If and when a woman
breaks the glass ceiling shielding the all-boys’ club of major league baseball,
she’ll need to worry more about her teammates than the fans. Old habits die hard, if at all.
Jackie Robinson was a black
man in a white league where white fans predominated. For him, hell was a road trip to Philadelphia
or St. Louis. A woman ballplayer won’t
face that situation, not with half of every ballpark filled with female fans. Let me put it this way: if the first woman
big leaguer hits a homerun at Wrigley Field and a female Cub fan catches it,
odds are the ball won’t get thrown back.
That woman pioneer is
going to face a different kind of pressure than Robinson did. The fans will be more supportive from the start,
and there probably won’t be any Dixie Walkers trying to lead a players’ revolt;
male ballplayers have evolved, kind of.
They’ll be more inclined to go the hazing route, make the girl carry their
bags and pick up the tab time and again. This happens all the time to rookies in pro
sports (though a woman big leaguer would probably end the baseball tradition of
first-year players dressing up as girls).
The question the recent Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandals raises is this,
When would it stop? My guess is,
probably as soon as men stop feeling threatened by women.
Until then, boys will
be boys when it comes to talking—or whispering—about the opposite sex; the same
goes for the media. I can imagine how
the first women ballplayer will be expected to show her “feminine” side, whether
wearing earrings and eyes shadow for a game or doing photo spreads in the
offseason. Annie Leibovitz beckons, and
Playboy, too.
In pro sports today,
there’s no greater insult than “playing like a girl.” With a woman ballplayer it would be “looking
like a man” or a “dyke,” each inviting yet more comment. Will that be easier or harder to handle than
what Jackie Robinson went through? We’ll
see.
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