1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:03,000
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:09,959
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to step Mom? Never told you?

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:17,560
Speaker 1: From House to works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to

4
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Is that

5
00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:24,000
Speaker 1: your announcer voice, Kristen. Yeah, because they're gonna talk about

6
00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:28,680
Speaker 1: faceba's my sports announcered voice. Um. We get a ton

7
00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,720
Speaker 1: of request from people about doing podcast about women in sports,

8
00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:33,839
Speaker 1: and it's a massive topic. So I don't know if

9
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:35,680
Speaker 1: we'll continue going this way, but I figured we should

10
00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:39,720
Speaker 1: just start with one sport, the American Best Time baseball.

11
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:42,400
Speaker 1: And you know, Kristen, when I think about women in baseball,

12
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,360
Speaker 1: I think of the movie A League of their Own

13
00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,120
Speaker 1: And that is one of those movies that whenever I'm

14
00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:48,800
Speaker 1: flipping channels and I see it's on, I just stop

15
00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,160
Speaker 1: and watch the rest of it. Yeah. I love this movie.

16
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,080
Speaker 1: My brothers and I used to act it out, which

17
00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:54,680
Speaker 1: is weird because I have two brothers and I'm the

18
00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:56,640
Speaker 1: only girls, so I had to play all the women's parts.

19
00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,160
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why I enjoyed acting out that movie. Um,

20
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,480
Speaker 1: and I just gave Molly the shock of a lifetime

21
00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,520
Speaker 1: by telling her that I've never seen a league of

22
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,200
Speaker 1: their own. It's I'm embarrassed for you. Kristen. Well, you

23
00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,560
Speaker 1: know it's a great movie. I think. No, I'm sure

24
00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,160
Speaker 1: it isn't. And you know, and I will watch it someday,

25
00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 1: but one thing weekend, maybe this weekend. I'll think about

26
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,959
Speaker 1: it this weekend. I will consider it this weekend. Okay,

27
00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,760
Speaker 1: that's the best I think I can do. Okay. Uh Well,

28
00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: I was listening to n PR earlier this week and

29
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,240
Speaker 1: they were talking to someone at the Library of Congress

30
00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,840
Speaker 1: about this new baseball exhibit that they have, and she

31
00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:41,280
Speaker 1: started talking about these bloomer girls who played baseball way

32
00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,160
Speaker 1: back in the day, and uh they one of the

33
00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:45,920
Speaker 1: one of them was so good that she actually she

34
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: was a picture and she actually struck out Babe Ruth

35
00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: and Lou Garrett. And I thought, well, that's that's so cool.

36
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:52,360
Speaker 1: So I came to work the next day and I

37
00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,040
Speaker 1: told Molly, Molly, women played baseball back in the day,

38
00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,040
Speaker 1: but now they don't. Let's talk about on the podcast. Okay,

39
00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,760
Speaker 1: So you were talking about Jackie Mitchell. She was just

40
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,080
Speaker 1: seventeen years old when she struck out Babe Ruth and

41
00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,240
Speaker 1: lou garreg in an exhibition game in the nineteen thirties.

42
00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,320
Speaker 1: But we need to go back even further, because women

43
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:13,560
Speaker 1: were playing baseball in eighteen sixty six. Can you believe that?

44
00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:18,040
Speaker 1: I can't believe it, because it's fact. Students at the

45
00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:22,240
Speaker 1: all female Vassar College formed baseball teams in eighteen sixty six,

46
00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:25,480
Speaker 1: and then in eighteen seventy five a woman's baseball club

47
00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,240
Speaker 1: was organized in Springfield, Illinois, and the two teams were

48
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,839
Speaker 1: the Blondes and the Brunettes, which I liked, adorable. Yeah,

49
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,760
Speaker 1: but you know it wasn't just you know, going out

50
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,040
Speaker 1: there playing ball. You had to wear thirty pounds of clothing.

51
00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,120
Speaker 1: Like can you think of any other sport we have

52
00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,200
Speaker 1: to wear thirty pounds of clothing, thirty pounds of clothing,

53
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,880
Speaker 1: a floor length skirt, under skirts, a longsleeve, high necked blouse,

54
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,960
Speaker 1: and high button shoes. That just screams baseball to me.

55
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,919
Speaker 1: But you mentioned the Bloomer girls, and then we have

56
00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,320
Speaker 1: Amelia Bloomer to thank for those. Um Turkish style trousers.

57
00:02:56,360 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: They're kind of baggy, um, quite cute, quite fetching, and

58
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,080
Speaker 1: um they were more practical for the women athletes. So

59
00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,960
Speaker 1: in eighteen nineties, all these baseball teams formed, um called

60
00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 1: Bloomer Girl baseball teams, and they basically just go around

61
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,520
Speaker 1: the country challenging local teams to play. Yeah. They they

62
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,519
Speaker 1: refer to this as barn storming across America. And yeah,

63
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,120
Speaker 1: they would just get into towns and challenge semi pro

64
00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: and minor league men's teams. And sometimes men would also

65
00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,240
Speaker 1: play on the Bloomer Girls and they would pose as women. Um,

66
00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 1: a little bit of a ringer in there, yeah, but

67
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,600
Speaker 1: but by and large, these were mostly all female teams

68
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,320
Speaker 1: and they were known for pretty good baseball, a solid

69
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,640
Speaker 1: day of entertainment. And there were hundreds of teams, including

70
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,000
Speaker 1: the All Star Ranger Girls, the Philadelphia Bobbies, and the

71
00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:46,880
Speaker 1: New York Bloomer Girls. So these girls are around from

72
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 1: eighteen nineties to nineteen thirty four. And that's where we

73
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,840
Speaker 1: got the story of Jackie Mitchell. And she was playing

74
00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 1: on double A team, the Chat and Nego Lookouts. Um,

75
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,920
Speaker 1: she was seventeen year old. Seventeen years old, as we mentioned,

76
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,640
Speaker 1: and based of the New York Yankees. One day stopped

77
00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,800
Speaker 1: in Chattanooga for an exhibition. Four thousand people are there.

78
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,000
Speaker 1: Jackie didn't start, but she came in. She had one

79
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,800
Speaker 1: great pitch, a wicked dropping curveball, as it is described

80
00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,000
Speaker 1: by the Exploratorium in San Francisco. She takes the plate

81
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,680
Speaker 1: and Babe strikes out Babe Ruth. Jackie Mitchell struck out

82
00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:26,479
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth at seventeen. And then the next batter was

83
00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,960
Speaker 1: Lou Garrig and struck him out. Took Yeah, and so

84
00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,279
Speaker 1: she gets the standing ovation that lasts for several minutes,

85
00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,599
Speaker 1: and then she walks the next batter and the coach

86
00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,040
Speaker 1: pulls her from the game. You never pull a pitch

87
00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:43,839
Speaker 1: here when she's hot. And then, to add insult to injury,

88
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,880
Speaker 1: a few days after this exhibition game, the baseball commissioner

89
00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,240
Speaker 1: Kenna saw a mountain landis how about that for a name,

90
00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:56,239
Speaker 1: was very displeased with Jackie's sellar performance because he claimed

91
00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,279
Speaker 1: that baseball was too strenuous for a woman, and so

92
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,880
Speaker 1: he banned women from baseball and nullified her contract. Yeah,

93
00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,080
Speaker 1: and here's a quote from Babe Ruth and the paper. Um,

94
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,080
Speaker 1: after that happened, I don't know what's going to happen

95
00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:10,279
Speaker 1: if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course

96
00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:12,960
Speaker 1: they will never make good. Why because they are too delicate.

97
00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,680
Speaker 1: It would kill them to play ball every day. But

98
00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,480
Speaker 1: Jackie Mitchell did not give up. She began barn storming

99
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,200
Speaker 1: along with those uh those other kind of ragtag teams

100
00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,279
Speaker 1: in a nineteen thirty three when she was nineteen, she

101
00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,920
Speaker 1: signed on with the House of David, which was a

102
00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,920
Speaker 1: men's team famous for their long hair and long beards.

103
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:31,760
Speaker 1: But then she only traveled with him for about four

104
00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:33,919
Speaker 1: years and got tired of the side show aspects of

105
00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:35,680
Speaker 1: barn storming because it was kind of a little bit

106
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,040
Speaker 1: of vaudeville in there as well, such as playing an

107
00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,600
Speaker 1: inning while writing a donkey. That's Jackie Mitchell deserved better

108
00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,159
Speaker 1: than that. Yeah, she was a real she was a

109
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,680
Speaker 1: real athlete. She struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Garrig,

110
00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:49,279
Speaker 1: so she's one of the big sort of stars of

111
00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:51,840
Speaker 1: that era. But they wound down just because Babe Ruth

112
00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:53,680
Speaker 1: was not the only one who thought that women had

113
00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,400
Speaker 1: inferior abilities. When it came to sports, basically professional baseball

114
00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:59,880
Speaker 1: was coming along. It became known as a men's sport.

115
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,120
Speaker 1: Women's professional baseball just disappeared completely gone by nineteen thirty four.

116
00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,800
Speaker 1: But then with World War Two, we obviously have a

117
00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:11,000
Speaker 1: lot of these male players who are going overseas to fight.

118
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,279
Speaker 1: So in nineteen forty three, Philip K. Wrigley of Wrigley

119
00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:19,599
Speaker 1: Gum was worried about the state of American baseball because

120
00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,599
Speaker 1: the teams were starting to dwindle, and so he organized

121
00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:27,920
Speaker 1: the All American Girls Softball League, and the league's rules

122
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,919
Speaker 1: permitted stolen basis, but it was essentially just softball. And

123
00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,040
Speaker 1: if you've seen a league of their own, unlike Kristen,

124
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,560
Speaker 1: this is where you might start to recognize elements of

125
00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,520
Speaker 1: the story because when I was researching this, the movie

126
00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,960
Speaker 1: is pretty good about depicting things as they happened. The

127
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:45,720
Speaker 1: players weren't based on any real players, so Gina Davis

128
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,880
Speaker 1: was not depicting one specific person in the league. But

129
00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,280
Speaker 1: you know, you think about John Lovett's going out and

130
00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,480
Speaker 1: scouting out the girls that happened. They had a lot

131
00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 1: of scouts. You may remember that movie. There was one

132
00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,760
Speaker 1: sort of unattractive girl that they didn't want to let

133
00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,640
Speaker 1: on the team, and that was sort of important as well,

134
00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,040
Speaker 1: because they wanted to have these really beautiful All American girls.

135
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:07,720
Speaker 1: They did have to at a charm school as they

136
00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:11,280
Speaker 1: did in the movie UM, and they were divided equally

137
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:15,480
Speaker 1: based on their talent into several teams, the Rockford Peaches, UH,

138
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,840
Speaker 1: the Moskeegan Lassiees, the Racing Bells, just to name a few.

139
00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:22,080
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, they Lead changed its name to

140
00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:24,560
Speaker 1: the All American Girls Baseball League because they didn't want

141
00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:27,000
Speaker 1: to play just watered down softball. They wanted to play

142
00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:29,680
Speaker 1: the same game that men were playing. But at the

143
00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:34,040
Speaker 1: same time, Wrigley emphasized that the women had to maintain

144
00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:36,680
Speaker 1: their femininity because that was part of the attraction, was

145
00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,120
Speaker 1: attractive girls playing the sport. But it definitely reminded me

146
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,520
Speaker 1: of our Cheerlead podcast, Christen, because we were talking about

147
00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,720
Speaker 1: how that's that UM cheerleading is getting more and more physical,

148
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:47,800
Speaker 1: but at the same time, the women get, you know,

149
00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,440
Speaker 1: sort of more and more cute because they don't want

150
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,920
Speaker 1: to sacrifice that female aspect, and I definitely think that

151
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,240
Speaker 1: was in play here. If you go to the a

152
00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,200
Speaker 1: A g PBL website, you can read a kit they

153
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,480
Speaker 1: would hand out about all the cosmetics a woman should

154
00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:04,000
Speaker 1: own when they played in the league and how you

155
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,720
Speaker 1: could never leave, you know, any any place to be

156
00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,160
Speaker 1: in public without your hair a certain way. And there's

157
00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:10,880
Speaker 1: a section on teeth care and they say, well, we

158
00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,040
Speaker 1: don't even have to go over this, because every good

159
00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:14,920
Speaker 1: American girl in knows how to take care of her teeth.

160
00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:18,280
Speaker 1: But it was everything about like when to wash her face,

161
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,440
Speaker 1: what to wear, some of the rules where things like

162
00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:24,720
Speaker 1: you must always appear in feminine attire when you're not

163
00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,720
Speaker 1: actively engaged in practice or playing ball. Lipstick always has

164
00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:32,400
Speaker 1: to be on. There was one Smithsonian article where this

165
00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:34,880
Speaker 1: girl was talking about how you know, her chaperone would

166
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:36,280
Speaker 1: let her go up to bat until she put some

167
00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:38,400
Speaker 1: lipstick on. And that was the other thing that was

168
00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 1: also pretty actively depicted in the movie was they had

169
00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:43,040
Speaker 1: these chaperones who followed them everywhere because no one wanted

170
00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:45,320
Speaker 1: these girls to be seen as anything less than an

171
00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:47,400
Speaker 1: all American proper girl. Just because she could play a

172
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:50,560
Speaker 1: man's sport didn't mean she wasn't a girl. But some

173
00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,600
Speaker 1: of these players did try to get on male teams.

174
00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,280
Speaker 1: For instance, in nineteen fifty two, short Stuff eleanor Angele

175
00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,720
Speaker 1: was signed on to a minor league contract with the

176
00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:05,280
Speaker 1: Double A Harrisburg Senators. And then you have Tony Stone,

177
00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:09,199
Speaker 1: Connie Morgan and Maymie Peanuts Johnson, who played on all

178
00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:11,840
Speaker 1: male teams in the Negro Leagues in the nineteen fifties.

179
00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:14,719
Speaker 1: But by a large I don't think that baseball is

180
00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,600
Speaker 1: really offered as an option for girls today. I mean

181
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,920
Speaker 1: I always played softball, Yeah, so why is that? That's

182
00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,120
Speaker 1: one question we wanted to answer to this podcast was

183
00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,360
Speaker 1: why why is softball somehow the woman's sport? I mean,

184
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:28,720
Speaker 1: obviously you got the bigger ball, you've got the underhanded pitching,

185
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,400
Speaker 1: and you have a smaller diamond. But one thing we

186
00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 1: learned was that softball was invented by men, right, I

187
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:38,400
Speaker 1: mean it was just invented because men were too cold

188
00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:41,120
Speaker 1: to go outside and play baseball. I think this was

189
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,680
Speaker 1: on the day of a Harvard Yale football game in

190
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,080
Speaker 1: eighteen eighties seven in Chicago, and these guys got together

191
00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,600
Speaker 1: and they turned a glove tied together into a large

192
00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:55,920
Speaker 1: ball and then used a broomstick as their bat, exactly.

193
00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,200
Speaker 1: And because insurance companies started coming into being after World

194
00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,280
Speaker 1: War two and bay small injuries were expensive, you know,

195
00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,679
Speaker 1: more men were urged to play softball because they thought,

196
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:06,120
Speaker 1: you know, if you get hit with a softball, it's

197
00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:07,920
Speaker 1: not gonna hurt as much as game with a baseball

198
00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:11,160
Speaker 1: women stopped playing all these ball sports. But really, when

199
00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,320
Speaker 1: women started playing softball something I spent many a summer doing.

200
00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:17,920
Speaker 1: It all traces back to good old Title nine, which

201
00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:20,560
Speaker 1: will keep coming up in these Women in Sports podcast

202
00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,080
Speaker 1: We're Gonna do Right, We've got Entitle nine. It comes

203
00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: around in nineteen seventy two that mandates gender equity and

204
00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,960
Speaker 1: federally funded education programs, and so that really did a

205
00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:34,160
Speaker 1: lot to help female sports grow. But it really didn't

206
00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,360
Speaker 1: do anything for baseball because it brought up all these

207
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:42,080
Speaker 1: stipulations forcing girls to play only softball instead of baseball. Right,

208
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,280
Speaker 1: the school could say, well, we're offering baseball for boys

209
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:46,880
Speaker 1: and softball for girls. Therefore that's your gender equity. But

210
00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:48,880
Speaker 1: there are girls out there who are saying this is

211
00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,560
Speaker 1: a completely different game for all the reasons that Kristen mentioned.

212
00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 1: You know, bigger ball, smaller, smaller base paths, um underhand pitching,

213
00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: and so girls want to play baseball. Take July Crowtewl

214
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,000
Speaker 1: who had to sue in nineteen four to be able

215
00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:06,200
Speaker 1: to play in a baseball team in Little League. Yeah,

216
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:10,720
Speaker 1: and Massachusetts still has high school rules at bar girls

217
00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,839
Speaker 1: from even trying out for boys baseball in schools that

218
00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:16,800
Speaker 1: all also offer softball, and that goes back to the

219
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:20,120
Speaker 1: title nine issue that you were talking about. But we

220
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,480
Speaker 1: did find some pretty cool articles about girls who buck

221
00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 1: these rules and will search out schools that will let

222
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:27,760
Speaker 1: them play baseball. They try out with the boys, they

223
00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:30,400
Speaker 1: accepted on their own merits. It's not you know, obviously

224
00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:32,000
Speaker 1: they're not just going to give it to them. Because

225
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:34,760
Speaker 1: there's this thinking now that girls don't play baseball, girls

226
00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:37,080
Speaker 1: play softball, and a lot of girls do play softball.

227
00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,079
Speaker 1: I don't think that we should just discount softball. I mean,

228
00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,400
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough sport to play, but it

229
00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,520
Speaker 1: is a different sport from baseball. But like you said,

230
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:46,920
Speaker 1: a lot of girls do still try to go out

231
00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:50,880
Speaker 1: and play on baseball teams. For instance, last year, one

232
00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,880
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve girls played for for high school teams,

233
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,079
Speaker 1: according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

234
00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:59,200
Speaker 1: But that account might be a little bit a little

235
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,760
Speaker 1: bit higher, right, And so the thinging goes that these

236
00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,559
Speaker 1: boys are stronger than a girl would be at that age,

237
00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:06,880
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be heaving a ball harder swinging a

238
00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:09,160
Speaker 1: bat harder. So these girls really do have to go

239
00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,880
Speaker 1: out and prove themselves or become known for other things

240
00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:15,320
Speaker 1: like Jackie Mitchell a really good curve pitch. Uh speed.

241
00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:18,679
Speaker 1: But if you're interested in baseball, don't give it up

242
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,079
Speaker 1: just because when you get to high school they expect

243
00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:24,040
Speaker 1: you to play softball. I think that's the takeaway. But

244
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:28,520
Speaker 1: we have failed to mention one important women's baseball team

245
00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:32,000
Speaker 1: that was formed in the Colorado Silver Bullets. And you know,

246
00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:35,480
Speaker 1: the a g b L is long since folded, but

247
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:39,040
Speaker 1: this was a minor league all women's baseball team that

248
00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:42,120
Speaker 1: that formed and lasted for four seasons. And it wasn't

249
00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:44,440
Speaker 1: it wasn't an official league. It was kind of you know,

250
00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:47,319
Speaker 1: the like the Bloomer Girls, sort of a ragtag team

251
00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:51,319
Speaker 1: that would go around barn storming and challenging other male

252
00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 1: teams playing men's college, amateur and semi semi pro teams

253
00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,400
Speaker 1: around the country. Yeah, they had to fold. They really

254
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,720
Speaker 1: didn't feel like like they had equivalent competition basically. Um,

255
00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,640
Speaker 1: so there's that. And one more thing about women in baseball.

256
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:07,760
Speaker 1: This happened very recently. I found out when we were

257
00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,840
Speaker 1: researching this podcast. Um, they just had the second annual

258
00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:15,400
Speaker 1: Working Women in Baseball conference, because not only do we

259
00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,199
Speaker 1: think of playing baseball as a men's thing, but also

260
00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:21,880
Speaker 1: working in baseball like, yes, we might hold these traditional

261
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:25,440
Speaker 1: female jobs like communications, marketing, but more and more women

262
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:29,079
Speaker 1: are holding leadership positions like in baseball operations of these

263
00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:33,360
Speaker 1: major league teams. So at the meeting, they discussed things like, um,

264
00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,240
Speaker 1: you know, how to balance a family in your career,

265
00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:38,760
Speaker 1: how to dress so the guys respect you. You know,

266
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,319
Speaker 1: these women weren't reporting that it was necessarily uncomfortable to

267
00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:43,600
Speaker 1: work there, but they're really blazing a new trail in

268
00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 1: terms of working in this field. And they were just

269
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,440
Speaker 1: there to network with each other. So I think that's

270
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:50,480
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Yeah, but you still don't see women in

271
00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:53,760
Speaker 1: the dugout. Molly, where are the women in the dugout?

272
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:55,680
Speaker 1: I think we need women all over the place. Maybe

273
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:57,400
Speaker 1: one of the ways to get them into the dugas

274
00:13:57,400 --> 00:13:59,360
Speaker 1: to have more women in the in the team leadership.

275
00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,200
Speaker 1: And the research really gave me a new perspective on

276
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,480
Speaker 1: America's past time because we think of you know, the

277
00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:07,920
Speaker 1: boys of summer, you know, all male teams and all

278
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,559
Speaker 1: of that, but women have been playing baseball just as

279
00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:13,480
Speaker 1: long as men. That's right. Yeah. And Jackie Mitchell, one

280
00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:16,160
Speaker 1: of our own, struck out the babe and Lubi Eric

281
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:19,680
Speaker 1: that's awesome. That is awesome. And a big tip of

282
00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:22,440
Speaker 1: my baseball hat to all the girls who are fighting

283
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,200
Speaker 1: to be on the baseball team today and softball teams.

284
00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:27,120
Speaker 1: You know, we don't want to We're not just given

285
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:32,240
Speaker 1: an underhanded pitch to softball players. Let's work in all

286
00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:35,360
Speaker 1: our baseball metaphors here at the end. Yes, I think

287
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,400
Speaker 1: we've run the bases on this podcast. I think we

288
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:39,440
Speaker 1: had the ninth inning, Molly, and it's about time to

289
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,600
Speaker 1: do Listener, would you say we've had a home run

290
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:45,560
Speaker 1: with this one. I don't know. Listeners you tell us, okay,

291
00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:47,200
Speaker 1: but our listeners have all right told us some things

292
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:52,920
Speaker 1: that I guess we should get too. First. Yeah, Well,

293
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,400
Speaker 1: to start things off, I've got an email from Anne

294
00:14:55,480 --> 00:15:00,400
Speaker 1: in regard to our Disney Princesses podcast. She says, the

295
00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,600
Speaker 1: one issue I do have with the Disney Princesses in

296
00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:04,600
Speaker 1: general is that I'm trying to teach my daughter's to

297
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,640
Speaker 1: dress modestly, Yet several with the Princesses show quite a

298
00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,760
Speaker 1: lot of skin. I agree. Sleeping Beauty's outfit and the

299
00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:13,760
Speaker 1: current merchandizing has been altered from the original movies so

300
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:15,920
Speaker 1: that her dress is now office shoulder and shows a

301
00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:19,480
Speaker 1: little bus like bells dress jasmine and aerial of course,

302
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:23,200
Speaker 1: or wearing halter tops and seashell bikini tops, and Pocahona's

303
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,360
Speaker 1: is a skin tight office shoulder buckskin outfit that is

304
00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:29,400
Speaker 1: split up the thigh. Me. You know, I'm trying to

305
00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,480
Speaker 1: teach my girls that they don't need to dress and

306
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:33,600
Speaker 1: skinpy clothes get attention. Yet here I am with a

307
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,280
Speaker 1: five year old girl who would give anything for a

308
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,840
Speaker 1: real arrow outfit with a seashell top, and who loves

309
00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,080
Speaker 1: to draw pictures of our family's mermaids, complete with an

310
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:43,560
Speaker 1: emphatically drawn belly button over our fishy tails. Still, she

311
00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,720
Speaker 1: doesn't understand that an outfit like that would be a

312
00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:48,960
Speaker 1: costume non an everyday outfit. Now that it matters, since

313
00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:51,360
Speaker 1: there's no way I'm getting her that one. But it's

314
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 1: a bit of a relief to see that she least

315
00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:58,480
Speaker 1: has drawn a distinction between the two. So thanks an okay.

316
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,480
Speaker 1: Our next email is from Lisa. She writes um about

317
00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,040
Speaker 1: how we basically said the conclusion the podcast was that

318
00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,360
Speaker 1: that wasn't how we saw the Disney princesses as bad

319
00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 1: role models, and she agrees. She says, often I find

320
00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:12,600
Speaker 1: the feminist reading of the Princesses it is equally degrading

321
00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:15,160
Speaker 1: to women. By stripping all their characteristics down, You're just

322
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,880
Speaker 1: discounting these female figures completely, regardless of their positive features.

323
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:20,720
Speaker 1: I'd like to defend Ariel, as she is the one

324
00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:23,600
Speaker 1: that comes under attacks so often. People said that she

325
00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:25,600
Speaker 1: changes her ap parents and loses her voice all for

326
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 1: a man. But as a child, I never saw her

327
00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:30,200
Speaker 1: that way. As adults, we interpret Ariel's loss of voice

328
00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:31,840
Speaker 1: as a metaphor that she should be seen and not

329
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:34,440
Speaker 1: hurt in her relationship. It was a child, I just

330
00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:36,640
Speaker 1: thought the evil sea, which was a meaning. Even though

331
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,600
Speaker 1: I still think of Ariel as a really strong woman.

332
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:41,120
Speaker 1: She loved the human world even before she met Eric,

333
00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:43,040
Speaker 1: and she had the courage to give everything and leave

334
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:44,840
Speaker 1: her home to live the way she wanted to live.

335
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:46,760
Speaker 1: Eric or no, Eric, he was just the icing on

336
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,360
Speaker 1: the cake. It really is about how the child used

337
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,560
Speaker 1: the princesses, though, and not some highbrow feminist interpretation we

338
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,040
Speaker 1: may have if the child sees Arile is strong and

339
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,160
Speaker 1: that's that, and most of my friends think Ariel is

340
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 1: pretty badass. All right, well, guys, why don't you pitch

341
00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:04,480
Speaker 1: us some more emails if you care had to get

342
00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,439
Speaker 1: one more in Our email is mom Stuff at how

343
00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,400
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and as always, you can check

344
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:13,000
Speaker 1: out our blog during the week. It's called how to Stuff,

345
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 1: and it, along with a library of other fascinating articles

346
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,400
Speaker 1: about sports and other things, are all to be found

347
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:28,480
Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot com. For more on this

348
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,200
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff works

349
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:35,320
Speaker 1: dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our

350
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,720
Speaker 1: blogs on the house stuff works dot com home page.

351
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,159
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

352
00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:46,680
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you