I literally just
got off the phone with Clare, who was walking to her physical therapy
appointment; another two months of grunts and groans on her right shoulder, and
my daughter may be ready to step into the batting cages come spring
training. This gave me the chance to ask
if she’d heard about Steph Curry and the nine-year old girl. She had.
The girl in
question, Riley Morrison, is a basketball player who wanted a pair of Curry
shoes that Under Armour puts out, only there were none available on the UA
website for a girl her size. So, Riley
wrote Curry to ask what was up, and the two-time MVP, a father of two girls,
actually answered her. It seems that the
smaller sizes were mislabeled as “boys,” a problem since rectified. But it gives you an idea what female athletes
have to contend with.
For Clare, just
getting dressed was a challenge. Through
eighth grade, whether she was playing baseball or softball, she had to buy what
were in effect male hand-me-downs, from pants to sliding shorts. “I don’t have a boy’s butt,” as my daughter
put it ever so delicately. She had the
same problem finding cleats and gloves that could be used for her gender even though
they were intended for another. As for
softball bats, they did exist twelve years ago, but only at a fraction of the
number made for baseball.
Clare used to
joke, “When I grow up, I’m going to open a sporting goods’ store for
women.” It looks like there’s still a
real need for one.
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