Why Can’t Women Play Baseball?

Why can’t women play baseball? It’s a question that’s been asked for years, and one that still doesn’t have a straightforward answer.

Women in Baseball- A Timeline

Women have been playing baseball almost as long as men. The first recorded game took place in 1845, just a few years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game. But it wasn’t until the late 1880s that women started to play in organized leagues.

The first professional women’s baseball league was founded in 1887, but it only lasted for a few weeks before folding. Undeterred, a new league was formed in 1888 and lasted for two seasons before going out of business. A third attempt was made in 1899, but that too fizzled after a few short months.

It wouldn’t be until 1943 that women would get another chance to play professional baseball. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded during World War II as a way to keep baseball fans interested in the sport while the men were away at war. The league was a huge success and lasted for 12 years.

While the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was thriving, other women were fighting for the right to play against men. In 1952, Mamie “Peanuts” Johnson became the first woman to pitch in the Negro Leagues. Four years later, Connie Morgan became the first woman to play in an integrated professional baseball game when she suited up for the Kenosha Comets of the Midwest League.

Despite these milestones, women still weren’t allowed to play in Major League Baseball. That all changed in August of 1992 when Sophie Kurys became the first woman to play in an MLB game when she pinch ran for the Milwaukee Brewers. It would be another 28 years before another woman stepped on an MLB field when Melanie Nugent made her debut with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was founded in 1943 in the midst of World War II to keep baseball in the national spotlight while many male ballplayers were serving in the military. The league featured female athletes playing baseball under rules that were slightly modified to fit their abilities, and it quickly gained popularity, attracting sellout crowds and even making its way onto the silver screen in the film A League of Their Own.

Despite its success, the AAGPBL only lasted for a dozen years, folding in 1954. Since then, there have been several efforts to start similar leagues, but none have been able to achieve the same level of popularity or success. So why can’t women play baseball?

There are a number of factors that contributed to the demise of the AAGPBL and make it difficult for women’s baseball to find a place in today’s sports landscape. One major reason is that baseball is still very much seen as a man’s game, both by fans and by those who run professional leagues. This bias affects everything from how female players are marketed to what opportunities are available for them to play at higher levels.

In addition, the sport of baseball itself is structured in such a way that it favors men over women. The physical differences between men and women make it difficult for female players to compete against their male counterparts on an equal playing field. Even with modified rules, women’s baseball simply doesn’t match up well against the traditional game.

For these reasons and more, women’s baseball has struggled to find its place in the world of professional sports. It remains to be seen whether another All-American Girls Professional Baseball League-type organization will ever emerge and capture the public’s imagination like the original did back in 1943.

The Women’s College World Series

The Women’s College World Series (WCWS) is the annual softball tournament to determine the best team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Since 1981, it has been played in Oklahoma City. Currently, eight teams play in two four-team double-elimination brackets, with the winners of each bracket meeting in a best-of-three championship series.

The WCWS has grown tremendously since its humble beginnings in 1969, when only two teams participated.

Today, more than 1,500 Division I schools sponsor softball teams and there are more than 12,000 student-athletes participating in the sport. But despite all this growth, there is still one big hurdle that women’s softball has yet to clear: getting into the Olympics.

The Present Day

As of 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) is the only one of the four major North American professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) that does not have a woman among its players.

There are a number of explanations for this discrepancy. The most obvious reason is that there has never been a woman who has been good enough to play at the MLB level; the game is simply too physically demanding for women, who on average are not as strong as men.

Another explanation is that baseball, unlike other professional sports leagues, does not have a minor league system in which players can develop their skills and be called up to the MLB level; without this kind of training ground, it is very difficult for female players to ever make it to the MLB.

Finally, some people believe that there is a glass ceiling in baseball preventing women from ever reaching the highest levels of the sport; this may be due to sexism or simply because baseball is a very traditionalist sport.

Why Can’t Women Play Baseball?

Women have been playing baseball almost as long as men have. So why can’t women play baseball? The answer is simple: because they’re not good enough. Women’s bodies are not built for the rigors of baseball, and they don’t have the strength or the stamina to compete with men.

The “Natural” Argument

One common argument against women playing baseball is that the sport is “natural” for men. This argument suggests that baseball is something that men have been doing for centuries, and that it’s something that women simply haven’t been able to do because they’re not physically built for it.

However, this argument doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. There are plenty of other sports that are considered “natural” for men, such as football and basketball, but there are also plenty of women who excel at these sports. If physicality was the only thing that mattered, then there would be no reason why women couldn’t play baseball.

The “Biological” Argument

The “biological” argument for women not playing baseball rests on the assumption that women are innately inferior to men in their physical abilities, particularly in terms of size, strength, and coordination. This argument has been used throughout history to justify all sorts of discrimination against women, and it is still used today to try to keep women out of certain occupations and activities.

There is no scientific evidence to support the notion that women are innately inferior to men in any way. In fact, studies have shown that women and men are very similar in their physical abilities. While there may be some individual differences between men and women, these differences are not large enough to make a significant difference in most activities, including baseball.

Furthermore, the biological argument ignores the fact that many women have already proven themselves to be more than capable of playing baseball. There have been numerous women’s professional baseball leagues throughout history, and many women have played alongside men in semi-professional and even professional leagues. If women were truly unable to play baseball at a high level, there would be no reason for these leagues to exist.

The biological argument for keeping women out of baseball is simply an excuse for discrimination. There is no good reason why women cannot play baseball alongside men.

The “Cultural” Argument

The cultural argument for why women can’t play baseball is probably the weakest. It’s the one that says that baseball is a “man’s game” and has always been played by men. And, therefore, women shouldn’t try to play it.

This argument completely ignores the fact that women have been playing organized baseball for nearly as long as men have. In fact, the first professional women’s baseball league was formed in 1875, just a few years after the first professional men’s league.

So, if baseball has always been a man’s game, why did women start playing it in the first place? And why did they continue to play it for nearly seventy-five years?

The answer to both questions is simple: because they loved the game and were good at it. In other words, the cultural argument for why women can’t play baseball doesn’t hold up when you look at the history of the game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, women cannot play baseball because of the differences in physical strength and ability between men and women. While some women may be able to compete with men on an individual basis, the vast majority of women would not be able to physically compete with men on a team basis. Baseball is a sport that requires a high level of physicality, and the differences between men and women mean that women would not be able to compete at the same level as men.