SarahMC pointed me to a piece on Shakesville about 13-year-old Canadian Katie Reyes, a player on Vancouver’s team at the Little League World Series. Reyes became the first girl in tournament history to hit a game-winning RBI, and you can find video of the go-ahead hit here.
As terrific as it is that Reyes made history, it’s disappointing that she represents half of the total number of girls playing at the LLWS this year; the other one is Bryn Stonehouse of Saudi Arabia. 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’ accomplishment, given that she’s playing baseball with the boys just as I always dreamed of doing. Still, the LLWS always features sixteen teams, and there have never been more than two girls per year? More than a little disappointing. I hope Reyes goes on to achieve her dreams, whether or not they relate to baseball, and that little girls who hear about her might follow in her footsteps and work towards achieving a better sense of parity for us girls (and women) who love the game.
I am, for the moment at least, happy enough that she did it that I’m temporarily ignoring the disproportionate ratios in the league.
I will certainly pounce on that later. But for now I want to focus on being happy for her. It’s a conscious decision.
Zippa, I think you can be very, very happy for Katie Reyes while simultaneously recognizing how far things have to go for girls and women in sports. Watching the video of her put a huge smile on my face.
I wonder how the fact that all of the teams competing are all-star teams affects the number of girls participating?
It’s not tough to imagine a scenario where high-performing girls that play ball are recruited/lured/encouraged to move over to softball. Even if a girl is the best player on her team, she may have trouble with the boys if the coach is a douche and encourages dudely behavior that marginalizes her. There could be structural barriers to participation too whereby the organizing body enforces gender segregation after a certain age. All kids play rugby together until the age of 11 and then they separate the boys and the girls.
@Hill Rat: That’s really an excellent point. It’s a bit like women’s colleges vs. co-ed colleges. Would admitting more girls into the LLWS exacerbate the lack of attention on female sports leagues, or would it demonstrate the abilities girl/women athletes and thus increase the attention paid to women’s sports? (Obviously, I don’t have the answer.)
Oh, no, I definitely agree, but I wanted to give her a moment of unadulterated pride. I think that’s at least as important for her as addressing the other issues at hand. Does that make sense, or am I spouting nonsense again?