Barriers

One of the Boys

"The hardest part was when they took my uniform away," she recalled more than three decades later, "I still remember the headlines, ‘Maria Pepe Kicked Off Team'."

Maria Pepe, momsteam.com

Maria Pepe grew up as a middle child with two brothers. She started playing sports at the age of five with her siblings and cousins. All of her cousins happened to be boys, and so were all of their friends. None of them ever thought it was unusual that Pepe was the only girl. In 1972, Maria and the boys she played with on the streets walked to the annual Little League try-out sign-ups. In try-outs she was moved to pitcher and excelled through first and second cuts to earn her uniform and a spot on coach Jimmy Farina's team. “Pepe's father talked with Farina, confirmed it was ok she plays and then scrounged up the money to buy her cleats.” (Settimi, Christina)

mentalfloss.com

On the field, Pepe had to deal with taunts from the opposing bench about her gender. Then Little League headquarters called and demanded she be removed from the roster or the whole town would lose their charter and insurance solely because she was a girl. Farina protested but had no success. Pepe’s baseball dreams were short-lived. Her season only lasted 3 games before she was kicked off the team, and forced to turn in her uniform. The Little League argued there were barriers that should keep girls from playing Little League baseball with boys.

Little League's Barriers Against Girls Playing Baseball

1. Girls had a much higher risk of injury because their bone strength, muscle strength, and reaction time were lesser to those of boys.

"How could they say this when they never saw me play?" said Pepe. "They could have asked my friends, they could have asked the coach, they could have asked the boys I beat at try-outs. I was better than a lot of boys."

2. "children of each sex need occasional ‘islands of privateness' during which they can be alone with others of their own sex" (Douglas E. Abrams).

4. Focusing entirely on boys was an important use of limited Little League resources because many boys would continue playing baseball into their teen years while most girls would not

3. Letting girls play might threaten their personal privacy because public baseball fields generally lacked nearby girls' restrooms and because male coaches might have to administer first aid to injured girls.

5. Congress had instructed the Little League to develop "qualities of citizenship, sportsmanship, and manhood" in "boys."