Comments on: Reaching First Base (In a Linguistic Kind of Way)

By: Friday Fun Thread: Play Ball! - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Friday Fun Thread: Play Ball! - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:31:12 +0000

[...] Halloween, changing leaves (at least in my part of the country), and playoff baseball. I’ve already written about my obsessive love for the sport, and this is the time of year when it really kicks into high [...]

By: She’s Having a Ball - The Pursuit of Harpyness

She’s Having a Ball - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:01:50 +0000

[...] And this is the first time that there have been two girls in the tournament since 2004. I’ve already mentioned my childhood dreams of playing pro baseball, so I’m really impressed by Reyes’ [...]

By: SunflowerP

SunflowerP — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:01:31 +0000

J.D. Regent's suggestion to de-genderize the word "man" has this on its side: it'd be a reclamation of (much) earlier usage. Whether, after several centuries of genderized usage, it'd be effective, is anyone's guess. Sunflower

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:32:50 +0000

@Katharine: “Freshmen” is definitely one of those male-centric terms that is used without a second thought. I went to a women’s college, and they had the good sense to use the term “first-years” or “firsties”. Makes a lot more sense, even for coed colleges.

By: Katharine Sinderson

Katharine Sinderson — Sat, 02 May 2009 12:11:02 +0000

As a non American one of the terms that has always bemused me is ‘freshman’ applied to both sexes. How on earth do women tolerate this? In the UK we merely have first year students, second year students ecetera. The term fresher is applied to a new student, as in ‘freshers week’ but not really applicable thereafter. It is a while since I left college but I don’t think this has changed.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:27:06 +0000

@x trapnel: Women are not allowed to play in baseball for colleges that fall under the NCAA umbrella, which is the standard collegiate league for all athletics, both male and female.

By: Katharine Sinderson

Katharine Sinderson — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:20:59 +0000

The same difficulties apply in cricket as in baseball. Batsman is often used for both sexes, though batter is also substituted for a person who bats, and this seems more likely to apply to women I think. But if you use the terms batsman for a man who bats and batswoman for a woman who bats you still have the problem that there is a fielding position called ‘third man’. These things are complicated.

By: Tersa

Tersa — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:57:25 +0000

When talking about men and women’s sports everyone always goes on about “how each are different physically blah blah blah and that’s why men sports are better” and I always really wish that women had a team sport that was invented for them, that showcased what physical advantages that women have over men. And it would be awesome and the professional version would rival the nfl and nba in profit.

By: x. trapnel

x. trapnel — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:39:23 +0000

Are you sure women aren't allowed to play in college baseball? Check out this article on USABaseball.com, which notes: "... Christal Fitzgerald, an Australian who was the first international female to play college baseball in the US and is currently the only woman playing college baseball, now in her third season at Daniel Webster College." DWC is in the NECC, whatever that means; I don't follow college sports. I'm learning German now, and I find it interesting that while nouns are more explicitly gendered (Angela Merkel is Bundeskanzlerin, not Bundeskanzler), babies, children, and girls (but not boys) are neuter.

By: Hill Rat

Hill Rat — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:02:44 +0000

@sarah.of.a.lesser.god

Baseball is better on the radio, that’s about it.