Women in Professional Baseball
by Ike Clanton on Mar 6, 2010 4:26 PM PST
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By now we've all heard of 18 year-old Japanese knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, particularly after her recent publicity push which included a visit to Florida to throw a few pitches with Tim Wakefield. There have been exclusive women's leagues in the past (even if Rosie O'Donnell never got to play), and some of us may even know about the short minor league career of Alta Weiss in the 1910s and 1920s.
I always thought a woman with the will and physical gifts would find her way into professional baseball, possibly in the model of an Ichiro/Figgins type player, probably in the infield, or perhaps a finesse pitcher (though a knuckleballer makes even more sense).
The question that doesn't need to be asked, can Eri Yoshida make it in the NPB or MLB, and if not her, how soon can it happen?
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We already have Erik Bedard
-Geoff Baker
I fucking hate you Mariners
by kentroyals5 on Mar 6, 2010 4:50 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
If she can throw a decent knuckler consistently for strikes,
I don’t see why she couldn’t have a professional career in the Charlie Zink/R.A. Dickey mold. The main issue I think is going to be secondary offering(s). Wakefield occasionally mixes in a fastball or curveball with the knuckleball, I guess as a way to keep hitters honest. I think I read somewhere that Yoshida throws a fastball in the low 60’s to compliment the knuckleball, which probably isn’t going to cut it with professional hitters unless it has a ridiculous amount of sink or something. She is only 18, though, so she’s still got some time to develop better secondary stuff.
As a side note, you didn’t mention Jackie Mitchell, who played a few games in an independent league in the early 1930’s and specializing I believe in a sidearm curveball. Notably, pitching in an exhibition game against the Yankees, she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back. And she was 17 at the time. Then the commissioner voided her contract because women are too fragile for baseball or something.
by I Lick Squirrels on Mar 6, 2010 4:55 PM PST reply actions 2 recs
Women were actively banned by the Commissioner at some point
1950s I think. Has been since overturned.
I think it's the knuckleball mojo
Everyone thinks “well, if she’s got a good knuckleball, she doesn’t need to throw hard, so she’s got a chance”. But she doesn’t (by results so far) have a good knuckleball. If it improves, if Charlie Hough and Phil Niekro give her instruction, etc, she might improve it. But it’s not an easy pitch to master, and it’s unlikely that she ever will.
It's just novelty
If all she’s got is the knuckler and the 60mph fastball, she won’t be able to fool anyone. Maybe she could add an eephus pitch to her repertoire.
Japansese don't generally have great stats
De Gutibus non disputandum est
by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 6, 2010 11:44 PM PST up reply actions
My main concern would be the possibility of sex occurring between players, which would happen a lot more often than it does now
You’d be breeding genetically sound athletes, which is neat, but there’d be all sorts of new players demanding trades to get away from their exes and things like that.
If we have any question about whether team chemistry is at all relevant in a clubhouse , that question will be quickly answered when men and women share a clubhouse. That sounds scary.
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
by Corco on Mar 6, 2010 5:16 PM PST reply actions 2 recs
Another concern: their menstrual blood attracts bears
Seriously, if baseball survived Ryne Sandberg’s wife, it’d survive the female version of Willie Bloomquist/Alan Ebree.
by abelard on Mar 6, 2010 6:03 PM PST up reply actions 8 recs
This is actually true
Their menstrual blood does, in fact, attract bears.
We do NOT want Felix’s risk of being mauled by a bear to be increased.
Determined, Jonesing Commentor
Uhh
There is no evidence that grizzlies are overly attracted to menstrual odors more than any other odor and there is no statistical evidence that known bear attacks have been related to menstruation (Byrd 1988). However, park visitors have been injured and killed by bears (Gunther and Hoekstra 1996).
He survived Carlos Silva
with the same method that he can use to survive a bear attack: distract them with a pic-a-nic basket.
by abelard on Mar 6, 2010 11:35 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
I think its just really improbably that we see a woman in baseball any time soon
A freak talent has to come along and then for some reason she has to be playing baseball from a very young age. I don’t think we can expect a woman to be a power hitter or a speedy player which basically rules out any position player. I doubt a woman would have the raw arm strength to play catcher either.
Same with pitching. There is just too much raw strength required to throw a fastball at 90+ mph. I don’t know how fast a softball player could throw a fastball if you gave them a baseball but it would be interesting to see if a typical woman baseball player could throw faster than Jamie Moyer. I just don’t have a good feel.
In the end I could see a knuckleballer like what everybody says. Hopefully somebody does it some day but I don’t expect to see it in the next 20-50 years.
From watching a couple Olympic and Women's College World Series games
I have to think some of these ladies, if they trained to the skillset needed to play in the MLB, they could do it.
Interesting read, I had never heard about this.
Glad to see she is now getting some recognition.
by FlaskInSafeco on Mar 11, 2010 5:35 AM PST up reply actions
I've always thought if there were ever a woman in MLB...
it would be a submarine reliever—kind of translating the softball pitching approach (without the arm swing) to baseball. But my friend, who played D-I college softball and now coaches, vehemently disagrees. I thought it was weird that I was more optimistic about it possibly happening someday that she was.
Stop The Wave!
Yeah it would be interesting to hear a female softball pitcher's opinion on how hard it would be to become a hardball pitcher.
by Edgar for Pres on Mar 7, 2010 3:40 PM PST up reply actions
Does MLB have rules about how a pitch can be delivered?
Obviously, they do, but more specifically: would a fastpitch-style wind-up be permitted? This of course would say nothing about whether it would be effective.
by FlaskInSafeco on Mar 11, 2010 5:34 AM PST up reply actions
I'm pretty sure a fastpitch wind up would be ruled a balk.
Given the motion towards home plate coming twice with the ball out of the glove.
...
In 1993, with their 43rd overall pick, the Chicago White Sox selected Karey Schueler, daughter of their then-General Manager, Ron Schueler.
This seems like an appropriate time to bust out the trivia.
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://www.marinersminors.com/
43rd _round_ pick.
Get your facts straight.
THEIR 43rd overall pick, not THE 43rd overall pick
Read carefully before you call someone out.
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://www.marinersminors.com/
by JY on Mar 7, 2010 6:25 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
I like how I'm dead now
You fuckers didn’t even give me a nice funeral
by Graham MacAree on Mar 7, 2010 9:49 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
No. You're dead. Dead people don't talk.
Unless its like the “Uggggggggggggggh” you see in all the zombie movies.
M's fan in the Bay, soon to be LA
Why pay that much for such a little casket?
by abender20 on Mar 7, 2010 10:49 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs
It's our most modest receptacle
Mariners/D Broncos/BSU Broncos fan in Seattle
by appleshampoo on Mar 10, 2010 6:15 PM PST up reply actions
So what do you want?
Ashes shot into the sun? Loaded into a boat with the LL flag and set ablaze in Puget Sound? Or should we just keep the memory alive with various, deserved beatdowns?
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://www.marinersminors.com/
by JY on Mar 8, 2010 9:56 AM PST up reply actions
Also bottom of the page
here shows a picture of evidence of a woman pitching in independent league baseball.
by Edgar for Pres on Mar 7, 2010 3:49 PM PST up reply actions
If a woman has the tools to keep up with the big boys in some way or another...
Then so be it. It would also be extremely profitable if one of the big three could find a way to assimilate women into their respective sports without making them into a gimmick/novelty item.
As far as Baseball goes, I have no doubt that a woman could play certain positions, maybe even all positions, just as good as a man. Also, I think that there has to be some women who can hit MLB pitching and be able to hit with at least 25%(MLB average) success rate.
It’s already been proven that even the best hitters cannot even touch a softball thrown by Jennie Finch. Who is to say that she cant do the same thing from 20 feet farther and with a baseball and be as or almost as successful? Even if she is only 3/4 as good from 60ft and with a baseball then she is still going to be on par with even the best MLB pitchers.
OOOOOH!!!!! That was NASTY!!!!!!!!
I think you're seriously underestimating the athletic ability it takes to play in the MLB
Sure a woman could play the positions, but it would take someone extremely unique to play them well enough to compete with the male athletes, and that’s not even taking the offensive side into account.
I don’t think women could compete athletically with the glove only guys in the MLB, and I don’t think they could hit well enough to compete with any of the other guys.
That being said, maybe somewhere sometime there’ll be a woman that could, and that would be cool, but I don’t think baseball needs it.
It would all be made easier if women would play baseball instead of softball.
by Smegmalicious on Mar 7, 2010 7:40 PM PST up reply actions
I think it's hard to say with any certainty because
girls aren’t given the same sort of opportunity to play baseball as boys are.
That being said, I think that if a girl was given the same training as boys who played baseball and was allowed to continue playing baseball in high school/college, I wouldn’t consider her odds of making the majors any different from any other player.
That's a completely bizarre line to take
Women are worse athletes than men. This isn’t chauvinism or any sort of -ism talking, it’s just true. Worse athletes are going to have a harder time playing in elite professional leagues.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 9:54 AM PST up reply actions
What competitive sports are there where women have something close to physical parity with men?
I know there are some, but they’re escaping me at the moment.
I bet that goalie for the Canadian women's olympic hockey team might be able to get an AHL gig.
It's hard to convince people to let you eat them if you're an asshole. - Thingray
Possibly, but you are thinking along the right lines here.
What I think people can miss is that a woman playing MLB would not be a woman who can “compete with the men”. She would be a woman who could compete with the best men in the world. And that’s an important distinction. There are pretty much no sports I can think of where the best women can compete with the best men. Unless you count something like gymnastics, where the sports are entirely different — different events, etc. — for the genders. And that’s not really head-to-head competition, so . ..
by FlaskInSafeco on Mar 11, 2010 5:47 AM PST up reply actions
bowling
now that a woman has beaten the best men in the world.
I would think it would be ‘sports’ of precision rather than strength and speed. Darts, pool, things like that. Archery maybe?
I would imagine that female curlers could compete with men without issue.
A female ski jumper holds the current world record.
Those are the ones that come to mind.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 1:10 PM PST up reply actions
the question
was about ‘competitive sports’ and physical parity.
Bowling, race car driving, ski jumping, even curling, are generally considered sports. I mean, the argument over definition of ‘sport’ is certainly a rabbit hole . . . but he asked about ‘sports’ not ‘atheletics’
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 2:33 PM PST up reply actions
I thought the question was about baseball.
But even still. Just because a woman beats the best bowler in one tournament doesn’t make the rule, it’s the exception. I would assume the rest of the sports would be the same, race car driving, ski jumping, pool, etc.
I agree
I was just trying to answer his question off the top of my head. No one is suggesting female athletic parity with men or anything.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 3:43 PM PST up reply actions
I'd like to see hurl a fourty pound stone or sweep and say there is no athletic ability involved.
Hard work never killed nobody, but I won't take my chances.
Actually, not bowling.
I bowl competitively. I have for years. It’s not just precision, there’s a great deal of strength involved. You try manipulating a sixteen pound ball with the muscles in your forearm with limited involvement from the shoulder, and squaring your hips to the line.
Bowling is a far harder sport to be good at than people realize. Strength and flexibility play roles, as does concentration (implied by precision, but unlike pool, bowlers generally have to shut out the noise of 20+ other bowlers doing their thing at the same time, as well as have tunnel vision). Go to a local bowling alley, any one, and look at “the wall of fame” or whatever they call it there—300 games and 800 series bowled at the alley. The male-female ratio on such will always be insane.
Women just aren’t as good as men in sports. Their bodies just aren’t designed for it.
guess you haven't heard the news
That’s why I listed bowling.
Women clearly aren’t as good as men in sports. The point is both that exceptions exist and that the best women can compete with lower levels of men.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 3:53 PM PST up reply actions
No, I heard.
But she won the ToC, one tournament among literally dozens played every year, and is the first woman to accomplish as much. More importantly, it was the PBA ToC, not a world tournament (the PBA is American).
That’s like saying the Royals winning a three-game series against the Yankees are the best team in baseball. It’s small sample size in the extreme. She can be an exception to the rule, but the point is that there is the rule to which she can be an exception. And the idea that “women” as a broad base “have physical parity with men” as a broad base—not about individuals, but about the sexes—in bowling is just not true. It’s almost laughable.
The effects of gender gap are smaller in bowling than in basketball, but the gender gap is still there.
I guess you're right
saying they have ‘physical parity’ wouldn’t be accurate. But it’s an example where the physical difference isn’t so great that it makes the exceptions impossible (like, say football and basketball, excluding kickers, maybe).
By that strict definition I can’t really imagine a competition, event, or sport where there is complete physical parity. Just ones where it’s close enough that women can sometimes compete at varying levels. The point I would make is that the culture of baseball is such that it will be a very very long time before we know where baseball falls on that spectrum.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 4:27 PM PST up reply actions
Even kicking takes a lot of strength
I’m not totally sure why people assume a woman can be as good as a man at kicking in football.
by Edgar for Pres on Mar 8, 2010 6:26 PM PST up reply actions
do people assume that?
I think it’s interesting how this thread involves a lot of taking people out of context.
I excluded kickers because they are probably closer to bowlers than to linebackers as far as female athletic parity. Clearly women aren’t as good at kicking footballs as men, or there would be some female football kickers somewhere (I’ve heard of a couple at the high school level that do alright though).
But I think people believe that it’s possible if not probable.
And to answer your question directly: the movie Necessary Roughness is why.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 6:53 PM PST up reply actions
There was one woman who was a D1 place kicker in college, though she was never any good (as far as I can tell)
and also launched a heap of sexual harassment/assault claims against one of her former teams.
I wouldn't say worse...
They do have to work a lot harder on average to match the performance of a man of equal size, but we’re not talking about a sport where you have to flirt with world records to compete at the highest level. This isn’t the shotput or the 100 meter dash.
A woman would have to be physically gifted and a hard worker to compete above the high school level, but I think it could be done. It is definitely true that girls are discouraged from pursuing competitive baseball in most environments.
I think, at this point, it is more of a cultural/societal hurdle than a physical conditioning/strength hurdle.
RE: Encouragement
Girls can’t compete with boys in sports that they’re actively encouraged to play (basketball, soccer). Why would encouraging them to play baseball suddenly make them capable of breaking into a league which features the best 750 baseball players alive at any given time?
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 10:54 AM PST up reply actions
I'm not saying there will be 50 women playing in the league
But I can see an exceptional individual woman being better than Horacio Ramirez. Or Emilio Bonifacio. Or the current incarnations of Garrett Anderson, Alfonso Soriano, and Yuniesky Betancourt.
You're massively underrating the baseballing ability of the players you've listed
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 2:08 PM PST up reply actions
I'm not going to argue with you.
I just don’t think there’s enough evidence available to make a definitive statement against the possibility. There have been some amazing female athletes who have been able to at least compete with their male counterparts in some sports. Who knows for certain what they would have been capable of if they had applied their energies to other sports? I don’t. Without other examples to draw from and compare to, I wouldn’t even attempt to make a guess. I wouldn’t rule it out categorically though.
And, yes, at some point, all of those players have performed at superior levels to their current performance. I’d still rather have a random crackwhore on my roster than Yuniesky Betancourt.
Heh
I’d still rather have a random crackwhore on my roster than Yuniesky Betancourt.
Because you’d get a lot of blowing either way?
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
McFAQ for all you newcomers out there.
Sure they can
just not those sports. Baseball is certainly more physically demanding than bowling, but couldn’t we compare hitting a baseball to golf? as far as physical requirements are concerned.
If women played baseball from a young age (instead of softball), and it was popular, I would think that there would be one or two women potentially on the fringe of professional baseball (professional, not the majors). Akin to golf.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 1:13 PM PST up reply actions
true
but the point was that ‘girls can’t compete in sports that they’re actively encouraged to play.’
That’s just not true (unless you define anything where the best female in the world can beat the best man in the world as not a sport. Which some have done to bowling).
Can a woman play baseball at a high level? The answer to that question is factually and historically ‘yes’. We know for a fact that a teenage girl struck out Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth back to back. Was it a fluke? maybe, but girls don’t play baseball, so we’ll never really know. Both because women are at a physical disadvantage and because top female athletes will be doing other things.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 1:27 PM PST up reply actions
and now that a woman is the best in the world
more and more people would agree with that.
I don’t think anyone would argue that women are athletically on par with men. If women played baseball from a young age, could the best female player in the world compete at a AA level? I think a lot of us feel that that’s plausible.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 2:38 PM PST up reply actions
Pool is more of a sport than bowling is
Nobody calls pool a sport.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 2:42 PM PST up reply actions
But speed pool!
Those are some sweaty pool players. It must be a sport
the 'what is a sport debate'
is a conversation unto itself. I just think baseball players might be a bit defensive about it. I have engaged in more than one conversation with people claiming that baseball doesn’t qualify, and that many MLB players aren’t real athletes (and I got pretty defensive about it)
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 3:26 PM PST up reply actions
A sport needs to have a dynamic human defence
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 3:29 PM PST up reply actions
did you just eliminate most Olympic events?
or am I misunderstanding
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 3:36 PM PST up reply actions
I contend that you just eliminated the NBA
Not basketball, mind you, just the NBA.
by Ike Clanton on Mar 8, 2010 4:01 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs
I can't stand the NBA.
When the Sonics were punted to Oklahoma City, I was appalled by the process and as a sports fan disappointed to see a team leave. Every reasonable person understands NCAA basketball is superior anyway. I now have no reason to follow the NBA, and I’m so okay with that.
I miss the Sonics, but fuck the NBA. Even if the Sonics were still here, fuck the NBA. Way to water down one of my favorite sports to a highlight reel of superstars. grumblegrumblegrumble
Wrong.
As a team sport, basketball is superior at the college level. The best NCAA players end up in the NBA, and at that point it becomes a contest of individual wills.
Likewise, since the NBA has rules against zone and hybrid defenses, substantial strategic moves are almost nil. This essentially allows the best scorers to individually outplay defenders that are required to play them based on positions.
The NBA is a disaster to the game of basketball. Watch the Olympic teams—same great players, but the way the game is played is so different. And a lot more exciting because of it. The NCAA has all this.
NBA=great individual athletes + shitty league rules + boring team dynamics —> high scoring games
Score inflation is the most obvious thing to happen when defense has a negligible effect on game outcome. Guess what? The NBA has been showing score inflation since the late 80’s.
So you're telling me the NBA has seen score inflation since right about the time when they allowed players who shoot from farther away to get more points for their baskets?
Or also since the time when they stopped allowing defensive players to mug offensive players?
I’ve gotta say, I’m stunned.
The three-point arc made its first appearance in the ABA in '67.
The NBA followed suit in ‘79. I’ll give you the change in foul regulations had a massive effect on score inflation. The same thing has happened to the NFL in the last 10 years or so, with rules that are essentially there to protect offensive players (I don’t necessarily disagree with the rules, the offense takes a beating for obvious reasons). Obviously, score inflation lagged behind the introduction of the three-point arc.
My point had to be taken in whole—the defensive rule set in particular benefits offensive players. I’m not saying the three-point arc isn’t partially responsible, but it’s not solely responsible. I’ve watched the NBA, the NCAA and international competitions (when they’re televised, which is rarely), and frankly the NBA is the worst of the bunch when it comes to defensive influence on the game. Especially a “dynamic human defence” to quote Graham.
Now, this could be a taste thing and you enjoy the NBA more than the NCAA. That’s fair. But you can’t tell me with a straight face the differences in rule set don’t benefit NBA scorers.
Wait, what? NBA scoring is down since the late 80s.
Most people who complain about the NBA point to this as a problem.
Look, I’m not a big NBA fan, as the league is transparently corrupt and because it stole my favorite team. But it’s just not true that they’re allowing score inflation. Some people claim Pat Riley’s knicks ended the scoring inflation with defensive tactics (similar to the complaints leveled at the New Jersey Devils in hockey), others with a focus on one-on-ones and less team play. Others would point to teams drafting and developing shut-down defenders, I don’ t know, but scoring is clearly down. Remember the 80s when 132-121 point games were fairly common?
I think tons of people have trouble identifying why
exactly they do not enjoy the NBA. I could throw a ton of reason out there, but for me it is very simple. There are very few things less enjoyable than watching basketball save the last 5 minutes. It is a seriously flawed sport.
So what do we call...
cross country, skiing, track & field events, wrestling/boxing (I’d be interested to hear an offense/defense definition of these given that there’s no goal object in either)…? I mean, I’m willing to buy this definition as long as there’s another term that can be readily applied to other tests of physical skill without “a dynamic human defense” that may or may not include an objective goal.
I would call everything except boxing either an athletic competition or a game
There’s clearly some flavour of offence and defence in boxing/wrestling (punch in face/not letting other guy punch you in face) but I don’t know much about either one.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 3:45 PM PST up reply actions
Perhaps it would be better phrased thusly
Part of the definition of sport is (in my eyes) that the ability of one’s opponent has an impact on your own performance.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 4:03 PM PST up reply actions
The Greeks would certainly disagree
but I like the definition. It’s clearer than most attempts to define ‘sport’ I’ve heard.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 4:20 PM PST up reply actions
There are still some nuances here.
By this definition, cross-country skiing should be considered a sport, as interactions with opponents affect strategy (i.e. drafting). Even in speed skating (traditional two lanes, not short track), the ability of your opponent matters, because the athletes cross over eachothers’ lanes. If your opponent is of lesser or greater ability, you can’t draft off him when the lanes cross, and this puts you at a disadvantage in terms of time.
by FlaskInSafeco on Mar 11, 2010 6:02 AM PST up reply actions
It's clearly defined.
I like it. But then chess is a sport. I love chess, but really? I can’t even stand watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN.
Well, you still need the athletic ability component there too
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 4:28 PM PST up reply actions
Now I'm wondering how we're defining "athletic ability."
The term athlete comes from the old Greek “athlein”, meaning to contend for a prize, from “athlon” being the prize itself.
So really, if there’s a reward involved based on your own input, it would be contending for a prize (unlike the lottery where you are looking for a prize, but cannot compete for it as your own skill has no impact).
I was assuming we were limiting “athletic” to some sort of developed physical proficiency. Unless you count the ability to pinch a pawn between two fingers and move it 2 inches on an 8×8 board, I’d consider the primary factors in chess aren’t physical but mental. Likewise with poker.
so your foosball injury
was a sports injury.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 7:23 PM PST up reply actions
I am on the fence about how much physical prowess foosball takes
That’s really the unclear part about my sports definition.
by Graham MacAree on Mar 8, 2010 7:31 PM PST up reply actions
The entire PGA lineup...
basically slapped Annika Sorenstam silly. With good reason.
which is why I said
‘potentially on the fringe’
and not professionally competitive, or something like that.
I’m not saying women are there, I’m just saying it’s plausible.
by Snuffleupagus on Mar 8, 2010 3:25 PM PST up reply actions
You are implying that MLB players do not work hard
I’m pretty sure to make it to the pros, athletes are working basically as hard as they can to get better.
by Edgar for Pres on Mar 8, 2010 1:06 PM PST up reply actions
Sorry, poorly phrased on my part.
I was thinking about that sort of female physical outlier from the beginning. So, what I mean to say is that if you have a girl who’s an outlier and given the same sort of opportunity as boys that there’s no reason she couldn’t have the same odds.
I'm also really surprised that
my off-handed, poorly-worded comment and your response generated such a huge conversation thread.
The only possible example right now is Michelle Wie
and she really can’t compete with the men anyway
by seattlebruin on Mar 10, 2010 10:10 AM PST up reply actions
Maybe we can sign her.
And hey, if she sucks, we just trade her for Alfonso Soriano.
Sooner or later it'll happen
I wonder about this from time to time. Personally I would love to see it sooner. It would be cool to see an organization dedicated to breaking the MLB gender barrier by providing girls the opportunity training and support it would take. Wonder what Ichiro would say on the subject. Perhaps after he retires he could train a female apprentice in the ways of the force and the resultant Jedi could be our leadoff batter of the future.
Hey, if she can get the job done . . .
Baseball is perhaps the one sport where physical size is not a prerequisite for success. There are quite a few women out there that can get the job done with the glove right now.
Foot speed, upper body strength and /or arm strength are another issue.
I could be wrong but a knuckle ball pitcher doesn’t need any of those things in the AL.
It could happen.
mjc
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