The (Lack of) Women in Baseball

[octopussy]

Salon.com article today musing on the release of the only female umpire in baseball (and we're not even talking AAA):

Here's one place where we definitely want women to get yelled at: the major league baseball diamond. Looks like it's gonna be a while, though, as 31-year-old Ria Cortesio -- for years the only female umpire in organized baseball

Comments

[octopussy]

Mystic junk, I tell you. ;)

Do you think, though, that by the time that happens they'll just go and make a (real) women's league? ...Is it wrong that I'd be disappointed if it came to that?

On the one hand, that'd be great for so many women, about 10 teams' worth, say, who would be able to go out there and play the game they love (as a day job!). On the other hand, it would be far more awesome to compete as one of the best, plain and simple (and as we've agreed, this seems possible, much more so than in other sports). But then it would only ever be a handful, at best. :| Getting ahead of myself, there, though.

...As for gay players, I'm not sure. The Indians did take the step and accept Tadano (now of the A's) with full knowledge of what he was being shunned for in Japan. That said, ...no. Women in general and women athletes are accepted in our culture. Women are allowed to be impressive, ripped, millionaire athletes. So I can fathom that coming first.

Co-ed is intimidatingly unexplored territory, but then there is the army. That's absurdly comparable, perhaps?

[americanleaguer]

Baseball is a kind of unique team sport because it involves relatively little physical contact... it's much more like tennis or golf, both of which HAVE had co-ed events, even if they're still usually separated out by gender. Extremely good female tennis players CAN compete with male tennis players, and female golfers are starting to make that argument for themselves, because both sports involve strength but are also very much skill-based. Same with baseball. So while gender-separate leagues make sense for sports like football or hockey (with the degree of contact involved, and men generally being larger/weighing a lot more) and basketball (with the average height differential and a few other factors), there's less of a valid argument for that with baseball. I dunno, I hang tight to the co-ed dream, 'tho it's def. still a pipedream. :P

IIRC Tadano said he wasn't gay, he had just needed money and was young and made bad decisions etc etc.