There Might Be Crying In Baseball

In February, the Indiana High School Athletics Association unanimously approved a rule change allowing girls to try out for baseball and other boys’ sports. The rule change came about after Logan Young, a freshman at Bloomington South High School, and her parents sued, claiming that baseball and softball weren’t comparable sports and that she should be able to try out for the team.

You can forgive Logan. It’s her parents damn fault for giving her a boy’s name and allowing her to watch the fantasy film “A League Of Their Own.”

(And you know the name Logan Young because he was the Alabama booster convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering after giving $150,000 to a recruit. He was then assumed murdered in his home before it was established he died after tripping on the stairs while carrying a salad and a soda, then hitting his head on the iron railing.)

The IHSAA Board of Directors, which designates two seats each for “Minority” and “Urban” members, passed the measure 19-0. With a federal lawsuit pending, the IHSAA commissioner basically had little wiggle room.

The previous rule stated:

Girls may only participate in the girls sports programs offered by their schools and boys may only participate in boys sports programs offered by their school, however:
a. During the regular season:
1. if a school has a boys program in baseball, basketball, football, soccer or wrestling but not a comparable girls program in that sport (for purposes of this rule, baseball and softball are comparable sports), a girl must participate in the boys program in that sport provided she follows the boys contest season rules, but
2. in cross country, golf, swimming and diving, tennis and track and field, a girl may not attempt to qualify for or participate in the boys program in the sport;

…and it goes on.

I remembered covering a girl on the wrestling team. It’s commonplace. There isn’t a comparable sport (unless you count cheerleader-locker room-shower-fight fantasies as comparable). But I always thought softball was the female alternative to baseball. The only men who play softball do so after their athletic primes have long since passed. They use it as an excuse for exercise while fitting a case of beers into seven innings.

Though some take it really seriously, like these guys do:

And if you’re hesitant about potentially wasting valuable time viewing Internet trash, this is a wise investment. Here are some of the notable exchanges from Part Two to whet the appetite.

“Don’t get yourself arrested because it ain’t worth it.”
“That umpire is in a world of shit.”
“This is a joke. This is the biggest fucking farce I have ever seen.”

If I had to guess, I’m putting these guys somewhere in western Pennsylvania.

And here’s the same team earlier in the season doing some trash talking. “You’re my hero. You took a walk.”

In 1989, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that baseball and softball are not substantially equal sports. It’s good to know Indiana is 20 years behind West Virginia. I guess that means in 10 years we’ll be putting Mountain Dew in our babies’ bottles too.

And according to Young’s attorney, 24 state athletic associations allow girls to choose between softball and baseball.

Girls playing baseball isn’t anything new. More than 100,000 girls play Little League every year and eight girls have participated in the Little League World Series since they were allowed to play in 1974.

But now that high schools are letting girls try out and play baseball (by the way Logan Young tried out and failed to make the team), will there ever be a time where a girl might be so good she can potentially earn a college scholarship or perhaps even get drafted?

I know it sounds far-fetched. But if so, I hope we see more of this then, instead of this.