Female Ace: I Don't Play Softball

CBS Evening News: California High School Pitcher Changing Some Minds About Girls And Sports

(CBS)  For some sports fans, the idea that girls can compete against boys might be hard to take. Maybe when they're little, but certainly not in high school or beyond. But one California girl is changing some minds, as CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes reports.

When the Burbank High School baseball team hits the locker room the starting pitcher changes in the snack bar.

"There are some teams when they realize it's a girl pitching, maybe step up their swagger a little bit and they're like, 'What is this, a joke?'" said Kiel Holmes, Burbank's JV baseball coach.

By the third strike out in a row, no one's laughing at five-foot-two-inch Marti Sementelli.

"On the mound, it doesn't matter you're height, you just have to hit your spot," Sementelli says. She says she feels like she's 10 feet tall out there.

Her dad, Gary, has guided every missile since his daughter was big enough to hold a bat and ball. In little league she had more than 500 strikeouts. And this season? She already has 35 strikeouts in the first six games.

Sementelli says she has about eight different pitches: "My fast ball, slider, two different cutters, two different kinds of palm balls and a change up." Most major league players have three pitches, according to The Pitching Academy.

It was 35 years ago that a lawsuit forced little league to let girls play baseball. In response, the organization also created a separate "league of their own" for softball.

Today 100,000 girls are playing little league baseball. But far more, 360,000, pay softball. And after age 12 the message is clear: Boys play baseball. Girls play softball. Marti wasn't listening.

Did she ever think of going into softball?

"Never. Everyone always asks me that," she says. "I would never be a [underhand] pitcher it's so awkward to me. It's not the right motion to me."

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Click here to listen to a radio interview with Jennifer Ring, author of "Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball."

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As coach Holmes put it, "Calling softball the same as baseball is like calling tennis the same as ping pong."

After watching her daughter fight to play, Jennifer Ring wrote a book about why girls are kept out of the national pastime.

"It's not the boys who are the problem. It's the adults. Parents and coaches just can't handle it," said Ring, whose book "Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball" was published last month.

In Japan, where females of all ages play "America's pastime," Sementelli won most valuable pitcher in the women's world cup. Back home, she's hoping being best in the world is good enough to stay in the game in high school, college and beyond.

I am not a women lib. I voted against it in the 70s. The girl is part of the team. iN MY DAY GIRLS AND BOYS WERE TAUGHT DIFFEREBTLY. Let the girl play and make a difference. I never burnt my bras, If a lady and gent ARE doing the same job then the same pay. That is fair, The coach thot she would be a fine team mate and do her best. All my life I heard Bargara yer a girl and girls can't. It really did **** me as we have to do things that a man won't do.i would rather her to play ball and be the best. She is playing ball as a member of the team.
Posted by barbaram99 at 4:40 PM : May 6, 2009

It's such a shame that so many people today say things like "I'm not a women's libber" even though they have benefited from, and are in favor of, equal opportunities that came from the women's movement.

[boesen-01]

What about the male players on the team? I understand that male bashing is in vogue now but who is looking out for the guys?

I played baseball in school and have many fond memories of team bonding and friendships that have lasted over 20 years. I feel lucky to have those memories to look back on and having had the ability to play through high school and college.

Team members know about the bonding and camaraderie that comes with the territory.
The last thing a team needs is an unneeded distraction, especially from females.
Wouldn't common sense say that having a female on a male team in high school would be a huge distraction and just plain wrong on so many levels?

It's not like society doesn't want girls to play sports. That's why they have programs available for them. I guess that's not enough . Why do females insist on crapping on everything that males hold sacred? Attention from news media? Nothing to lose for them and all kinds of attention to gain. Equality when it suits them, otherwise much much more please!

Nobody seems to care that the guys have to suffer and lose out just for a selfish few to get attention.

Guys need to have tradition and team camaraderie to look back on. They need to have a team bond with one another to play their game without unnecessary distractions.

Guys can have the rest of their lives to be chained down with a female and have the life sucked out of them. At least let them have memories of good times to look back on during what should be a great time in their lives.

[barbaram99]

I am not a women lib. I voted against it in the 70s. The girl is part of the team. iN MY DAY GIRLS AND BOYS WERE TAUGHT DIFFEREBTLY. Let the girl play and make a difference. I never burnt my bras, If a lady and gent ARE doing the same job then the same pay. That is fair, The coach thot she would be a fine team mate and do her best. All my life I heard Bargara yer a girl and girls can't. It really did **** me as we have to do things that a man won't do.i would rather her to play ball and be the best. She is playing ball as a member of the team.

[gravyboat45]

BTW, CBS, it's "your", not "you're". Apparently, literacy is not a requirement for your writers. Or are all of you lead agents for the "Dumbing down of America"?
Posted by Slrman at 4:49 AM : May 6, 2009

CBS: Still dead last in the nightly news ratings.
Posted by geminispyder-2009

But # 1 in our hearts!

[gravyboat45]

Good for her! I hope she can get into College on a baseball scholarship.

I am grateful for the sep of church and state. I am 54. Lady this is is so rude of ye. I am not a womeb's libber. Women and girls been held back. Let the girl do her best. Too often ye turn alot of folds off. Due to her gender she changes into baseball uniform in a different room. They take her gender in to acct. Any way Lady,I would rather her play ball,
The bible is out dated. Ye worried about this girl.In my day girls were groomed for marriage. I wanted no part of it. This girl is is playing ball and so bome are having aizzy..Get over it. Let her play while she can. Now ye go dear.
Posted by barbaram99 at 8:01 AM : May 6, 2009

I don't understand how so many people can say they believe in women's rights, but "I'm not a women's libber." I guess they think women's liberation means something different. Maybe they think you have to be a lesbian to be a "women's libber."

Well, women's liberation is now mainstream. If you believe in equal opportunity, you're for women's liberation.

[whatsup49]

mrs entity, i hope god judges you for your comment the way you judge everyone else. god didn't appoint you or give you the power to judge, so keep remembering, god will judge you when the time comes. and i hope he is as harsh or or harder on you than you can ever be on anyone else.

[rational_1]

Do men who are NOT "good enough" to play in the PGA have a chance to play in the LPGA? When will their day of "equality" come?
Posted by blazercoach1 at 7:10 AM : May 6, 2009

Exactly the point I was also making in my earlier post. Women want to have the right to compete with men when they feel they can be competitive (like in this article), but at the same time also want protection from male competition when they can't be competitive (which is almost always in sports). That's a crock - you can't have it both ways. So that's why Michelle Wie can try out for PGA events but no guy will ever play (obviously) on the LPGA tour - perhaps they should rename the PGA the MPGA.

Frankly I think women should compete with women, and men with men. As soon as you start comparing them, the women generally don't come off looking that well. For example, my high school senior hockey team would have just crushed either the Canadian or U.S. women's Olympic hockey teams, but so what? The women actually play a pretty entertaining game of hockey in their own right and who cares if a bunch of 17 year-old anonymous guys would beat them.

Overall I think these examples of women competing in sports with men aren't of any help to women in sport. They're just rare novelties that suggest the idea that the only time women in sports are interesting is when they can play with the big boys.

[hambonehd]

What a joke.!

[geminispyder-2009]

BTW, CBS, it's "your", not "you're". Apparently, literacy is not a requirement for your writers. Or are all of you lead agents for the "Dumbing down of America"?
Posted by Slrman at 4:49 AM : May 6, 2009

CBS: Still dead last in the nightly news ratings.