Hello HerCampus! This week I am going to talk about Haley Alvarez, the Oakland Athletics scouting manager. At this point, in all 30 teams of the MLB, there are 113 women who work in baseball operations, but things are slowly changing in a world where many girls feel pressured into softball and away from baseball at a certain age. Major League Baseball is on the way to having a female general manager. Although she is not at the highest rank yet, she is already an important figure for women who want to get involved in baseball. The rising sensation of Alvarez has stimulated the discussion of women playing baseball as well.
Softball can be seen as equivalent to baseball and while it is just as important as a sport, it should not be considered a place for girls to go after they get too old to play baseball with the boys. Many times, girls get bullied off teams, and not necessarily by their teammates but by their coaches and other parents who still subscribe to a different mindset.
While some people would like to see girls integrated into boy’s teams, others simply want all-girls teams for baseball and all boys-teams for softball. Girls can hold their own on teams with boys with multiple examples because many Little League teams are coed. Mo’ne Davis, one of these girls on a co-ed Little League team, became well known once she pitched a shutout in the Little League World Series in 2014.
This is a discussion that needs to be had. I even remember thinking in high school, why isn’t there a girl’s baseball team? There is no reason not to have a girl’s baseball team, and there is no real reason there cannot be co-ed teams, as there already are in Little League baseball. Hopefully one day, girls on baseball teams in high school will be able to look up to a woman playing in Major League Baseball.
Sources:
https://www.mlb.com/news/haley-alvarez-joins-as-front-office-women/c-263973094
http://time.com/3144240/mone-davis-girls-baseball/
Picture credit: https://news.virginia.edu/content/qa-alumna-aims-be-mlbs-first-female-ge…