic programme. This move (to add women’s
baseball) was long overdue and has been met with a flood of support around
the world because the numbers and the opportunity support the growth of
baseball as a sport for all…and all means women and girls of all ages who
may leave the game now because that opportunity is not there.”
Some of those positive developments have picked up steam following the
IBAF’s announcement. Sandra Monteiro of Portugal became the first female
president of a baseball federation when she was elected as head of the
Portuguese Baseball Federation. Then last month, 16-year-old Eri Yoshida
became the first woman to appear in a Japanese professional game, striking
out the first batter she faced, and touching off a storm of interest in
girls baseball in Japan, where the game is already offered on the high
school and collegiate levels. Korea announced the government was putting
more funds into growing its baseball programs for both boys and girls, and
no less than eight nations placed bids to host the 2010 Women’s Baseball
World Cup. Then this past week in Bayonne, New Jersey, 12-year-old Mackenzie
Brown threw a perfect game…the first by a girl in Little League…and received
national attention in the United States.
Perfect Game — Another interesting development will take place later this
week, on Sunday, May 3, when the first baseball game in over 100 years
played entirely by college-eligible women’s student-athletes, assembled from
over 10 New England colleges and universities, will be held at Springfield
College in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game is believed by historians to
be the first all-women’s college baseball game since a game between Georgia
College and Alabama College in March of 1900.
“Baseball is a game for all, and over 250,000 girls play the game through
their early teens in the United States alone,” said game organizer Justine
Siegel, who serves as associate head coach at Springfield College, the only
female coach in collegiate baseball. “We think this game will serve as a
small sample that if given the opportunity, many young women would continue
playing recreationally and competitively in high school and as adults, not
just in the United States but around the world.”
The game, dubbed, “The Friendship Game,” will have over 25 players from at
least 12 New England colleges and will be played on a regulation diamond,
follow all NCAA baseball rules, and last seven innings. Among the
participants will be Karen Costes, who played for Team USA in 2008 and
Christal Fitzgerald, an Australian who was the first international female to
play college baseball in the US and is currently the only woman playing
college baseball, now in her third season at Daniel Webster College.
So with all the interest, numbers globally reaching 500,000 and over 30
nations now offering women’s baseball, is this a fad or a growing movement?
“We know the growth potential is there, judging by the responses we are
getting, and they are all genuine, not contrived at all,” Schiller added.
“Baseball offers young girls and women so many of the life lessons that boys
and men have already enjoyed, and most girls are introduced to ball sports
or team sports through attending a professional game or playing teeball, so
why shouldn’t we encourage the growth of the game? It makes perfect sense,
not just in the United States and Asia, but in places like Europe and Africa
where the game is really starting to grow, and the Olympic platform will
help push that growth. It is a great time not just for men’s baseball or
women’s baseball, but for baseball in general.”
Now many challenges still remain in growing girls baseball internationally
and in the United States. The new book, “Stolen Bases: Why American Girls
Don’t Play Baseball,” by Jennifer Ring, details many of the challenges
faced, which include limits in coeducational opportunities in the United
States, no NCAA plan for women’s baseball and cultural challenges in many
countries around the world. The IBAF has added Dr. Donna Lopiano, one of the
most respected names in international sport and the former head of the
Women’s Sports Foundation, to chair a committee dedicated to growing the
women’s discipline globally, and addressing those challenges. That committee
will be formed in the coming month.
However the upside and opportunities for growth do exist, and by adding the
women’s platform, and garnering media and grassroots support, a simple idea”
may have spawned a new growth level of interest and participation in the
great game of baseball.
