The summer boys are back. But what about summer girls? The Major League Baseball lockout just ended on Thursday when New York City Mayor Eric Adams rained down on the parade the next day. The mayor praised the end of the labor dispute before creating a public pitch for women to play in the majors. In the month of women’s history, no less.
“I’m so glad the summer boys are back,” Adams told a news conference Friday in the Bronx before launching a grip. “I hope next year we start seeing boys and girls in the summer. It’s time to allow women to play professional baseball too. But I’m glad they’re back.”
Not a single single woman has ever played in a major league baseball game (where there is a baseball version of Sarah Fuller or Danica Patrick, women who, without proving themselves worthy, have the opportunity to play indie car races and college football at the highest level, respectively?)
No single woman has ever achieved a roster spot with the ability to pitch, hit or field a position.
In fact, the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s baseball team once faced the Class AA men’s all-stars… and lost 19-0. The team made its debut in 1994 with the aim of providing a nurturing environment for top female athletes to learn and play professional baseball against the existing men’s team in minor leagues, semi-pro, college and amateur baseball. To inspire people to play baseball at the grassroots level and to encourage all kinds of organized baseball to accept female athletes as players. ” The experiment ended in 1997.
The presence of women in the Big-League diamond will be pure token-ism, and will mean that the men will actually stick to the talented roster spots in the smaller leagues. It will hit the major league teams and they will never go for such a bizarre stunt.
Adams quickly changed the subject after his sexist allegations about baseball. He said baseball would not lose its season in labor disputes that would benefit retailers near Yankee Stadium and Mets City Field. “I was near Yankee Stadium the other day. When people look at those stores, they depend on the baseball season, there’s a whole economy that eats baseball,” he said.
Mayor Adams compared the millionaire baseball players on the field to those on far lower incomes. He said it was important that food stores be able to benefit from the huge crowds of fans who come for the game.
If the Major League focuses on gender equality and lowers the quality of their products by reducing the quality of the game, will those customers still come in huge numbers? This is a valid question.
Any such stunt is more likely to be done at the lower minor league level. Or, in a manner similar to kicking Fuller’s ball a few times for the Vanderbilt football team in 2020, a woman could be given the opportunity to play an innings in a meaningless game at the end of the MLB season.
No matter. Month of Women’s History means Pending of Women’s History. Besides, there is no crying in baseball.