Have you read about Eri Yoshida and Ila Borders? Both played pro baseball as pitchers. In Little League baseball, there are a few girls who throw knuckleballs, which I've always thought was an ideal way for women to break the gender barrier into "men's" sports because it doesn't require extraordinary arm strength. I had hopes for Yoshida, but the irony is that ML managers don't like knuckleballers much, and women are not going to throw 100 MPH heat any time soon.
Pushing girls into softball (or girls-only versions of sports like basketball, which is equally sexist) is obviously one way to keep them out of the professional locker rooms. Saying women aren't physically capable is another (and reminds one of the excuse once used to exclude blacks and minorities from sports: "they don't have the talent."
. While physical reality does indicate that it would be rare to find a woman who could compete equally with men in most sports, it does seem unfitting that the exceptions should be denied their chance.
But as for Jackie Mitchell, come on. It was Chattanooga, for crying out loud, and the Chattanooga owner was a showman in the tradition of Bill Veeck. If Ruth and Gehrig weren't paid to whiff, they would have been willing to do it for a lark. Kenesaw Mountain Landis totally overreacted (if indeed that wasn't the plan all along).
-- Mal
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