It was about at the age of 10 years old when I heard the phrase "girls only play softball." How that statement came about, started with a girl about my age whom in which had been one of our best hitters on our little league team. She happened to be so enthused about the game of baseball that she made it known to everyone that she aspired to be a major league baseball player when she grew up. From what I can remember, she was with her father (her very own father!), who was also an assistant coach at the time along with my dad. She reminded her dad of her aspired dream, which he responds, "honey, I've told you girls only play softball when they get older." She then asks, "why?" Which he then closes out the conversation by stating, "girls aren't allowed to play in the big leagues because they'll get hurt."Now I'll revert back to this story later because right now I'd like to talk about a living argument against this myth. This living warrior goes by the name of Jennie Finch. Jennie Finch is an All-American medal winning Olympian, retired two-time pro All-Star. In 2001, Finch lead the University of Arizona to a Women's College World Series Title. On top of her countless achievements , she also helped lead the Team USA Softball Team to the gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics. (Wikipedia, Jennie Finch, 1st Paragraph)
In the 2004 Pepsi All-Star Game, arguably one of the best hitters in the history of Major League Baseball, Albert Pujols, stepped up to the plate to face Finch at softball pitching length (43ft). With Finch missing the first two pitches, Pujols dug in and really took a hack at it. After a few more pitches, the count was full at three balls and two strikes. He noticed she was really bringing it with a lot of velocity, so he moved to the back of the batters box to have more time to react to her pitch. It didn't help. Finch blew a fastball by Pujols before he even finished his swing. As the crowd watched in aw, Pujols stepped out of the box and gave a bow of respect to Finch. (David Epstein, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, 2013)
After this moment during the 2004 Major League All-Star Break, many, if not, all Major League players involved in the Mid-Summer Classic, gained some perspective and respect for the talent and skill that goes into the sport. Torii Hunter, a Minnesota Twin who was in attendance of the All-Star Game said during the at-bat, "this game is hard...very hard!"
Going back to that day where I heard a father shatter his very own daughter's dreams on the spot, I think this unfortunately a common outlook on what the majority of people look at the the capabilities of women. In the future, I couldn't imagine looking my daughter in the eyes and breaking it to her that her skills are limited. Taking time to consider how many little girls get destroyed off of this stigma that "they can't compete with the big boys" is complete nonsense. But on this day, the feminine culture definitely took a step forward, especially with what was put on display. It was quite a culture shock to the masses, but was definitely a win for the female gender. With the usual social stigma of undermining the capabilities of women, this certainly suppressed those beliefs to a certain extent.
First of all, I love how you started your blog with a personal experience regarding the dad and his ignorant comment towards his daughter. Jeannie Finch has clearly shown that women are capable enough to play in the so called "big leagues" and that their talent, skills and hard-work can go just as far as a man can. Just from the video, you could tell that she was serious and did not let up on Albert Pujol and made sure of that by striking him out. I am glad that there are athletes such as Jeannie proving this idea that women can't play sports the same as men because she has definitely proved that idea wrong in all aspects.
ReplyDeleteI grew up playing softball and we played right next to the boys on the baseball field. After practice we would all play together on the playground. I remember the boys saying that a softball was so much heavier and that they could never pitch underhand. I really enjoy your article because it seemed like that was the first time publicly softball really gained respect form men, the baseball world, and the rest of society.
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