Davis, who will be going into the eighth grade, throws a fastball that touches 70 MPH and a curveball with good break and depth. Her (yes, in case you hadn't heard yet, her) pitching is one of the main reasons that the Dragons will be heading to the World Series, and she can also hit a bit, too. She's very good, and not just "for a girl."
Obviously, she's an awesome story. Not only is she throwing gas, but she's throwing strikes, and has much more refined mechanics than many of her fellow pitchers. Her pitching, and story, has been covered by much better writers than I, which leads me to the purpose of this post.
My Little League team 20 years ago had two girls who were awesome, so pardon me for not being blown away by girls being good now.
— Jesse Spector (@jessespector) August 11, 2014My immediate response to this tweet is "Oh, so because you personally knew two (out of how many) "awesome" Little League girls, that means sexism in sports is over?"
I respect Jesse Spector's writing. He's one of my favorite baseball follows, and not just because he is responsible for many of Holly Holl's scarier photoshops. This, however, shows the blindness still exhibited by many sportswriters.
Davis is only the 18th girl to make it to the LLWS since girls were allowed to play Little League. Even now, even though girls are allowed by law to participate in Little League Baseball, there are stories of girls being cut from teams for "not being good enough," despite being demonstrably as good as or better than some of their male teammates. Girls who want to play baseball are still told "Oh, I'm sure you'd be happier playing softball" and are shuffled off to the sport that many (including many sportswriters) consider inferior, a topic I hope to address in the future.
Just because 20 years ago you knew awesome girls playing baseball doesn't mean that every awesome girl who wants to play baseball now gets the chance to. Raising up stories like Mo'Ne Davis (and Kayla Roncin, and the other girls in baseball) means that maybe, just maybe, that little girl who was raised throwing with her brothers will also get the chance to play baseball with them.
Just because girls have been legally allowed to play Little League baseball for 40 years doesn't mean that it's time to stop celebrating their accomplishments, and the accomplishments of women in sports everywhere. .
