"Quotes his peers on Little League" from the April 9, 1974 Door County Advocate
JIM ROBERTSON
JIM ROBERTSON
Quotes his peers on Little League
The noted sports columnist, Jim Murray, writes, "Little League baseball is a much-maligned institution at the mercy of any psychiatrist in search of a headline. For him, it comes out as a combination of Hitler youth and child labor and they usually recommend a constitutional amendment to ban it in favor of something they call "unstructured play."
According to Murray, "It's the non-physical trauma that the shrinks worry about." But he quotes Dr. Creighton Hale, president Of Little League and a physiologist who pioneered the Little League flap helmet, now required equipment even in the big leagues, and a chest protector and catcher's mask which are standard equipment for the big leagues.
Says Dr. Hale, "We know kids are not harmed by these pressures. A kid is crying two minutes after a game but 10 minutes afterwards he's in the pool playing with the guy who struck him out. It's the managers and the coaches who are sitting in the dugout brooding."
Murray concludes his article by remembering the time a friend told him about a Little Leaguer who cried and sulked and climbed into a tree and stayed there all night because they wouldn't let him pitch. They took the problem to the boy's uncle.
"That's right," the uncle admitted, "but did they also tell you that he cries and sulks and climbs into a tree all night if they won't let him play with knives or put his little sister in a trunk or the cat in the disposal?"
Another noted columnist, Bob Considine, writes that "a truce is near in the long war between Women's Lib and the Little League. As in the case of the Arab-Israel conflict, both sides can and will claim victory—and with some justification."
"Girls will have their own league this season," continues Considine, "under the aegis of the Little League headquarters at Williamsport, Pa. They will not be permitted to play on regular Little League teams, which now number more than 2,000,000 players on 50,000 teams in 31 countries."
Considine explains Little League's position on integrated teams well: "Little League has never had anything against baseball-playing girls...what it has fought with some determination in recent years has been equal terms with boys without risking injury. Little League is justly proud of the safety record it has compiled over the years and the safety innovations that have been adopted even in the major leagues, notably the one-flap batting helmet."
"As pressures mounted on them to throw open Little League's rosters to lovely creatures made of sugar and spice, Little League Chairman Pete McGovern and his associates suffered nightmares over what might happen to a girl hit by a breast-level pitch or bad bounce, or—assuming she was playing shortstop or second—being clobbered by a big strong boy intent on breaking up a double play."
Considine then quotes Dr. Thomas P. Johnson, a noted child psychiatrist, who at the 12th International Congress of Little League, said he did not believe girls should play on boys teams for the simple reason that "by and large, boys are going to be heavier and stronger." "But I think that girls should be accommodated," Dr. Johnson said. They should have their own league, and I think the fathers and mothers should treat it just as enthusiastically and take it just as seriously as they do the boys' sports. It shouldn't be second rate but I think it should be separate."
Considine concludes by noting that Little League is going to accommodate girls this season. He notes that indications are that about 500 girls Little Leagues will be inaugurated this coming season. Rules will be altered to fit the change in personnel with a pitcher's mound 40 feet from home plate rather than 46 feet. All girls will be required to wear a chest protector that is now being designed. Rules will prohibit sliding and the ball will be a larger, softer version of the hard Little League ball and will be delivered underhanded."
You will note how all of the foregoing was attributed to two noted sports columnist as something of a preface to what I have to say about girls in Little League, if only because I coached in Little League for three years and as such carry what some people might consider a biased, male chauvinist opinion in the matter.
Chauvinistic or not, I feel about girls in Little League baseball the same way that UW-Green Bay Basketball Coach Dave Buss feels about women in sports. Speaking at the WDOR Sportscasters banquet, Buss said that while he feels sports can be just as beneficial to girls as to boys, he feels they should remain segregated. "If you allow girls on boys teams only a few will make it," he said. "And if you allow girls on boys teams then you have to allow boys on girls teams and pretty soon boys will take them over."
However, as a former Little League manager I think I can explain the problem in more detail, which I will try to do in an ensuing article.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Other posts about girls sports
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/girls-sports