A little good news in a depressing week: 13-year-old GIRL pitcher Mo’ne Davis is the first Little Leaguer to make the Sports Illustrated cover:
She has a 70 MPH fast ball, and get this — baseball isn’t even really her game! She loves basketball the most and wants to play for UConn someday. May all her dreams come true.
[H/T: Valued commenter lamh36]
Trollhattan
Awww, she’s cute!
Via LGM, Vox has a piece on how they’d cover Ferguson if it were in another country. A sample:
jibeaux
Girlfriend pitched a shutout in the LA World Series. Happy news indeed.
someofparts
Wow. Amazing that it is even possible for a 13-yr-old girl to have a 70mph fastball. Be wonderful to watch her play, wouldn’t it!
maurinsky
I love the Mo’ne Davis story.
I have been talking about Ferguson with a bunch of people today, and it all feels so very fruitless. At the end of the day, we have a cop who can tell whatever story he wants to tell because he’s alive and a dead kid who can’t say a word.
lamh36
No matter what the outcome of the LLWS, I love what Mo’Ne means for not just lil Black girls, but all girls. Of course since I was one and I am surrounded by them, the fact that she is a lil Black girl makes me feel a bit more it you know what I mean.
That’s two lil girls my baby Maddie wants to be like Gabby Douglas and Mo’Ne (she’s seen the video of Mo’Ne pitiching and she loved watching it)
Beautiful pic.
Keith G
.
All her dreams, but one. There is a Houston area team still alive in the series and my heart goes with them. I can’t wait to watch more games this week. The Little League World Series is my favorite baseball fix.
shelley
“Baseball’s isn’t even really her game?’ My God, she sounds like Katherine Hepburn in ‘Pat and Mike.’
Suzanne
She’s awesome, and I hope she achieves everything she wants in life.
Violet
That’s awesome. Good for her!
Was listening to the Diane Rehm show today in the car. The subject was Judging The Credibility Of News In The Digital Age. One of the guests teaches some class on critical assessment of the media or something like that. This person said several countries around the world are now teaching critical assessment of the media starting in middle school or early high school and they’re finding it affects the kids in all sorts of ways. They’re much more attuned to finding out sources and bias of those sources, etc. Of course the US isn’t teaching anything like that. The guest said US 15-year-olds “are behind.” Interesting show.
JPL
The picture on the cover made me smile. Thanks!
Jebediah, RBG
She’s awesome!
I hope she’s being careful to not damage her arm by throwing too hard, too young.
MrSnrub
The Philly area has certainly caught Taney fever. It’s been lots of fun following Mo’ne and the rest of the team.
My twitter feed is a mix of Taney/Mo’ne and Ferguson. Uplifting and depressing at the same time.
Darkrose
Mo’ne is awesome. If the rule against women in the minors is ever challenged, I think she’d look awesome in orange and black. On a team that’s focused on control rather than raw speed, with two pitchers who aren’t much taller than she is, Mo’ne would be a good addition to the bullpen, if not the rotation. Hell, right now I’d rather see her starting than Lincecum–at least she knows where the ball is going.
Alison
She is so great. I loved this from her:
YEESSSSSSS.
Mnemosyne
This is very smart on her part (and I could tell from her interviews that she was a very intelligent and shrewd young lady). There’s only so far she can go in baseball, but there would be many scholarships and other opportunities open to her via basketball. It would be awfully nice to see a second appearance for her in SI in about 10 years when she leads the US women to a gold medal in basketball, wouldn’t it?
thruppence
@Violet: Good for the Diane Rehm Show! Usually I find it to be such a repetitive mouthpiece for Conventional Wisdom that I give up after 10 minutes. Glad to be occasionally proven wrong.
Darkrose
@Jebediah, RBG: Her coach seems to be pretty careful with her. It seems to be the flamethrowers in professional ball who end up needing TJ’s; the need to light up the radar gun may be a big factor in all the young pitchers who need their elbows fixed.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
What’s awesome about her isn’t the 70 mph fastball. It’s that she threw a two-hit shutout in the LLWS opener without walking anyone. That’s just ridiculous for Little League, where winning is often determined by which pitcher has the least trouble throwing strikes and which defense commits the fewest errors. That whole Philadelphia team is fun to watch because of how fundamentally sound they are. They don’t screw up the way everyone else that age does.
I’m rooting for them and it’s not just because of Mo’Ne Davis.
WereBear
And they should.
Miss Davis is a wonderful athlete when she can do so well in what isn’t even her favorite sport.
SarahT
It’s not only Mon’ne Davis’ & her story that’s awesome, but the Taney Dragons, too: most teams that get this far in the LLWS are from wealthy suburban areas, so a team from Center City Philly kicking this much butt is also worth celebrating
lamh36
@Jebediah, RBG: I was reading a bit about that.
Seeing has she says her 1st love is basketball, can this be an issue in that sport?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Mnemosyne: Krissy Wendell (now Krissy Wendell-Pohl) played catcher in the LLWS in the late 90s, then went on to win two hockey national titles at the University of Minnesota, the 2005 Patty Kazmeier Award, and a silver and bronze Olympic medal.
I’d hope for the same success for Davis, except that I can’t stand UConn.
Mnemosyne
@SarahT:
I’d be interested in reading more about their coach, if anyone has a link to a story about (presumably) him. You’ve got to be a very talented coach to get your players to work together at that level at such a young age.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Darkrose: I don’t believe that there is any rule against women in minor league baseball. The simple fact is that there doesn’t need to be. There’s simply no way that a woman could compete with men at the top echelon of this sport or pretty much any other. (There are a very small number of exceptions.) The physical differences after adolescence are just too great. Mo’Ne Davis is almost certainly not going to be the exception to that. She might be able to hang with them long enough to play in high school but even that is unlikely. The growth differences in just the three years between now and then are enormous.
Women’s athletics need to be celebrated for what they are without trying to compare them to men playing the same game. It’s not fair to the athletes, who work as hard as the boys do, to judge them by the same outcomes. As Corner Stone will be happy to tell you, I can bore anyone going on about how much I enjoy women’s ice hockey. It’s better than the men’s game, full stop, even if the U.S. national team struggles to beat good boys’ high school teams when it’s prepping for the Olympics.
Mnemosyne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Pre-steroids, there might have been a chance for women to eventually reach parity in baseball since it’s not quite as strength-dependent as, say, football, but now that everyone is bulking up, I don’t think it could happen.
jibeaux
@lamh36: Mine’s white, but wants to be Diamond deShields. At least before she transferred away from UNC. She doesn’t have quite the natural athleticism that would take her to the college level, but she’s pretty good at hoops for a skinny little melanin-challenged thing.
JPL
@Violet: I’m trying to imagine a fifteen year old critiquing the news with her/his parents. If the parents watch FOX TV, I’d expect there would be problems. The school board would probably fire the principal who allowed the class.
jibeaux
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): oh, don’t sell yourself short. Hockey is fucking boring, full stop. :)
Tone In DC
More power to Taney and MoNe.
Given the current status of the Nationals’ closer, we may need her here before she turns 18. As well, I second the emotion that UConn is a horrible thing, and must be stopped.
She could attend Maryland, Temple or even (shudder) Notre Dame.
opiejeanne
We’ve been watching this series and were thunderstruck when we spotted her the first time, pitching the last two innings of a complete game shutout a few days ago. She is really good and so are many of the other kids on her team. She can’t pitch again until Wednesday because of the Little League rule, so we were pleased to see her play other positions and watch the other kids on her team excel. Their coach is really great, and so far his is the only really integrated team we’ve noticed.
The other coach I have enjoyed watching this much is the one from Rhode Island, whose team was eliminated yesterday by the Chicago team and who gave a great talk to his kids after the game.
Trollhattan
Any “Breaking Bad” or “Veep” fans? Watch this now.
Violet
@JPL: I kept waiting for a caller to ask about the Texas GOP platform that specifically opposes critical thinking. Didn’t happen while I was listening, but I was in and out of the car so may have missed it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
another “police involved shooting” in St Louis, near, not in Ferguson
‘erratic knife wielding suspect’
multiple witnesses
Tone In DC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just saw that on CNN. The suspect is dead, and no one else was harmed.
Given the oh so forthcoming nature of the local cops (and their otherwise tenuous relations with the truth), I hope DoJ investigates this killing.
Chat Noir
@Trollhattan: Love both both shows and love Cranston, Paul, and Louis-Dreyfus. I think “Veep” is one of the funniest shows. My husband and I were hooked on “Breaking Bad” from the moment the pilot aired in early 2008.
Tone In DC
The Thin Black Duke:
No doubt. Trigger happy and then some.
Darkrose
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Actually, there is such a rule, put in place after WWII. It’s never been challenged, and would probably not hold up in court, especially since there is no option for women to play professional baseball in the US. Softball is a different sport.
And baseball is a sport where size isn’t everything. Mo’Ne may never be able to throw 95, but if she develops a slider with plus command, then she could have a career as a reliever, if not a starter. The Giants former closer, Sergio Romo, is listed as 5’10” which is about two inches taller than he actually is. Tim Lincecum is small enough to be picked up easily by just about anyone on the team; he developed a delivery style that leveraged his flexibility instead of relying on pure muscle to get his fastball in.
I would happily watch the WMLB, but I think it’s more likely that we’ll see women pitching on men’s teams before developing an entirely new system for a sport that is supposedly not that popular.
safeshark
When is Libertarian curious Cole going to do another one of his “Rand Paul has some good ideas because Griftwald told me so” posts? You just know he’s itching to do it. He gets sucked in every time libertarians pander to liberals because he’s STILL basically a 2 time Bush voting Republican. You just can’t fix that kind of dumb.
kc
Good for her!
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I did here about witnesses. But my question was are these officers only trained to kill?
Suffern ACE
You are aware that there is a SI Cover curse? Appearing on he cover of SI is not good news! Although I think it applies to college teams more than individual players.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Darkrose: You’re wrong. Strength is still important for a pitcher; you just don’t have to be huge to develop it. Being male is still an insurmountable hurdle, though. The number of pitchers who can be successful without a 90+ mile an hour fastball is very small. All of them have something else extraordinary about them.
Hockey is another sport where a little guy can be successful. Think Martin St. Louis. That doesn’t change the fact that the very best female players in the world are about as good as very good but not necessarily elite male high school players.
Women do not have the same upper body strength as men do. End of story. It’s counterproductive to get into the “will this woman be good enough to play with men.” As adults it’s not going to happen. Let’s focus on other things.
sparrow
@Violet: We did that in my catholic social studies classes… not consistently, but one or two teachers taught us to bring in news clippings and critically analyze them, esp looking for unfounded assertions, weasel words, etc. It was good.
Trollhattan
@Chat Noir: “Veep” stumbled a bit out of the first-season gate but became excellent with #2. She delivers the obscene putdown better than anybody I can recall, film or TV. Based on “The Thick of It”, which was equally cutting but a little hard for this Yank to follow at times.
I, too, was hooked on BB with the pilot, pondering “where the hell are they going to take us?” Wow, was I underprepared for the journey, while the writing and character development kept getting better and better.
If this isn’t television’s “golden age” I can’t envision what might yet be.
skerry
OT: Officer-involved shooting in St. Louis, a few miles from Ferguson. 23-year-old man dead. One witness describes as “suicide by cop”. An alderman was there and witnessed it. The decedent is, of course, black. Said to have run at police while carrying a knife.
Just what that part of the country needed.
Chris Hayes, MSNBC, is at the scene.
ETA: Just saw it was already posted. Sorry.
skerry
@lamh36: Just watched a bit of a live feed. Someone in the crowd asked why the police didn’t use tazers? (not tasters)
ETA: I hate autocorrect. Thanks, Trollhattan for pointing it out.
Trollhattan
@safeshark:
Durf!
Where’s Hodor!?
Trollhattan
@skerry: Tasters for the donuts?
Chat Noir
@Trollhattan: I liked “Veep” from the get-go. I love insult humor and the show is brilliant at it (“Absolutely Fabulous” being my fav and similar in tone to “Veep”).
srv
Witness says there was no knife in Riverview shooting
skerry
@Trollhattan: Damn autocorrect.
Trollhattan
@Chat Noir:
Lord yes, AbFab was screamingly funny. Hell to watch for anybody trying to cut back on their consumption of, well, anything mind-altering. Sweety-darling!
Trollhattan
@skerry:
Honestly, I think we needed that.
opiejeanne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): There was this woman, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson who pitched in the Negro Leagues, one of three women who played in them. She was active from 1953 on the Indianapolis Clowns. Her full adult height was 5’3″ and her record as a pitcher was 33 and 8.
Roger Moore
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
She hasn’t filed a letter of intent yet, so there’s always a chance she’ll wind up somewhere else.
artem1s
@Trollhattan:
it’s the bitch at the end that makes it art!
askew
@Trollhattan:
Awesome. Veep Is the funniest show on television right now. JLD is a comedy genius. I am one of the only people in the world who has never seen Breaking Bad before though. I did like Cranston on Malcolm in the Middle.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
So fucking horrible: Woman shoots grandson; thought he was an intruder.
Living in fear despite being in a reasonably nice ‘hood, keeping the door blocked and a gun at hand every night, calling the cops over and over for incidents that turn out to be nothing – and then shooting through a closed door at a noise in the night. Welcome to Fox Nation.
I hope the kid lives, and lives to forgive her someday.
patrick II
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
The one exception I might make to the general rule of women not being big and strong enough to compete with men at the professional level is Serena Williams. Her serves generally are in the 120’s and as high as 129, which is about or slightly above the male professionals average. Her general ball striking is at also at a comparable velocity to men, and although not as quick as she once was, when younger she had great court coverage. She would not have reached the same level of championship success against men as she has against women, but I think she could have been a pretty good mid-level professional player on the men’s circuit.
Chat Noir
@Trollhattan: I cycled through all my AbFab DVDs yet again and every episode still makes me laugh. The writing and the cast were amazing.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@opiejeanne: The problem with evaluating the Negro Leagues is that the competition level varied wildly. By 1953, the top players had already been siphoned off by Major League Baseball. There were only four teams left in the league and her record can’t actually be confirmed because they primarily barnstormed at that point. We really have no idea what sort of competition she faced or how she did.
Hers is a great story, but it in no way supports the idea that women athletes could succeed as pros in male leagues.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Violet: I taught that kind of thing for twenty years here in a little midwestern suburb. Over and over, I had kids tell me it was one of the most useful units they were taught. It was very gratifying.
ETA: It was taught to 15-year-olds here, as well.
Lee
@Trollhattan:
That was awesome. The last word of the skit was perfect.
Trollhattan
@askew: I coerced my bro into bingewatching the entire BB run prior to the final season (“Don’t dare trying to follow it out of sequence.”) He cursed and thanked me in equal measure. Now he’s rewatching the whole schmear. It honestly took me three episodes to connect Cranston to Malcom’s dad, and more than that to connect Paul to his “Big Love” character.
Am hoping and pleading to somehow see Cranston in his LBJ role–in person or on screen, I do not care which.
HR Progressive
Saw clips of Mo’ne Davis pitching on ESPN recently. Best wishes to her in her athletic endeavors. Kind of hope she does some trail-blazin’ towards baseball, but she should do what makes her happy.
Also, why do I get the sense that Missouri in general is probably primed to explode after another officer-involved shooting?
lamh36
@opiejeanne: hey hey,
When “Peanut” met Mo’Ne
And here is the pic: http://www.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/monet-davis-and-mamie-johnson-e1408331587841.jpg
askew
@Trollhattan:
Oh, yeah. That’s where I know Paul from. I just can’t do bleak, depressing TV or movies anymore. There is enough shit in the world to deal with, I don’t want to be depressed from entertainment too.
sparrow
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: That’s the thing that makes me sad, in a way. All these people live in a state of hyped of fear based on nothing. It’s a fucking waste. Beyond all the other dimensions of the tragedy (loss of life for some, our crumbling democracy).
Belafon
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I wonder how much of her paranoia is based on having the gun. When all you have is a revolver, the whole world looks like a threat.
KG
@lamh36: the elbow injury that leads to Tommy John surgery is fairly unique to baseball because the throwing motion in baseball is fairly unique and puts torque on the elbow in a way that throwing a football or basketball doesn’t. Little League (and actually most youth baseball leagues) have strict rules on pitch counts and rest days. Unfortunately for a lot of young pitchers, there’s no coordination between those leagues. So, if you’re playing on a pony league team, and a travel team, and say one more team, you could end up over pitching really fast and injuring your elbow. Basketball doesn’t require the throwing motion that pitching in baseball does. Also, there is a growing belief in the sports world that by having/letting players play multiple sports rather than focusing on one sport year round, can help young pitchers save their arms.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@patrick II: The evidence doesn’t support this. In 1998, the then #203 men’s player played a set against Serena and beat her 6-1 despite clearly going out of his way to be ill-prepared, as he’d played golf that morning and had several beers with lunch.
patrick II
John Oliver did a very nice bit on Mo’ne on his show Sunday night. He particularly liked her having the presence of being able to say no to reporters if she wanted to. Although, being English, he did not know what the sign for “two down” looks like.
Everyone talks about Mo’ne’s 70 mph fastball, but she also does have is a killer curve to go with it and I have seen less break by major league pitchers on theirs.
Chat Noir
@Trollhattan: Cranston was doing fund-raising with the DNC during the “All the Way” run in the spring. It was one of those “donate and your name will go in a drawing to win a trip to NYC to see the show and meet Bryan Cranston and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.”
patrick II
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
I didn’t know about that. Live and learn.
Roger Moore
@opiejeanne:
Sure, but by 1953 the Negro Leagues had been almost destroyed by losing all their best players to MLB. It’s interesting that they were willing to give women a shot at that point, but doesn’t tell you much.
Nicole
Mo’ne Davis has made interested enough to watch the Series. I was chewing my nails during PA’s game against Texas.
Re: males competing against females- it’s one of the things I like about the equestrian sports, particularly during the Olympics. Co-Ed competition, for both primates and equines. ;)
Gin & Tonic
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I hope the kid lives, and lives to forgive her someday.
Call me a bad person, but I hope the kid lives and does not ever forgive her, and I hope her every breath is poisoned by that thought until she dies.
Origuy
If you’ve ever drive north from San Francisco on US 101, you’ve gone through a tunnel with a rainbow painted over the entrance. That’s the Waldo Tunnel, named after a 19th century candidate for governor. There’s a petition to rename it the Robin Williams Tunnel. Not only did he live in the area, but rainbow suspenders were part of Mork of Ork’s usual appearance.
patrick II
Slighly OT, but considering all of the racism being openly on display in this country lately, I have to say I just don’t understand people who can look at a beautiful, bright and personable young person like Mo’ne — and many, many others like her for that matter, she just happens to be the person we are talking about here — and remain racist.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: There’s also the twin who was also there and the father who left the kids under her care. Because nothing says granny loves you like shooting wildly in a dark room where you have a habit of sleeping with small children.
Karen in GA
Okay, I’m torn. On one hand, go Mo’Ne, and what an uplifting story, especially for young girls.
On the other hand, yeah, I’m going to be that person. I’ve never liked the idea of televising the LLWS. I don’t trust the corporate media with its advertisers and ratings considerations, and the accompanying national attention, not to destroy all it touches. These are kids.
I watched a little bit of it the other day, and saw a kid running home, the throw going to the catcher, the catcher raising his mitt to tag the kid at the same time the runner was going into a slide, and the runner’s face colliding at full speed with the catcher’s hands. Followed by the kid lying on the ground with a bloody lip and crying.
These are children. I don’t care if they throw hard, if they’re 6 feet tall, if they know how to respond to reporters. They’re still children.
But back to the first hand, I totally agree that Mo’Ne is a smart girl and a talented athlete, and this is a very inspirational, positive story.
So… yeah. Torn.
JPL
@srv: Chris Hayes is at the scene and no one is disputing the fact that he had a knife.
opiejeanne
@lamh36: Thanks. I saw that yesterday.
Mo’ne is wonderful, and that team is something else. Is it wrong that I was really annoyed by the Texas teams’ coach treating them like little soldiers? I felt really bad for the Texas kid who started to cry while he was pitching and wanted to blame his coach. I was relieved when his teammates came to the mound to calm him down so he could make the pitches he needed to make.
I loved how Mo’ne’s coach and the coach for the Rhode Island team treated their kids.
opiejeanne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Henry Aaron was her teammate, so not everyone was gone.
Belafon
@patrick II: It’s easy: “That…girl…is only winning the world series because all of the boys are giving her a pass because of her color. She’s taking the place of my beautiful (meaning white) daughter who has worked her butt off on Wii Games. She could easily do what Mo’mo, or whatever her name is, is doing. But would she end up on Sports Illustrated? No.”
//
And if I hear anyone actually say that, they’ll get an earful.
opiejeanne
@patrick II: I’ve always wondered about that, but there is a tradition in the South (and probably elsewhere) to find black children adorable and then not so much once they’re grown.
opiejeanne
@Belafon: Gah! I hate crap like that, and it’s just as likely to be the mother of a boy saying that.
Roger Moore
@Karen in GA:
Kids get hurt playing sports whether there’s anyone watching or not, and whether or not there’s a real chance of them succeeding within the standards of their sport. Kids that age can be very competitive, and there’s always a risk of injuries when you get a bunch of competitive kids together. When I was about that age, I hurt myself badly enough to need stitches and be lucky it wasn’t more. In swim practice. Despite being obviously not good enough to have a real future in the sport.
some guy
@lamh36:
My daughter adores Gaby Douglas. Has her biography, poster, and tries to be just like her at gymnastics. A great role model.
Belafon
@opiejeanne: Actually, where I screwed up is mentioning Wii Games. They would claim that their daughter has worked just as hard without stating how, even though she would have done nothing like the effort Mo’ne has put into it.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Gin & Tonic:
Note that I said “someday.” I don’t care if that day is during her lifetime, or not. I’m thinking of the kid’s mental health and peace of mind, not hers.
ETA: I wonder if they’ll even bother to have a criminal investigation, or if this is just another “tragic accident.” Stereotyping horribly from the twin brother’s name, the family may be black, which could simplify the DA’s decision.
Trollhattan
@Chat Noir: Wowzers, that would have been something.
Darkrose
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): The Giants have kept themselves in contention this year mostly due to their bullpen. They have one reliever who can consistently hit 96; like most guys who throw that hard, his command suffers at that speed. The team relies on guys like Jean Machi and his forkball, Javy Lopez and his weird sidearm curve to get lefties out, and Sergio Romo, who I mentioned above. Romo’s 5’10” if you’re being generous, maybe 185 soaking wet. The fastball he blew by Miguel Cabrera to end the 2012 World Series was a whopping 89 mph, but Miggy stood there looking at it because he was expecting something else. Romo’s kill pitch is his “no-dot” slider that most hitters flail and miss at because even when you know it’s coming, you can’t see it. Romo’s also been told for most of his career that he’d never make it because he’s small and doesn’t throw hard.
No, most women wouldn’t be able to compete with men. Most women aren’t able to make dunk shots in basketball. Britney Griner can. Professional atheletes are outliers on the bell curve, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility to think that a women could succeed in baseball, where control and coordination are just as important, as size and strength especially for pitchers.
Counterproductive for who? I happen to think that it sucks that Mo’Ne won’t even have a chance to decide if she wants to go further in baseball because there is no option for women to play the game in college or at the professional level. I think it’s fucked-up that Samantha Posey can hit for the home run cycle and have no option to play professionally when she’s as good of an all-around athlete as her brother. And believe it or not, I’m capable of focusing on more than one issue at a time.
Burnspbesq
@jibeaux:
One of the worst things about Sylvia Hatchell’s enforced absence from the Carolina women’s program last season was that interim coach Andrew Calder enabled DeShields’ classless-punk tendencies. Everybody in the ACC (not just Dukies) are glad to see the back of her.
There are plenty of better role models in the ACC for your daughter, from ND’s Natalie Achonwa and Kayla McBride to Georgia Tech’s Ty Marshall, to Maryland’s Alyssa Thomas to Duke’s Hayley Peters, Chelsea Gray, and Elizabeth Williams.
Roger Moore
@opiejeanne:
I don’t think that’s correct. Aaron started the 1952 season with the Clowns, but he was signed/purchased by the Braves after about two months and never played in the Negro Leagues after that. FWIW, Aaron was 18 that season, so MLB was obviously being very aggressive in going after Negro League talent.
Trollhattan
@Karen in GA:
We’re hitting U13 soccer this year and the variation in player size and speed is beginning to rack up some significant injuries. Soccer is the most significant cause of girls sports-related concussions and I’m father of a li’l 80-pounder, so am increasingly aware of how quickly things can go pear-shaped. Then there are the ACLs….
SatanicPanic
@Darkrose: Do you think MLB would turn a potential player down because of that rule though? I remember reading about a woman knuckleballer in the minors- that might work. But then again, knuckleballers aren’t that common for a reason.
raven
@Karen in GA: I spent over 20 years working in municipal recreation programs including running kids sports. I hate the Little League World Series structure with a passion. The kids play all kinds of late games during the spring and then, just when school is out, the programs end and the “playoffs” begin. The kids that are playing now are the ones who progressed through that process. I think they do a good job monitoring the amount of pitching that an individual player can do in a given period and that is good. They also really stress sportsmanship and that is a refreshing change but I still think there is way too much emphasis on winning at that age.
raven
I also think this is a GREAT story!
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
I’m guessing it was yet another attempt to put women back in the kitchen after the war since they had some pretty good players in their league.
dedc79
Texas does something right. Seriously:
Bostondreams
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
So, women shouldn’t even think about trying to play for a team at a professional level? That’s silly. There are always exceptions to everything; at some point, we will see a female Tim Wakefield/Charlie Hough type in MLB, I believe. I will continue to encourage my daughter to work toward becoming the first ever female left handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Working on that knuckler…
Elie
Ok– THIS is what I’m talkin’ about (said with emphasis)
May she continue to be successful and hope that she also grows as a good human being. We need so many good human beings, and the demand is way higher than the supply, sadly.
The good human being thing is something we can all aspire to. Also
Violet
@Bostondreams: Yeah, the rule is dumb. Even if the majority of women won’t be good enough to play in the men’s league, why should there be a rule that keeps that one or two that are good enough from having the opportunity? Change the rule and let the people choosing the teams decide who is good enough.
Trollhattan
@dedc79:
That is great. Attaway, Texas persons!
Karen in GA
@Roger Moore: I played softball as a kid, and I was competitive as hell, so I don’t doubt what you’re saying. But seeing the media all over it makes me uncomfortable.
Kids are going to get hurt, and they’re going to cry. But the pressure that comes with media and national attention can’t be good for them.
(But then what about the kids inspired by Mo’Ne? Which is why I’m torn.)
ETA: Torn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9TRFSEMDNA
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: That was exactly it. As with other industries, the guys were scared women would take their jobs.
raven
@Karen in GA: Overuse of joints is and dangerous, if not more so, than traumatic injuries. Growth plates are of particular concern.
KG
@Darkrose: well, how can you argue with that?
Elizabelle
@Violet:
Enjoyed the Diane Rehm show; cruising through listener comments on her website now.
Hal
Mark Ruffalo has deeply offended some of his fans for supporting people in Ferguson. My favorite missing the point comment is a guy who said if Michael Brown was white, his shooting wouldn’t have even made the news. I’m just going to go and guess that is because there wouldn’t have been a shooting.
Also, Ruffalo is a huge Liberal. Why are these folks surprised.
http://angryblackman.tumblr.com/post/95209134214/thetallblacknerd-digital-joker
BethanyAnne
@dedc79: Holy smokes! That’s great. I just went to a local no-kill shelter in the Houston area, and my 2 new babies had been there 15 months. Per the shelter folk, that was a common length of time. My 2 faced longer than normal odds because the shelter wanted to keep the brother and sister together, and one of them is solid black. I really hope the Houston area shelters follow suit soon. That would be awesome. In other news, I took them to the vet today for their initial checkup and everything was fine. I gotta grab an imgur account so I can post pics. Louie jumped to the top of the cabinet to hide while we were waiting for the vet. That vet waives the exam fee for the first exam after a shelter adoption, which was really nice.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Did you catch the first hour where a bunch of W’s Iraq war cheerleaders/apologists were saying Obama is messing up Iraq just like he did Syria? I’m surprised you couldn’t hear me screaming at the radio.
Elizabelle
@dedc79:
Here’s a Dallas Morning News story on “Empty the Shelter” with more local color (and pet pics!).
Two shelters report “one dog left”.
Maybe they’ll be in scarves and smiles at an adoption event near you …
Thank you for highlighting this. Got to applaud Tejas for anything it gets right ….
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nah, just listened to the “thinking critically about media” podcast.
Spared the Iraq run amok crowd. My condolences on your radio experience.
ETA: a few good points on the media segment: a listener asked about relying on Politifact as a trusted source, and the guest segued immediately into discussion of sites that should not be politicized, but have been.
Also, I would love to know more about this “think like a journalist” training, because it has failed some in the profession.
Also, one guest cautioned that stories about widespread looting don’t usually hold up to scrutiny, months later. By which time, they are accepted fact.
Jebediah, RBG
@Darkrose:
Good – glad to hear that.
Darkrose
@SatanicPanic: I honestly don’t know. You’d need a team willing to take the chance, and a really exceptional female player. Baseball has the “OMG TRADITION!!!” thing turned up to 11, and there’s also a sense that baseball is being “feminized” as is, with things like the catcher collision rule.
JPL
OT, OT.. I do the jigsaw puzzles on The New Yorker and this was the puzzle that I did today. It was a cover in 1939 and today some would view it nsfw. http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1939-08-19#folio=CV1
you can see the cover without signing in…
We’ve come a long way baby.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Good choice.
Jebediah, RBG
@safeshark:
You know what else is kind of dumb? Mocking someone for something they haven’t done.
Trollhattan
@JPL: ’39? Frealz? Zounds, how many heart attacks (was going to type “strokes” but thought better of it) did that trigger?
gene108
@patrick II:
I remember reading way back when, in the late 1990’s or early ’00’s, when one of the Williams sisters was playing Lindsey Davenport in the U.S. Open finals that the women competing in the finals were taller than the men competing in the U.S. Open finals.
Elizabelle
@Jebediah, RBG:
What’s new on the dog front? Still have that charming canine?
JPL
@Trollhattan: I doubt that they could use that cover today. The local news covers up part of the autopsy picture of Brown.
SatanicPanic
@Darkrose: There’s that. I found the woman who was playing independent ball in the USA.
I mean, good luck to her, but that’s slow even for a knuckleballer. I think the rule is sexist and dumb, but I’m a bit skeptical that it would exist if there were lots of highly capable women players when the league throws loads of money at even its most mediocre players.
Steeplejack
The weather here in NoVa is beautiful. It only got up to 82° today—unbelievable for this time of year—so I’ve got some windows open to let in some fresh air. The thermostat is set at 76°, and the A.C. comes on infrequently and briefly to take the edge off the humidity, which is unseasonably low anyway.
I can hear the neighborhood kids playing outside, and one just yelled, “Davy! I’m in time-out mode!” I found that really funny.
Jebediah, RBG
@Elizabelle:
Juno continues to be division-by-zero levels of cute, and as for Chucky, at her last oncologist visit there were no skin tumors to be removed! The vet was thrilled with how she’s looking. Now that we have had her over a year, she really seems to have settled in and accepted that she is here permanently and isn’t going to get shifted somewhere else, which seems to have made her even happier (nice) and also more loudly protective of the castle (a little annoying sometimes.) She sleeps next to me almost every night, and usually arranges herself so that there is at least one point of physical contact between us.
My mom sent her a bed that has a sun shade, so I think that will help with the skin cancer.
Shorter version – both dogs doing great, and they thank you for asking! (ETA – as do I)
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Darkrose:
Britney Griner is a perfect example of why it won’t happen. Can she dunk? Yes. Is there a chance in hell that she could play in the NBA? No. She’s 6’8″ and has a game that only works in the NBA if you’re closer to 7′ tall and much, much stronger. Yes, there are 6’8″ fairly thin players in the NBA but they have to have an outside game that she doesn’t have.
And a lot of your control and coordination pitching a baseball still involves strength. It isn’t going to happen. Women absolutely should have dreams of playing in professional leagues, but they are going to have to be women’s professional leagues. The CWHL is looking to expand and there may be a team in Minneapolis within a couple of years. And the players may actually get paid. I can’t describe how much I’m looking forward to it. But women are not going to be competing in the NBA, NHL, or MLB. It just isn’t going to happen.
I really don’t think you have much of an idea of what is involved given that you keep citing heights and weights without getting into actual pitching. My guess is that a woman’s fastball will probably peak around 83-85 mph. That just doesn’t cut it in the majors or the top levels of the minors. There are a few (and I emphasize a FEW) men who manage to be successful in the majors throwing that speed but that comes with caveats. Almost all of them are older pitchers (the best current example is Mark Buehrle) who threw harder when they were younger and learned to pitch in the majors with more velocity and then adjusted as they slowly lost it. I can’t think of anyone who was a success who peaked out at those velocities when they were young pitchers. The exception is knuckleballers but the same thing applies but at lower velocities. It takes more strength to throw a ball that way at 65-70 mph than most people realize because you are largely just pushing it rather than snapping your wrist and a knuckleball much slower than that isn’t going to be a successful pitch at that level.
Elizabelle
@Jebediah, RBG:
Wonderful news about Miss Chucky. Enjoyed her latest pics, and seeing her and Juno wrestle.
Take care of those California girl pups.
I’m glad Chucky got a good report from the vet. Hope she continues to thrive.
Am pet-sitting for my sister’s 2 dogs and tiny cat that runs the house. The German Shepherd is old and having trouble with his back legs. It is extra sweet, knowing this is likely his last summer, but he enjoys it so, in his limited way. He is the sweetest Shepherd my BIL has had, and he has good, well trained dogs.
Some leaves in the woods behind the house are already starting autumn colors, and it seems early. Rained a bit today, but lovely coolish weather.
Reading a good book (The Kitchen House), sipping a cocktail and time to give the dogs their dinner in a few.
Elizabelle
@Jebediah, RBG:
Wonderful news about Miss Chucky. Enjoyed her latest pics, and seeing her and Juno wrestle.
Take care of those California girl pups.
I’m glad Chucky got a good report from the vet. Hope she continues to thrive.
Am pet-sitting for my sister’s 2 dogs and tiny cat that runs the house. The German Shepherd is old and having trouble with his back legs. It is extra sweet, knowing this is likely his last summer, but he enjoys it so, in his limited way. He is the sweetest Shepherd my BIL has had, and he has good, well trained dogs.
Some leaves in the woods behind the house are already starting autumn colors, and it seems early. Rained a bit today, but lovely coolish weather.
Reading a good book (The Kitchen House), sipping a cocktail and time to give the dogs their dinner in a few.
Darkrose
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Thank you for mansplaining! Obviously, despite the specific examples I cited, I guess my girl brain doesn’t understand pitching. Clearly, as a hockey fan, you know more about baseball than I do.
Jebediah, RBG
@Elizabelle:
Sounds like a lovely evening. Please give that sweet shepherd an ear scritch or three from us!
Origuy
Jackie Mitchell, The Woman Who Struck Out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
ThresherK
I want to know if anyone is already recruiting Malia Obama.
She’s got athletic ability, comes from a stable family who seems to be making her a well-grounded sort, and (just my guess) she and Sasha won’t be going BushTwins on us anytime soon.
Plus, isn’t she already taller than her mom?