There's No Crying in Baseball!!
One of Jimmy Dugan's best lines along with his autographed baseball - "Avoid the Clap - Jimmy Dugan."
Due to a lawsuit against the IHSAA and against Bloomington South High School, they have both relented and allowed a girl to try out for the baseball team. Why all the stink in the press? Well, because BSHS has a softball team, both felt that girls do not belong on the baseball team.
Under previous IHSAA rules, if a school offered a girls "equivalent" of a boys sport, then they could exclude girls from the boys sport. So if a school offered boys and girls basketball, a girl cannot try out for boys basketball. However, the IHSAA believed that baseball and softball were equivalent sports. According to Blake Ress, the IHSAA commissioner, he states, "he believed that baseball and softball were comparable sports because each involves a bat and a ball, similar positions and baselines on the diamond, and six outs in an inning." Yep, they are the same in those manners even though the field dimensions are different...the balls are different...the pitching is different...but, yeah, they are the same.
Personally, I do not have a problem with a girl wanting to try out for the baseball team. She has been playing co-ed community baseball since she was 5. She and her parents must think she is good enough to file a lawsuit for the right to tryout. I might have a problem if she doesn't make the team and then sues to try and get on (assuming she was legitimately cut.) But she should also know that she could be benchwarming for most of the year. Yet, I would not be surprised if turned out to be an average every day player.
Just because she is a girl doesn't mean she should get special treatment to play. She should be graded on the same criteria as the boys, nothing more, nothing less.
The IHSAA is griping about making the change because it feels it would probably lose the lawsuit and the fact that several other states have already made this change. So, why it is such a problem, IHSAA?
Honestly, I hope she kicks some ass!
Due to a lawsuit against the IHSAA and against Bloomington South High School, they have both relented and allowed a girl to try out for the baseball team. Why all the stink in the press? Well, because BSHS has a softball team, both felt that girls do not belong on the baseball team.
Under previous IHSAA rules, if a school offered a girls "equivalent" of a boys sport, then they could exclude girls from the boys sport. So if a school offered boys and girls basketball, a girl cannot try out for boys basketball. However, the IHSAA believed that baseball and softball were equivalent sports. According to Blake Ress, the IHSAA commissioner, he states, "he believed that baseball and softball were comparable sports because each involves a bat and a ball, similar positions and baselines on the diamond, and six outs in an inning." Yep, they are the same in those manners even though the field dimensions are different...the balls are different...the pitching is different...but, yeah, they are the same.
Personally, I do not have a problem with a girl wanting to try out for the baseball team. She has been playing co-ed community baseball since she was 5. She and her parents must think she is good enough to file a lawsuit for the right to tryout. I might have a problem if she doesn't make the team and then sues to try and get on (assuming she was legitimately cut.) But she should also know that she could be benchwarming for most of the year. Yet, I would not be surprised if turned out to be an average every day player.
Just because she is a girl doesn't mean she should get special treatment to play. She should be graded on the same criteria as the boys, nothing more, nothing less.
The IHSAA is griping about making the change because it feels it would probably lose the lawsuit and the fact that several other states have already made this change. So, why it is such a problem, IHSAA?
Honestly, I hope she kicks some ass!
Labels: Baseball, Blake Ress, girls, IHSAA, no crying in baseball, softball, the clap
posted by Zinglebert Bembledack at
10:04 PM
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