"Baseball 101"

[blueberryale77]

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070828&content_id=2176305&vkey=news_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi

The Phillies recently held this event called "Phillies Baseball 101" for women. It was a luncheon followed by instruction on the field on the basics of the game. I found this on the Phillies' web site while trying to find video of the Marlon Anderson slide for the CB Bucknor thread. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it's very good that they're doing something to promote actual playing of and knowledge about the game among women instead of simply trying to bring them in with those infernal pink t-shirts and posters of hunky players.

On the other hand, I can see the event being incredibly cheesy and condescending. For some reason the picture with the article is of actual Phillies players celebrating during a game, but on the main page of the Phillies site in the flash animation there's a picture of the women at the clinic and many of them don't exactly look dressed to play baseball. Are they really so ignorant about baseball that they don't realize the game involves sliding so you might not want to wear booty shorts to learn to play it? Do events like this promote knowledge about baseball or do they promote the idea among men that all women are ignorant about baseball and need remedial education in it (or is that idea already so ingrained in men's heads that it doesn't matter)?

I realize there's a generation (really several generations) not that much older than me that never had a chance to learn about the game growing up. This could definitely be a useful resource for women like the 60 year old in the story. Maybe eventually they will expand the program and have a more advanced event for women who have played softball but want to learn more about pitches or just get a chance to practice with an actual baseball on a real MLB field? I think for the most part this is a good thing, although I don't really like the title of it and I think next time they should either provide uniforms as part of the package or instruct the participants on how to dress. Thoughts? Think the O's should/will do anything like this???

Oh and one last thing... did they really have to give out shoes from Brett Myers of all people at a women's event?!

[Lucky Jim]

They looked pretty appropriately attired to me.

The slide show on the article page has a full size pic of them. They're in, essentially, slow-pitch softball attire.

Do you really think middle-aged women are going to be sliding into anything? Why possibly? And by that, I mean, why would a woman want to? And why would the Phillies take on that liability?

I've got to confess, I'm not sure I see your point with regard to the title. The women are comfortable with the title, I'm not sure why we would complain. It IS an introductory class. And, in the end, no more "condescending" than the "________ for Dummies" titles consumed by millions of DIYers.

The Phillies are reaching out to expand their demographic. I doubt it'll have even a marginal effect, but I (tepidly) applaud the effort.

[blueberryale77]

They looked pretty appropriately attired to me.

The slide show on the article page has a full size pic of them. They're in, essentially, slow-pitch softball attire.

Do you really think middle-aged women are going to be sliding into anything? Why possibly? And by that, I mean, why would a woman want to? And why would the Phillies take on that liability?

I've got to confess, I'm not sure I see your point with regard to the title. The women are comfortable with the title, I'm not sure why we would complain. It IS an introductory class. And, in the end, no more "condescending" than the "________ for Dummies" titles consumed by millions of DIYers.

The Phillies are reaching out to expand their demographic. I doubt it'll have even a marginal effect, but I (tepidly) applaud the effort.

Looking at the picture again (I only glanced at it as it flashed by before) I would say that only two of the women are wearing clothes that don't look at all reasonable for playing baseball. I guess if you don't consider sliding an integral part of playing baseball, you might consider short shorts perfectly appropriate. To me that's a part of the game and if you don't learn to slide you're learning a very limited version. I don't understand why anyone who wanted to learn to play and understand the game wouldn't want to learn how to slide. It's not difficult or particularly dangerous, especially if you don't use actual bases while you're teaching them. When I coached softball with 7-8 year olds, I essentially drew a base in the dirt to have them practice sliding into until they were comfortable doing it. I'm also sure the participants had to sign medical waivers before attending the program.

As to the "101" title, it seems to me that anyone who is interested enough in the Phillies to want to attend the program is already a baseball fan and therefore should have a basic knowledge of the game at least from a spectator's perspective. Obviously the target audience isn't women like me who grew up playing softball and watch baseball obsessively, but I wouldn't expect the attendees to be completely new to the subject. I guess I'd have to know more about the content of the program and how it was promoted before making a fair judgement.

Like I said, it's an interesting and probably mostly good idea, but something about it makes me a little uncomfortable. I just wanted to get other people's opinions about it.

[SpringBarb]

I don't really see anything wrong with it--actually, I think it'd be awesome if the O's did the same. Yes, just so I could get on the field. It's not like it was some "OK, girls, now there are 3 outs in an 'inning.'" That would've been horrible. But having the coaches teach some of the basics? That sounds neat. And, by and large, I probably would've dressed very similarly to how the women in the pictures were dressed. Looks like good fun.

[Mu'ayyidSaafir]

The Ravens did something like this. I don't imagine they went out onto a field and had the women practice tackling or anything like that, but it was some dinner where a bunch of players showed up and explained football. My friend was basically forced to attend by her boss so she could be more conversant in the Ravens at work on Monday mornings. Nice, huh?

[mweb]

I play in a couple adult softball leagues, and most people wear shorts and don't slide. I think you're going too far with this sliding part, I highly doubt sliding was part of the agenda there.