Sideline Chatter
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend
I started playing baseball at 5 years old. My parents were just as guilty as many other parents who stick their little ones in T-Ball just to watch them tumble around the bases, craft “snow angels” in the dirt at second base, pick their noses in right field.
When kids are this age, there are no differences in abilities between boys and girls–both struggle to hit the ball off the tee and field grounders in the infield. Boys and girls both cry when a play didn’t go their way and cheer when they realize the snack bar would be open after the game. That’s why I didn’t see a need to switch to softball...after all I was already playing baseball. So, I never switched and played with the boys until I was 16.
“Everyone line up, hustle, hustle...come on now everyone line up, in order,” said the coach with the clipboard. Twenty-nine boys danced in the dirt outside the dugout, anxiously awaiting a try out. I paced as I threaded my long blonde ponytail through the hole in my cap. The coach stood in front of us, khaki shorts and white Reeboks completing his dad look. “Okay, we need to make sure you’re all protecting yourselves out there on the field today so no one gets hurt. I need all of y’all to knock on the door for me. If you’re not protected you can’t try out today. ”
Unaware of what a “cup” even was, I proceeded to raise my fist high and knock at the invisible door in front of me, looking around in utter confusion. Protection from what? How could something as small as a cup do such a valiant act? One by one, each boy raised his fist and tapped on his cup beneath his baseball pants– “knocking on the door.”
This was the first time I began to recognize differences between boys and girls–but what did playing a sport have to do with that? Sure I was smaller in size and had longer hair, but I was a pretty good ballplayer. So what was the problem?
These days, gender equality is a highly controversial issue. Women constantly grapple with the fact that gender defines oneself in our society... no matter how hard you can pitch a fastball.
The differences between men and women in sports are seen in how they are treated on and off the field, in the media, even in how they are paid. In America, 40 percent of all athletes are women, yet only 6-8 percent of all sports media coverage is devoted to them, according to The Sport Journal. The Women’s World Cup soccer final last July was the most watched soccer match in the U.S. regardless of gender with nearly 25 million viewers. Yet the women were paid far less than the men’s team would have been. The inequality even extends to coaching–coaches in women’s teams sports at the collegiate level earn 63 cents for every dollar earned by the coaches of male teams.
When I was 13 years old, I became involved with a program called Dream Team USA, an all-girls travel baseball team. We traveled across the country to represent USA Women’s Baseball. Most fans were supportive and loved that girls played baseball. Little girls would ask for photos and excited fans would squeal with inspiration and say phrases like, “Go get ’em girls!”
On the other hand, some were offended that we even stepped foot in a dugout. At times we would walk into the gates of a stadium, where people held signs that read “You don’t belong here,” and “Go back to softball!”
In 2014, we traveled to Osaka, Japan for the 2014 Women’s Friendship Series. Many people do not know that women’s baseball exists in the U.S., let alone internationally. There were 15 of us on the team, ranging from 16 to 21 years old. There were no limitations on gender, no negative comments from the stands.
Now that I’m older, I think I’ve begun to see that gender equality should not be seen as solely a women’s issue. It should become everyone’s issue–humanity’s issue. In the same sense that people claim “women make up half the population, and therefore half its potential,” men represent that other half, meaning their potential to resolve this issue in our society is equivalent to ours. How can we fight back against this issue if only half act to end it? How can we win a game if only half our team shows up to play?
While that adversity hat exists for female spokesperson’s continues to saturate society, it gets better with every girl who believes in her ability to succeed regardless of her DNA. It gets better with every woman who stands tall among men. It gets better with each and every one of us, who empower each other to rise above the “man vs. woman” culture. It will get better when society can say, “Let’s all play ball.”
Contact Lacey Yahnke at lyahnke@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.