Active Community: Message List - Women playing baseball.....

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:11:59 GMT

Over here in Australia, we have both Male and Female Softball Leagues, and, although there is more coverage for the Female Leagues, the guys get a fair run as well.

Australia recently won the Mens World u19 Championships in Canada, and are consistently in the top 3 in all catorgories contested.

Most local competions have mixed teams for TBall (u8 & U10 11" softcore ball) and ModBall u12 (11"). The Representative Competitions (similar to US Travelling teams) are single gender, but mixed gender teams compete in the Boys Division at this level.

Some regions play female only, but base their levels more on standard of play, rather than age.

These areas usually have an Open Mens fastpitch comp as well, but it is usually fairly small.

u14, u16 and u19 play same gender at a local level if there are sufficient numbers in the comp, or mixed gender if not. There is a "Duty of Care" issue from time to time, such as player selected in a State team (u16, u19, u23, Open) is directed to play at a level that will be appropiate for his or her skill, not his or her age.

My local comp (700 odd players - quite small, really) has Open Mens, 5 Open Womens grades, mixed Youth (u19), Mixed u16, Mixed u14, Mixed u12, Mixed Tball (u8 & U10 combined). (Some comps have 1500 or so registered players)

It is fairly standard that a good junior female player will be playing in the mixed u19 comp, and then at least 1 open womens grade in the afternoon.

Virtually all the boys that play u19 also play Open Mens.

The benefit is that the girls get to bat against boys that can pitch at up to 60/65 mph, (but usually only chuck the quick ones at the other boys), or girls that are also capable of pitching to big hitters (most of the boys). The outfield is always involved as a result, and the girls have to work hard in both the field and with the bat. When they back up to play grade in the afternoon, it seems like a walk in the park by comparison!

At the junior levels, u16 is the only grade where there are sometimes problems, with stronger players dominating the weaker ones (male and female), but that is where the Duty of Care policy comes in.

My 9yo son plays in the u12 Boys Rep team, but we don't have a Girls Rep team this year. Therefore, the girls trialed for places in the side, with 3 girls making it, and an equal number of boys and girls not.

These 3 girls are our standout best players, and dominated most teams at our first "Inter League" event, playing in the Boys Division. One of the girl, a pitcher, was probably the fastest pitcher of all teams on the day, and left plenty of boys standing at the plate swinging at air! None of our boys want to Catch to her, so guess who Catches? Yep. One of the girls! 1st Base? You Guessed it - the other girl. These 3 basically rotated positions all day (5 games), with only a token appearance here and there in one of these key positions by one of the boys - and no one cared, because we were winning games! (12 bat at this level, but only 9 on the diamond, but all must be used at some stage, or the game is forfieted)

my 15yo daughter actually hates playing in all-girl teams, because she thrives on the challenge of playing against the boys. Her current boyfriend is a guy from a neihboring Asscotiation, who she met through playing Rep Softball, and training camps etc.

We have many different sports competing for our kids to play in summer - Cricket, Baseball, Surfing/swimming, Track & Field, Tennis etc, and most kids will be fairly good at all of them, because they are exposed to this variety of sports through out school. Baseball and softball are a long way behind Cricket in popularity, but are still top 5 team sports. Soccer is a winter sport,and played mixed gender until u14s, then the girls have female comps as well as mixed, until u17s.After that, they play single gender.

A lot of kids (Boys and Girls) will play Baseball in the winter and Softball in the summer, and the Summer Junior Baseball comps are mid week, to encourage this through the summer as well, rather than compete against each other for players.

Junior Baseball here sounds the same as what happens in the US - the girls get pushed away by the time they are 14 or 15.

So, yes, there is softball outside of the US!

We will always be able to say Australia pushed the eventual Olympic Champions, Japan, to 11 innings, and gave them the match practice they needed to beat USA!

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:09:15 GMT

If a girl can play fast pitch softball she can play youth baseball. I coach fastpitch softball, I got 9 & 10 year olds that can throw a 11 inch softball 40-50 mph anytime & anywhere on the field, my pitchers know a minimum of 4 pitches and throw 45 to 50+ mph depending on the pitch, there are other girls at 10 yeras old throwing mid to high 50s from 35 away, thats smokin, that like hitting a 100mph fastball in baseball. My 9 year old pitcher throws 85 to 90%, meaning she can throw 9 out of 10 aroud the plate for strikes ANYTIME, my ( year 9 year old pitcher struck out 6 boys only a couple of weeks ago off a 13U select baseball team, so Yes a girl can play ball with boys but why would a girl want to play baseball when she can play fastpitch softball. Why do they call it softball ??? DON'T KNOW there is nothing soft about FASTPITCH softball plus they use a 11 to 12 inch softball depending on there age, were the boys use a 9 inch baseball. Look it does not matter if it is baseball or softball they are both great sports and the sport is a great experience for young boys and girls no matter the age. Baseball and softball is one of the greatest american past times. NOW, That is youth sports, if we talk about adult sports, there is fastpitch men & women softball, slowpitch men & women plus there is coed slowpitch softball. Girls can play sports with goys but men vs. women there is a strength difference, now if you take one of the best hitters in girls softball like Crystal Bustos on the USA team, I am sure she can crank a baseball just as far as most average guys but your average woman can not compete, not from a talent stand point it is because typically men are stronger than women. Now I said typically, I did not say women are not strong they are genetically engineered to be different from men. I know that girls and boys can play together in youth sports because the strength at a young age is not all that different but in my opinion girls should play fastpitch softball and boys should play baseball. I wonder just how fast a boy could pitch an 11 to 12 inch softball vs. a girl pitching a 9 inch baseball....huh!

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:57:02 GMT

It's bad enough they drive and vote.They were put on this earth to reproduce and cook.

How sad it was in the 80's when we had to start cleaning so it was done right.We have

to stop this madness now befor they want to coach our boys.Now go make me a steak.

You have been instructed.

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:03:38 GMT

Who cares what your son says. Bottom line, a capable women should be able to play any sport she wants. Maybe your son is gay since he only wants to play with the boys.

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:44:46 GMT

School districts don't have sufficient funding for the baseball and softball teams that they do have; therefore, it is not likely that they can add a softball team for guys and a baseball team for girls. My sons played baseball with plenty of girls in Little League. Some of them were pretty good. But, by the time they were in juniors, most of the girls couldn't keep up. There was one girl who did play on a high school freshman team but after that year, she switched to softball. When she was 10 and 11 she was a standout player. She did okay on the freshman team but she definitely was not as good as the boys.

I asked my son what he thinks and he says " Bottom line, guys want to have some activities which do not include girls. Baseball is more fun with the girls in the stands and the guys on the field."

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:41:42 GMT

I'm going to follow with what jbrowshsptv said. I think they should make more softball club teams in the high school for the young men and women. A high school student male or female who didnt make their school teams in softball or baseball, and still want to play something related. They should be able to play on a slow pitch Co-Op club softball team just for fun. It just not promotes Team work, it also helps with health and recreation. Hey.. and maybe teachers would join too?

P.S. I'm not calling girls cry babies...ha....Just a classic quote from the movie "A League of Their Own"-Tom Hanks

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:47:05 GMT

If a girl can compete then why not? A player is a player. And since softball is a different sport than baseball I feel like it could work both ways with guys playing softball with girls.

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:06:16 GMT

men do play softball, there is a usa mens softball team beleive it or not

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:13:11 GMT

If women wanted to play baseball, then so be it. I tried softball before and was more intimidated with the closer mounds than the faster baseball pitches from the mound.

Re: Women playing baseball.....

guest — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:25:53 GMT

Are there women who could play baseball at a high school level? Definitely. Should they be allowed to play baseball? Why not? But what about college? Maybe. I grew up with a girl who was as good or better than any of the boys at baseball...and she went on to a full ride in softball at a D-1 school. Perhaps she could have played NCAA baseball, but instead she parlayed her baseball experience into a definite scholarship. I'd say baseball worked out just fine for her.