{"id":56558,"date":"2015-07-21T19:15:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T11:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=56558"},"modified":"2015-07-21T19:15:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T11:15:25","slug":"womens-baseball-makes-history-with-debut-at-pan-am-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/21\/womens-baseball-makes-history-with-debut-at-pan-am-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s baseball makes history with debut at Pan Am Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"American<\/a>
American left hander Sarah Hudek (Photo from Hudek’s official Facebook account<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 Women\u2019s baseball made history Monday at the Pan Am Games, the first time it\u2019s been played in a large, multi-sport event.<\/p>\n

There was no live television coverage at the debut, and perhaps only 200 fans saw the first pitch as American left hander Sarah Hudek threw a ball just off the plate to open the game against leadoff hitter Astrid Rodriguez of Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be here, this is awesome. This is it,\u201d said American player Malaika Underwood. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter that we\u2019re not on TV. I mean the fact we are out here is the point. When we look back at this, I think we’ll appreciate the magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, the United States defeated Venezuela 10-6 in a regulation seven innings.<\/p>\n

Pardon a joke the women have heard many times, but none of the players threw like a girl, and none wore a skirt, which was the uniform in the 1992 film \u201cA League of their own,\u201d a depiction of women\u2019s professional baseball in the United States in the 1940s starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad we don\u2019t wear skirts,\u201d said Underwood a 34-year-old infielder and a veteran on a team ranging in age from 16 to 41. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I would feel comfortable playing in a skirt. Sliding, it would be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The field and the distances are identical in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s games. The only difference is seven innings for the women, and nine for the men.<\/p>\n

The first three innings took more than an hour to play, so the speed also resembled some men\u2019s games.<\/p>\n

Hudek said her father, former major-league reliever John Hudek, probably couldn\u2019t hit her heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t the best hitter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the second inning, Venezuela nearly pulled off a triple play.<\/p>\n

The United States had runners on first and second, and American Anna Kimbrell hit a sharp hopper to third. Venezuela\u2019s Daily Gimenez touched third, got the force and second, but Kimbrell beat the relay to first by a step.<\/p>\n

The Americans are represented by a firefighter, a nurse, two high-school students and a wide mix of players, most of whom grew up playing baseball. Some also played softball, but Underwood guessed about two-thirds played only baseball \u2013 on women\u2019s teams, or men\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n

The United States has no professional league for women, although Japan and several other countries do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to get women\u2019s baseball more out there and open the doors for younger women knowing they don\u2019t have to convert to softball if they don\u2019t want to,\u201d Hudek, adding the response is always the same when she says she plays baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey try to correct me. They say: \u2018Oh, you mean softball.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She replies: \u201cNo, baseball. I hope one day we can get to where people don\u2019t correct us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudek will be a freshman this year on the men’s team at Bossier Parish Community College in Louisiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a new atmosphere and it’s definitely a little nerve-wracking,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to have to earn their respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underwood grew up in San Diego, California, played baseball on the boys\u2019 team at La Jolla High School and earned a volleyball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baseball was not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up a kid I definitely dreamed about being the first woman in the pro leagues,\u201d Underwood said. \u201cI think at some point I realized that was unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s baseball has been in the news the last few weeks. French player Melissa Mayeux, a 16-year-old shortstop, recently became the first woman on Major League Baseball\u2019s international registration list, making her eligible to be signed by pro teams.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s baseball and women\u2019s softball were cut from the Olympics after the 2008 Games in Beijing. Both might return for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, although women’s baseball would be a long shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody on this team has aspirations to make it to Major League Baseball,\u201d said Underwood, who works in sports marketing. \u201cReally, we just want to play at the highest level for women. We\u2019re not looking to play with guys, but those are the opportunities at the moment. We\u2019re just looking for equal treatment and inclusion in events like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Women\u2019s baseball made history Monday at the Pan Am Games, the first time it\u2019s been played in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":56561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-56558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","mauthors-stephen-wade","mauthors-the-associated-press1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}