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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff

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Speaker 1: I've never told you production of I Heart Radio. Did

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Speaker 1: you ever play baseball, Samantha, No, never, I know I haven't.

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Speaker 1: I had a small interest in playing for girls softball

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Speaker 1: for like two seconds, and then I realized you have

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Speaker 1: to run, and that is not something I'm good at.

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Speaker 1: Did you play? Yes? Uh? Funnily enough, I uh. My

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Speaker 1: my friends used to tease me and they would say,

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Speaker 1: use the dark side of the false Annie, and I

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Speaker 1: would pretend it was like the dark side and I

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Speaker 1: would hit it um. But then, like unfortunately in middle school,

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of girls and women go through

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Speaker 1: this of I just lost a lot of confidence in

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Speaker 1: my body and became really sulf conscious and told myself

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Speaker 1: I wasn't really good at things, so I stopped playing.

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Speaker 1: And it led to one of my most embarrassing memories

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Speaker 1: where I had my family was around and I was

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Speaker 1: in my garage with them and I was throwing a

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Speaker 1: baseball and I had a bat and they're like, be

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Speaker 1: careful now, and I said, oh, I'm terrible at baseball.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't hit it if I tried, and I threw

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Speaker 1: it up, hit it and it broke the garage window. Perfect. Perfect.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, that was fun to explain to my dad,

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Speaker 1: who was not there at the time. I was trying

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Speaker 1: to prove I couldn't hit it, Dad, and I don't

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Speaker 1: know what I can. Apparently I can. I do really

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Speaker 1: enjoy it. I like the satisfaction of that swap of

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Speaker 1: hitting and uh. I have a bat at my apartment,

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Speaker 1: and I know I've told the story of when I

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Speaker 1: accidentally ordered seventy two cookies and then it was raining

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Speaker 1: outside and I used my baseball bat to destroy the

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Speaker 1: cookies because I was in the most stereotypical breakup post

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Speaker 1: breakup area. That's a great thing to beat up on cookies.

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Speaker 1: It's very satisfying. Sometimes I'm sad that you wasted it,

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Speaker 1: because I I would eat them. I feel like that's

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Speaker 1: the response I get from almost all my friends is

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Speaker 1: why did you not give me those cookies? I don't

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Speaker 1: real necessarily want them. But the same time, I'm like, oh, that,

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Speaker 1: but they're delicious. They were they were they were warm

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Speaker 1: from Tips Tree. Tips always not a sponsor, but I

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Speaker 1: am a fan. But if you want to give me

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Speaker 1: some cookies, yes, we are looking for a sponsor all

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Speaker 1: the time cookies. I just want cookies, that's all. That's true.

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Speaker 1: The very first episode I did on Smintya, I talked

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Speaker 1: about how much I love cookies and how I want

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Speaker 1: cookies all the time. Yes, well, we're not talking about

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Speaker 1: cookies today, unfortunately. We are talking about baseball and women

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Speaker 1: in baseball though, and that's because baseball is back kind of.

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Speaker 1: Um it's sort of immediately got shut down here in

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Speaker 1: the United States, but I see it in other countries.

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Speaker 1: You are proceeding with your cardboard fans and in some

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Speaker 1: cases real fans writ in some cases sex dolls, which

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Speaker 1: we talked about in the past episode. The US has

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Speaker 1: been using dolls too, like weird, have they? Well they

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Speaker 1: also used that like c G I where they put

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Speaker 1: in all the c G I. Oh, I haven't seen

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Speaker 1: that one. I've just seen the random like giant dolls,

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Speaker 1: not like sex dolls. This time is just large teddy

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Speaker 1: bears have a thing. Oh geez see, I'm just immediately

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Speaker 1: unsettled at that thought, right. I think the when in

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Speaker 1: one of the games, I remember I saw a clip

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Speaker 1: where they hit into the stadium. It was a home

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Speaker 1: run I think, or a foul ball. And it hit

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Speaker 1: one of the toys and they're like, why what did

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Speaker 1: that toy do to you? I'm telling you he's gonna

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Speaker 1: come back and get his revenge. I have been watching

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Speaker 1: a lot of horror movies, yes, um well and and

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Speaker 1: a lot. There's been a lot of sports things in

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Speaker 1: the news lately, and one that I did want to

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Speaker 1: mention is I love how everyone is making fun of

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Speaker 1: that basketball player for breaking the NBA bubble two. He

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Speaker 1: first went to a funeral, but then he said he

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Speaker 1: ate at a strip club and I was like, no,

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Speaker 1: I know it immediately, or strip club? This is he

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Speaker 1: was going for the wings at Magic City. It's a

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Speaker 1: thing I've been trying to do it for years. I'm

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Speaker 1: not condoning his actions, but just saying those wings are well. No,

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Speaker 1: Everyone's like, what would you eat at a strip club? Grooves?

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Speaker 1: I'm like, right, wait, Well, we had a former president Obama,

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Speaker 1: Clinton and Bush here in Georgia for John Lewis's eulogy

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Speaker 1: on his funeral, and there was a tweets when asked

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Speaker 1: where would you tell them to go? What restaurant classic

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Speaker 1: would you tell them go? In? A majority of the

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Speaker 1: people said Magic City. They they have deliver me now, Annie,

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Speaker 1: I know, but as you know my dilemma. Actually, maybe

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Speaker 1: someone can answer this for me, any Atlanta person or

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Speaker 1: someone who's been the Magic City. How many wings are

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Speaker 1: in an order? Because it's very expensive and if I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to pay that amount, if I'm getting

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Speaker 1: like four weeks, I need, I need some more wings

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Speaker 1: than you need all the wings, you know. And also

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Speaker 1: talking about sports in the w n b A in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta right now, we do have our ladies, um donning

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Speaker 1: the vote for Reverend Warnock who is running against Loffler,

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Speaker 1: Kelly Loffler Senator. It is encouraging to see that too,

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Speaker 1: as we're they're having to push forward and by the way,

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Speaker 1: getting very minimal pay in comparison to the NBA players. Um,

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Speaker 1: they are standing up for some political things and going

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Speaker 1: after opposition. I'm sorry. Yeah. And and doing this episode.

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Speaker 1: This show has been around for a long time, so

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Speaker 1: I usually i'm make sure that we haven't already done it,

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Speaker 1: and I've forgotten it, um, And I was shocked that

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Speaker 1: we haven't already done this. We did do a video

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Speaker 1: on it, but um, not an audio episode. And I

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Speaker 1: was looking for basketball as well, and I didn't see one,

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Speaker 1: so I would love to return to to that, revisit

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Speaker 1: that and look at women in basketball, um, which is

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Speaker 1: another support that I loved. And Uh, as part of this,

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Speaker 1: I must admit I have never seen a League of

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Speaker 1: their own, which, yes, shame on me. Maybe next feminist

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Speaker 1: movie Friday, Um right, I I I was told us

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Speaker 1: yesterday while we were recording a different episode, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm I am so sad and disappointed that you've never

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Speaker 1: seen this movie. I'm actually very surprised. Other movies not

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Speaker 1: so much, but this one was like, that's just I

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Speaker 1: feel like this would be right up your alley of

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Speaker 1: relationships and friendships. And it's not like all about romance.

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Speaker 1: It's just good fun historical aspects of it as well

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Speaker 1: as just women being a badass. But we must remit

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Speaker 1: it this soon. Yes, I want to see it. I

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Speaker 1: have a friend who used to go dressed as someone

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Speaker 1: from a League of their Own every Halloween. And uh, Samantha,

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Speaker 1: when I told her this yesterday, she said she needed

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Speaker 1: a moment to process. I did, like I am, I

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Speaker 1: am now over that point, but I'm still definitely my

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Speaker 1: heart like sinks a little bit every time you say it. Well, okay,

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Speaker 1: I'll see what streaming service I can find it on

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Speaker 1: and what we'll fix this. I feel like it was

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Speaker 1: on Amazon for a while probably, I know I was

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Speaker 1: trying to fix a lot of the I guess nineties

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Speaker 1: feminist movies I missed, and I watched Thelma and Louise.

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Speaker 1: I know that was on on Amazon. But we'll look

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Speaker 1: into that. And speaking of apparently Amazon is developing a

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Speaker 1: new series about a league of their own. I know

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Speaker 1: that we're talks on Twitter about possibly something based around

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Speaker 1: the scene with the black woman who actually pitches to

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Speaker 1: Gina Davis's character and it's just like a minute, very

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Speaker 1: small scene, but it's a very big deal because of

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Speaker 1: the segregation, um and the discrimination of black women in

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Speaker 1: general and being a part of that sport. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: they were talking about that there may be a series

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Speaker 1: based on that and looking at the historical accounts of

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Speaker 1: that perspective. Oh interesting. Um, yeah, we're gonna be talking

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Speaker 1: about some of that in this episode. Um. Also, we

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Speaker 1: could do a whole episode and probably should probably will

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Speaker 1: one day. On softball, We're going to talk about some

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Speaker 1: of it in here, because a lot of its history

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Speaker 1: is so intertwined with baseball's history, UM, but definitely deserving

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Speaker 1: of its own episode. A very quick differentiation in softball,

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Speaker 1: the ball is bigger, not soft though I saw that

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Speaker 1: joke a lot of places. Um, the paths are shorter

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Speaker 1: only underhand pitching, fast pitching, slow pitching, UM, and no

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Speaker 1: stealing allowed. And that's a very like nut show, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but it still looks painful if you get hit those

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Speaker 1: balls because that undergated pitches are like a whole wind up. God,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna die. I know I lived in fear of

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Speaker 1: that for short. So we're gonna talk about the history.

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Speaker 1: Just a click disclaimer here there has been uh and

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Speaker 1: continues to be a lot of sexism, racism, able is

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Speaker 1: um in the history of baseball and in the president

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Speaker 1: of baseball UM. And also we are going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about first some women who did had some first

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Speaker 1: but standard disclaimer around first that we always say who

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Speaker 1: who got recorded, who was doing in recording, how did

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Speaker 1: they get there? Those kinds of things. So baseball history.

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Speaker 1: Women have been involved in baseball from pretty much the jump.

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Speaker 1: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported in eighteen fifty nine on

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Speaker 1: a game between two local teams that it was quote

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Speaker 1: witnessed by a large number of people, the greater part

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Speaker 1: of whom were ladies. The first professional team, all male,

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Speaker 1: took the field in eighteen sixty nine, and in eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty five Philadelphia Age article, the author chronicled a handful

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Speaker 1: of feminist movements taking place and wrote about quote faint

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Speaker 1: whisperings of a ladies baseball club m um. The first

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Speaker 1: organized baseball teams in the US were formed in eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty six at Vassar College, and several other universities followed

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Speaker 1: suit over the next few years. Uh such was the

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Speaker 1: alcai from parents, the public, and the press that most

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Speaker 1: of these programs shut down soon after. Yes, but women

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Speaker 1: were still playing and at the professional level. Two in five,

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Speaker 1: two women's baseball teams named the Blondes and the Brunettes

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Speaker 1: in Springfield, Illinois, played a professional game. Because of this,

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Speaker 1: they became the first women that we know of to

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Speaker 1: be paid for playing baseball. The Dolly Varden's, one of

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Speaker 1: the first baseball teams made up of African American women,

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Speaker 1: was formed in Pennsylvania in eighteen eighty three. Now, many

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Speaker 1: of these teams weren't permanent or leagues, and they were

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Speaker 1: seen as something like novelty X. They were even specifically

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Speaker 1: referred to and a lot of advertisements as novelty X.

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Speaker 1: And we're certainly not taken as seriously as the men's teams.

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Speaker 1: Whenever these teams tried to be taken more seriously, they

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Speaker 1: were shut out and shut down. But women were determined

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Speaker 1: to play, and in the eight nineties we see the

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Speaker 1: first of the Bloomer Girls, named after their bloomer style uniforms.

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Speaker 1: They played women's and men's teams across the country, and

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Speaker 1: up until the nineteen thirties, Bloomer girls were fairly common.

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Speaker 1: The uniform weighed between eight to ten pounds or by

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Speaker 1: some ounce way heavier, complete with high buttoned boots. Sassy,

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Speaker 1: I know, also perhaps tricky to read it right. Sliding

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Speaker 1: into home base was called hitting the dirt in the skirt.

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Speaker 1: I just want to say that phrase, just for the

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Speaker 1: hell of it now. Um. According to sport legend, the

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Speaker 1: first softball game was played on a windy day in

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Speaker 1: Chicago in seven story goes that alumni from Yell and

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Speaker 1: Harvard were anxiously waiting for the results of the football

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Speaker 1: game between the two schools when it came out that

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Speaker 1: Yelle had one one of the Yellow alumni threw a

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Speaker 1: boxing glove at one of the Harvard alumni who bedded

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Speaker 1: away with a stick. Reporter by the name of John

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Speaker 1: Hancock witnessed this and got the idea for indoor baseball

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Speaker 1: using chalk. He drew out the bases and you string

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Speaker 1: to tie together a glove to fashion a ball. They

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Speaker 1: split up into two teams and played the first American

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Speaker 1: game of softball, so how the story goes. And Hancock

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Speaker 1: later moved the sport outside onto fields too small for baseball.

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Speaker 1: So that's the beginning of softball. Uh gotta love a

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Speaker 1: good Harvard Yell fight, right, Yeah, okay, maybe so. According

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Speaker 1: to Team USA Softball softball it's a top team participant

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Speaker 1: sport in the US, with forty billion people playing every summer,

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Speaker 1: which was news to me. And there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: legend around this, this first game and the and it

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Speaker 1: seems to have taken place around the same time in

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Speaker 1: different countries around the world, which makes sense. Um, But yeah,

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Speaker 1: future episode perhaps get to the bottom of that. In

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Speaker 1: Lizzie Arlington began pitching professionally for the women's team in Cincinnati,

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Speaker 1: and later in she was the first woman to play

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Speaker 1: for professional men's team. The reading coal heavers, I just

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Speaker 1: wanted to say the name against the Allen Town Peanuts.

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Speaker 1: Oh um. The Philadelphia Times called her quote the greatest

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Speaker 1: living female baseball player that same year. Around the same time,

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Speaker 1: her teammate maud Nelson was making a name for herself

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Speaker 1: playing for a handful of professional women's teams. She and

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Speaker 1: her husband John b Olson Jr. Became managers of the

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Speaker 1: Western Bloomer Girls in nineteen eleven, making her the first

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Speaker 1: woman to manage a professional baseball team. Up until the

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Speaker 1: Great Depression made running a baseball team impossible, she continued managing,

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Speaker 1: playing and scouting, and by a lot of accounts I

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Speaker 1: read this was the heyday of baseball in the United States,

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Speaker 1: which allowed for a lot of unscrupulous characters to take

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Speaker 1: advantage of aspiring baseball players. One of the most notorious

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Speaker 1: was a man who went by Sylvester F. Wilson. He

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Speaker 1: had a lot of names um. He proclaimed to be

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Speaker 1: a baseball manager, but he left a lot to be

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Speaker 1: desired to say the least. One newspaper called him quote

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Speaker 1: the abductor of girls on baseball pretext, and he was

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Speaker 1: arrested in New York for kidnapping a sixteen year old

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Speaker 1: girl from her home in Kansas City. Star article wrote

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Speaker 1: of him, quote, he has been arrested more than one

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Speaker 1: a hundred times and for various crimes, and Secretary Jenkins

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Speaker 1: of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

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Speaker 1: to Children says he has ruined more young girls than

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Speaker 1: any man living. Because of this that the American blondes

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Speaker 1: versus the British brunettes got shut down. Not only did

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Speaker 1: he do countless damage to numerous young women, he really

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Speaker 1: really tarnished women's baseball, the reputation of women's baseball um

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Speaker 1: because he focused on physical attractiveness and sexuality of the

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Speaker 1: players and not skilled at the sport. Yeah. Interesting because

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Speaker 1: stuff like that happens today and it doesn't seem to

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Speaker 1: shut down sports. Yeah, just so yeah. Interesting. We have

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Speaker 1: some more for you listeners, but first we have a

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Speaker 1: quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.

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Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor. A nineteen twenty six photo from the

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Speaker 1: Phillis Wheatley Settlement House in Minneapolis depicts ten African American

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Speaker 1: women in baseball attire, including Ethel right Nance, who was

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Speaker 1: the daughter of the president of the Deluke chapter of

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Speaker 1: the Double A c P. She went on to become

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Speaker 1: one of the first African American policewoman in Minnesota. She

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Speaker 1: did a lot of stuff everywhere. Yeah, we should definitely revisit,

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Speaker 1: uh doing maybe a female first on her. Yeah. She

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Speaker 1: she was all over doing all sorts of powerful stuff. Um.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to the nineteen forties and fifties, the All

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Speaker 1: American Girls Professional Baseball League are the A A G

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Speaker 1: P b L, which I'm assuing is what a league

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Speaker 1: of their own is about. Made his debut with the

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Speaker 1: financial backing of Philip K. Wrigley of the Wrigley Chewing

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Speaker 1: Gum Fortune, apparently at the suggestion of FDR. This was

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Speaker 1: possible largely because of how women and entered a lot

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Speaker 1: of traditionally masculine fields during this time. During World War Two,

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Speaker 1: several of the high quality male players went off to

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Speaker 1: fight in the war, and Wrigley was also looking to

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Speaker 1: double his profits by having women's team play when the

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Speaker 1: men's teams were traveling. The rules were retooled for women,

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Speaker 1: bringing in pieces of baseball and softball. Uh, the only

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Speaker 1: organized ballgame women played at the time. Softball and several

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Speaker 1: semi professional women's softball teams littered the country at this time.

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Speaker 1: The team came together for the nineteen forty three season

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Speaker 1: and women tried out from all over the country. Sixty

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Speaker 1: women were chosen and split up among four teams, the

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Speaker 1: Kenosha Comments were Seeing Bells, the South Bend Blue Sox,

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Speaker 1: and the Rockford Peaches, and the league was immediately successful.

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Speaker 1: That first season, they played a combined total of one

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Speaker 1: eight games. The average attendance was one thousand, six d

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Speaker 1: thirty five and total attendance over the season was one

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Speaker 1: hundred seventy six was in six hundred and twelve. This

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Speaker 1: was in spite of playing in cities without league teams

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Speaker 1: and or small ballparks that they played in. We're scene

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Speaker 1: went on to win, becoming the first world champions of

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Speaker 1: the A A, G P b L. The players were

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Speaker 1: at first specifically popularized as the Girls next Door, which

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Speaker 1: was very important to regally and marketed towards soldiers missing home.

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Speaker 1: They did these displays of patriotism at every game, like

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Speaker 1: fashing the flashing the V for victory sign, and they

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Speaker 1: visited veterans and hospitals things like that. Yes, this is

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Speaker 1: all only of their own. Wow. Not necessarily the patriotism

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Speaker 1: to that point, but yes, a lot of this is anyway.

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Speaker 1: Their outfits were designed to reflect this ull quote all

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Speaker 1: American girl persona a mixture of tennis dresses and figure

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Speaker 1: skating uniforms of the time. And yes they are impressive.

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Speaker 1: And of course they faced sexism in the press Minneapolis

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Speaker 1: for being wrote of the Minneapolis Millerettes into quote quick Millie,

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Speaker 1: my mask in mascara for there's a powder puff plot

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Speaker 1: underway at three pm Saturday at Nicolette Park which threatens

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Speaker 1: the foundation of the national pastime, a conspiracy aimed at

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Speaker 1: virtual extension of the perspiring swearing, tobacco chewing baseball players. Wow.

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Speaker 1: I love how any time women enter a traditional masculine field,

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Speaker 1: it's like we're trying to make the man extinct. We're

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Speaker 1: trying to kill off Monton obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna ruin the national pastime. It's a conspiracy. They

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Speaker 1: figured it out. We're just trying to take away you know, manhood.

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Speaker 1: Why not, yes, yeah, come on, come on now. But

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Speaker 1: despite those sexism, the women persevered, and due to their success,

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Speaker 1: the league expanded, adding on two teams in and two

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Speaker 1: more again in ninety. At Your Attendance reached four hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people in ninety and they played all

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Speaker 1: the time. Their schedules were really intense. The pay was

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Speaker 1: decent um, certainly a lot more than most women were

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Speaker 1: making at the time, and fans chipped in additional pay um.

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Speaker 1: As men returned from war, the women were still respected

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Speaker 1: and seen as real deal athletes. Some of the rules

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Speaker 1: changed to reflect the ones in place for men's baseball games,

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Speaker 1: like overhand pitching, longer infield distances. Up until the players

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Speaker 1: were required to attend charm school, where they were schooled

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Speaker 1: on how to look and act for cameras, never leaving

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Speaker 1: the house without makeup or a purse, how to cut

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Speaker 1: and wear their hair, how to sit, how to walk. UM.

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Speaker 1: They weren't allowed to smoke or drink our date without

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Speaker 1: a chaperoon publicly anyway. UM. Professional cheerleaders have similar rules

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Speaker 1: in place to this day. We did an episode on

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Speaker 1: that a while back, if you want listen to that one. UH.

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Speaker 1: The guide book was called a Guide for All American Girls,

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Speaker 1: how to look better, feel better, being more popular. UM

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Speaker 1: in attendance reached not to charm school, charm school got

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Speaker 1: shut down, but the games in attendants reached nine hundred thousand.

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Speaker 1: There was a four team minor league in a junior

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Speaker 1: league for girls, and they were tours promoting and recruiting

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Speaker 1: for women in baseball across the country in Cuba and

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Speaker 1: the South America too, And similar to the men's teams,

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Speaker 1: only white women were allowed to play, and this was

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Speaker 1: even after Jackie Robinson started his Then in nineteen forty seven,

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Speaker 1: three black women were recruited to boost attendance for the

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Speaker 1: Black men's team, Tony Stone, Mammie Johnson, and Connie Morgan.

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Speaker 1: Stone was the first black woman to attain the highest

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Speaker 1: level of player status when she played second base in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three. Do hear that despite the fact that

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Speaker 1: the performance did draw in bigger crowds, these women's surprise,

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Speaker 1: weren't treated well by their teammates and managers and were

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Speaker 1: paid less. And the Black men's team was disbanded in

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Speaker 1: nineteen Yeah. And I've read some quotes from them, and

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Speaker 1: I think it was Tony Stone described it quote like hell.

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Speaker 1: But that's how badly they were treated. Um. In ninety two,

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Speaker 1: Eleanor Ingle signed a contract with a minor league team.

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Speaker 1: The head of the minor leagues though I really didn't

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Speaker 1: like this, and he stepped in and said, quote, such

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Speaker 1: travesties will not be tolerated, nullified the contract. Two days later,

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Speaker 1: travesties drama, drama, drama. Oh my goodness, we just want

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Speaker 1: to play baseball. Sensitive, so sensitive. I don't know, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. The advent of television meant that people no

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Speaker 1: longer had to attend a game in person, and attendance

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Speaker 1: for the a A g p b L dropped off,

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Speaker 1: and they shut down in nineteen fifty four due to

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Speaker 1: financial struggles, and women and girls pretty much disappeared completely

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Speaker 1: from Bay all with it. During its run, the A

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Speaker 1: G PBL gave six hundred women a chance that had

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Speaker 1: previously not been available to them, and it radically transformed

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Speaker 1: not only what people thought women could do, but also

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Speaker 1: what people thought was acceptable behavior for women. And just

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Speaker 1: a note, it's also coincided with the cult of domesticity.

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Speaker 1: The housewife women staying in the homes was all happening

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Speaker 1: at the same time the nineteen fifties nuclear family, and

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Speaker 1: so in nineteen seventy two in Hoboken, New Jersey, twelve

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Speaker 1: year old Maria Pepe tried out for her local Little

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Speaker 1: League team and made the cut, accepted by teammates and coaches. However,

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Speaker 1: Little League Headquarters stepped in and demanded she be removed

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Speaker 1: or that the chapter would be disbanded. With the help

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Speaker 1: of the National Organization of Women, Pepe sue for dinner discrimination,

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Speaker 1: and she won in nineteen seventy four. Unfortunately for Peppe,

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Speaker 1: she had aged out by this time, but she made

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Speaker 1: it possible for other girls to play. So thank you, yes,

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Speaker 1: thank you. And it's it's shocking how much this happens

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Speaker 1: in this story, but we still see it of local

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Speaker 1: chapters being like, yeah, come play, and then like headquarters

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Speaker 1: saying no, we will not allow it. No. Also, in

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Speaker 1: the seventies, Title nine, requiring equal opportunity for men and

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Speaker 1: women in sports and education, among other things were primarily

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Speaker 1: those things, was passed and and it pushed more women

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Speaker 1: towards softball, which was called the female baseball equivalent. And

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Speaker 1: this is a uniquely American problem due to the expense

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Speaker 1: of college and reliance for so many on scholarships. I

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Speaker 1: also read some interviews with baseball female baseball players today

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Speaker 1: and they were they were They pointed out that I

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00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: hadn't really thought about this, But there's no other sport

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Speaker 1: really where there's a female equivalent. Like that's different, you

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00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like ship baseball played by women

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Speaker 1: and men. No, it's baseballs for men, softballs for women. Yeah. Interesting.

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00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,919
Speaker 1: A decade later, interested in women's baseball sparked again on

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Speaker 1: a more mainstream level. Bob Hope attempted to form in

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Speaker 1: all women's minor league team in called the Florida Sun Socks,

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Speaker 1: but the Florida State League officials put a stop to it. Again. Um,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't the only one trying to get these going.

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Speaker 1: People tried to get women's teams up and running, like

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Speaker 1: the American Women's Baseball Association in Chicago, which was the

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Speaker 1: first league after the A G P B l UM,

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Speaker 1: but none had much success. Hope try it again. Supported

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Speaker 1: by the Corps Brewing Company. The team was named the

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00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: Colorado Silver Bullets and traveled across the US playing minor

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Speaker 1: league teams and men's college teams. That I that was

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Speaker 1: a shock to me. Remember that now because it was

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Speaker 1: soon after a league of the own, so people were

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00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:02,679
Speaker 1: starting to come buy back into it and be like,

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00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: this is possible. Let's see if we can do this again.

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Speaker 1: Huh wow. Interesting. All right, well you do have some

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Speaker 1: more history for you and some present day stuff, but

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Speaker 1: I know, but first we're going to pause for one

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Speaker 1: worker break for work from our sponsor, and we're back.

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Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor. So despite all this history, there are

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Speaker 1: fewer opportunities for women to play baseball nowadays than there

427
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 1: were a century ago, but that is changing. So a

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00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: league of their own came out in nine, which was

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00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 1: the first time hearing about a lot of this for

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00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,959
Speaker 1: a lot of people, including myself. Also, this is one

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00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: of those movies I watched during the election trying to

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00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,400
Speaker 1: stay sane and positive. Just I just want to put

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00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: that there. Man. I am really excited to watch it now. Um,

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00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: and I did want to say, like, like you do

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00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: just alluded to Samantha, this really did bring women's baseball

436
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: kind of back in the popular uh narrative. And I

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00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:22,399
Speaker 1: read a lot of moving accounts um from women and

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00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: girls who saw this movie and how powerful it was

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00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: for them to see that. And there was one in

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00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: particular where she was saying, like the credits that ended,

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00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:35,919
Speaker 1: the lights had come on, and a handful of us

442
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,880
Speaker 1: were just sitting there with tears, Um, because you they

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00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: played baseball, but they were told time and time again,

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00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 1: it's not for it's not for women. You what are

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00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: you doing here? Essentially? Yeah, So it really did have

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00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: That movie had a big impact for a lot of people.

447
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 1: Um Isla Border became the woman to receive a college

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00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: scholarship for baseball at what is now Vanguard, at the

449
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: time was Southern California College. She played there as a

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00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,440
Speaker 1: left handed pitcher for two years before moving on to

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00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 1: Whittier College. In that same year, she signed with the St.

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00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: Paul Saints, making her the first woman to sign a

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00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: professional contract with a men's team. In interview, she spoke

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00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 1: of growing up constantly being pushed towards softball and being

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00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: told baseball was for boys. How do I keep hearing

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00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: stuff like that? So in two thousand four, USA Baseball

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00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 1: formed the very first US women's national team, and again

458
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: that's two thousand and four, so not like maybe sixteen

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00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: years ago at most um and one of the players

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00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 1: for the Colorado Silver Bullets. Tomorrow. Holmes played on the

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00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: national team until twenty fifteen, when she retired. She was

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00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: the home run leader of the women's baseball Major League

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00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: Baseball and USA Baseball are actively sponsoring women's tournaments like

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00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: the Trailblazer Series Breakthrough Series to name a few, and

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00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: they're they're looking to recruit female players of note. Also,

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00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: there are re enactment baseball teams who play and like

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00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: the Bloomer. Oh yeah, I was like, are they re

468
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 1: enacting specific games where they how do how does that?

469
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: How does that work? Sweet? I know, I'm intrigued. Um. Yeah,

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00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: I don't know how if any if any listener is

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00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: involved in baseball at at a professional level or UM

472
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 1: has any knowledge of how well these programs are tournaments

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00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: are going, because I know I read a lot of

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00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: kind of higher up complaints that the talent isn't there,

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00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,479
Speaker 1: and I was like, mm hmmm, I know, I don't know.

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00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. Um. Both softball and baseball

477
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: were dropped from the Summer Olympics after women's softball had

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00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,480
Speaker 1: been selected an Olympic sport. But they will be back

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00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: in I mean, fingers crossed, maybe maybe so. In Monaid

480
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: Davis threw out the pitches at the Little League World

481
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: Series and she won an sp for Best Breakout Artist.

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00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: Go ahead girl, mm hmmm, I remember that it was

483
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: a big deal. There's still a lot of work to do.

484
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: Many women describe being continuously undercut and doubted being corrected

485
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: that they play softball. You mean softball, um, not baseball. Also,

486
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with softball. Again with athletes when I

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00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: see them play, I'm like, that seems worse, that's all.

488
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: It's so much bigger. That's going to be painful. Yeah, yeah,

489
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: I know. I got hit in the face. Oh no,

490
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: with I think it was a baseball. I don't think

491
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: it's a softball, but it it hurt, hurt. I I

492
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 1: remember like the immediate swelling. Um. Also, I would love

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00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,959
Speaker 1: to hear from other listeners what it's like in in

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00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: the countries that you're in. Um, the history and attitudes

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00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: around baseball and women in baseball. And I guess in closing,

496
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this, Uh, why do you think

497
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: people we're so resistant to women playing baseball? I think

498
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: in general, anything women do, it is always going to

499
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: have some judgment and second glances because there's an automatic

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00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: assumption they're not going to be as good period. Right. Yeah.

501
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: I feel like that maybe there was some because in

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00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: the history of a lot of sports and UM, just athleticism,

503
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: there's that sort of the nine. Sexism is also almost

504
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: too nice, but it's like an extreme form of benign

505
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: sexism where it's like, oh, honey, you don't want a

506
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,719
Speaker 1: ball flying at you, maybe hurt your baby making machine, right,

507
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: and you don't have the coordination. Also, it takes time

508
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: to develop skills and all that, and you should put

509
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: those times in your family. Not right, right. I was

510
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 1: just curious. And again I haven't looked into the history

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00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 1: of other sports, so I don't know if the same

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00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 1: level of resistance is there. I know resistance was there, um,

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00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 1: But I just feel like with most other sports except

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00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:32,719
Speaker 1: for football, there is like a women's team, and there

515
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,320
Speaker 1: has been for a while. I don't know. This is

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00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: odd to me that it is weird. Baseball was so like, no,

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00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 1: you know, girls allowed here. Um. According to Jenny Ring,

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00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 1: she wrote, too much competition was regarded as unhealthy for girls,

519
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 1: and travel was also believed to be too strenuous and

520
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 1: unsuitable for the health and morality of the young women.

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00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 1: So that might be part of it. Finitely as well.

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00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: Our fragile constitution can't handle this much traveling, and my

523
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 1: constitution is so fragile I know you know it. Uh

524
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: again again again. We would love to hear from listeners

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00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: with any experience about what we're talking about or you know.

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00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: We love hearing from all listeners, so if you would

527
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 1: like to email as you can, our email is Stuff

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00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: Media mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com. You can

529
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: also find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or

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00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: Instagram and Stuff I've Never Told You thinks as always

531
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: to our super producer Andrew Howard. Thanks and thanks to

532
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: you for listening Stuff I've Never Told You The production

533
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart

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00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: Radio is the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or

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00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,