Throwing Like a Girl

13-year-old Chelsea Baker may be one of the best Little League pitchers in the country. She hasn’t lost a game in the last four years, and this past season she struck out 127 batters in 60 innings. This is more exceptional because she doesn’t have a Y chromosome. In fact, she’s the only girl on her team.

I learned about Ms. Baker through this 10-minute ESPN piece. Even if you have no interest in baseball or child prodigies, you should watch a few minutes of it for the sheer audacity of its production. The storytelling is pretty good, but it overflows with unnecessary post-production tricks and clunky visual metaphors. It’s like Oliver Stone is moonlighting for the sports network.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

It’s surely a foamy latte problem, but there’s something uniquely despicable about rude and belligerent sports parents, isn’t there?

Baseball feels like one of those sports where women have a good shot at playing in the (historically all male) major leagues. Not to be controversial, but women are always going to struggle against men in sports involving speed and physical contact–hockey, American football, soccer and the like.

Pitching, in particular, seems like an area where women could match or exceed men. Not that every league or sport needs to be mixed. However, Ms. Baker is way good for any girls’ leagues. If she wants to continue to play and be challenged, she’s going to have to keep playing with the boys.