softball

[rlc217]

I used to play softball when I was a kid. I wanted to play Little League, but wasn't allowed to (parents wouldn't let me because I would have had to switch after a certain age or something so they figured it'd be better to play softball and stick with it if I wanted to). I was good at it and enjoyed it ...other than being like WTF when all these

Comments

[fabfemmeboy]

At least where I was growing up, there weren't softball leagues for boys, but there were for men. My dad played softball on a team with guys he worked with, my temple has a men's softball team, and there were a bunch of intramural softball teams at one of the colleges I attended (both all-male and co-ed). So I guess I don't really think of it as an inherently female thing that I played softball for awhile.

[rlc217]

Sorry I didn't realize that what I said about it being awkward was stated wrong, I meant to say that as a kid I feel it is awkward. It's definitely not a female thing to play softball, and I am aware of mens' co-ed leagues for adults. I just feel like there weren't any when I was a kid that weren't supposed to be all-female.

[fabfemmeboy]

Sorry, I guess I did misunderstand. Personally, I felt awkward any time I was in an all-girl activity because they all got along and I...didn't. I was always more comfortable talking to my girl scout troop leaders than to the other troop leaders, for instance, or my coaches instead of my teammates, but I was also the kid who would talk to the teachers instead of classmates, so it wasn't unique to sports activities.

[melsmarsh]

There were no softball teams for boys and girls couldn't join Little League. I was forced to play T-ball instead of going into something I wanted to do like martial arts.

[rlc217]

Ah, so you didn't get to go into martial arts either? That really sucks you couldn't join Little League at all. I could have here but my parents had some weird logic about it.

[melsmarsh]

Nope, it was soccer for two years then T-ball. Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to go into Little League anyway, but they insisted on T-ball.

[moonspark]

I'm not sure, actually.

I mean, my sister played baseball in the Little League with the boys, but it's way different for little girls than for little boys -- in general, little girls can do boy things but not vice versa.

[rlc217]

AFAIK here girls can play Little League until a certain age, maybe 12 or 13? Then apparently they can't play anymore with the boys. But yeah, there's definitely that difference of what little girls can do v.s. boys. As far as I know, boys under 13 aren't really allowed to play softball with the girls like the girls are allowed with baseball.

[moonspark]

Oh, hm, I don't know if there was a cap. She lost interest in baseball by herself when she was, like, 9. Then she moved onto basketball and volleyball and skiing. (She got all the jock genes; I got none. lol.)

But yeah, responding to your edit -- when I was a child, my awkwardness in softball was mostly because I wasn't interested in sports. So I would beg to be put in outfield (there was a policy that said that everyone had to be played at least once) and take a book out there and sit down to read. :3

[fabfemmeboy]

In my brother's grade, there was a girl who kept getting moved onto the boys teams because she was "too good" and they were afraid she would physically hurt the girls. It first happened after she hit a hard line-drive and the other team's left fielder couldn't catch. No one quite knew what to do with an 8-year-old girl who was actually good at sports. They did the same thing with basketball a year later.

[nikolche]

Apparently Little League has boys' softball.

[rlc217]

Cool! I had no idea that existed, thanks for the link!

[idlehander]

i played little league for a year, and softball for a few years. if i talk about it now, i just say i played hardball. i also played soccer for 12 years, and if i'm discussing it i talk like i played in a men's league. it's a little strange for me, but i don't think it's that big of a deal. stories i tell don't center around the sex of the people i played with/against, and it's much less akward to just use male pronouns than it would be to say i played on a women's team. selectively editing my childhood is something i've gotten fairly good at.