Out of Left Field

"I don’t like sports books. I’m not interested in sports, period. So that makes it doubly impressive that I couldn’t put this book down!<br/><br/>Katy Gordon is the best pitcher in the neighborhood, hands-down. She’s so good that she impresses a passing Little League recruiter and he invites her to tryouts. Naturally, she makes the cut and everything’s awesome!<br/><br/>…except that it’s 1957. Girls are not eligible for Little League, period. No exceptions. She may have passed as a boy for tryouts, but some kid’s mom rats her out and she’s immediately cut from the team. Okay, so Katy writes a passionate, logical, well-reasoned letter to Little League asking them to allow her to play. Surely that’ll work, right?<br/><br/>Nope. They send her back the most frustratingly condescending reply, saying girls aren’t physically capable of playing baseball, that she’d only be a distraction to the boys, that baseball has always been a male-only sport from day one, and that she should really consider cheerleading for the boys or helping the moms provide snacks.<br/><br/>Yeah, I saw red, too.<br/><br/>Furious, Katy sets out to prove them wrong. She lacks the resources necessary to scientifically prove that her physical fitness is just as good as the boys, and the “distraction” claim is practically impossible to prove or disprove. So she decides to challenge the idea that no other girl has ever played baseball before.<br/><br/>Quick! TO THE LIBRARY!<br/><br/>Katy’s research uncovers Jackie Mitchell, who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back. But Katy doesn’t stop there, she digs deeper and finds even more women baseball players, writes letters to them, gets interviews, even meets a few. All of them have stories to tell about the sexism that denied them the chance to play the game they loved because of their gender.<br/><br/>And soon, Katy finds it goes further than gender, too. She meets Toni Stone, one of the first African American women to play on the ***** League*. And here’s where we learn about when racism and sexism intersect. All those white women players and recruiters? Weren’t looking to recruit black women, no matter how good they were. Her all-male team? Didn’t think women should play baseball! Stone tells about her experiences, things we would consider mind-bogglingly racist today but were commonplace in the 50s. “It was hell,” she says.<br/><br/>Armed with all of this information, will Katy be able to convince Little League to let her play before she ages out? Will her efforts help open the door to other girls wanting to play ball? <br/><br/>This book was surprisingly engaging and informative. Katy learns about so many women baseball players that I’d never even heard of! The back matter of the book includes biographies for twelve of the players mentioned, plus information about Little League’s policies, Title IX, and the current state of women in sports.<br/><br/>So much of our history is ignored, forgotten, or deliberately erased because our (western) culture doesn’t value the contributions of anyone nonwhite and non-male. And not just in sports, too. I hope this book encourages kids to dig deeper, to not stand by and let injustices slide, and to speak up and let their voices be heard.<br/><br/>(*Did I mention this book takes place in 1957-58? Yeah, this book takes place in the late 50s, when things like Sputnik and the Little Rock Nine were current events. It was a much different world then, and the language in the book certainly reflects that.)"

"Great strong females and a lot of historical information"