不总是男人的游戏

虽然棒球运动在21世纪^st century is largely an all-male preserve, it wasn't always that way. As baseball evolved into the sport we know today during the antebellum and Civil War years, 女孩和男孩都玩这个游戏. From the first intercollegiate game between Williams and Amherst in 1859, it was just seven years until the first women's collegiate baseball 俱乐部s were established at Vassar and other women's colleges. Although somewhat hobbled by their clothing—long skirts, 高的脖子, and long sleeves—women played the same game as men, 尽管远离观众窥探的目光. A baseball 俱乐部 at the exclusive Miss Porter's School in Farmington, 康涅狄格, was approved only if they played on a field well out of sight of the public. 社会, 而不是竞争, aspects of the game were emphasized in these early women's contests as women were deemed too delicate for competitive sports.

渴望“任何形式的棒球”

到19世纪80年代, the American public had gone mad for the game and promoters—always quick to see how a profit could be made—sought ever more novel ways to feed the frenzy: baseball on ice, 在水里, 由漂亮的女孩和女人扮演. The 1875 match between the "Blondes" and "Brunettes" was the first women's game to receive widespread publicity, 但在这个特殊的时刻, the attraction of seeing "eighteen girls prettily attired in gymnastic dress" playing baseball was far more compelling than their actual baseball skills. The novelty eventually wore off and crowds became more interested in seeing good baseball. The stage was set for the arrival of the "Bloomer Girls."

对阵

1890年代开始, teams of women players known as Bloomer Girls began to 旅行 the country taking on all comers—semi-pro, 俱乐部, 大学球队是由男性组成的. They had no "home field" and often 旅行led by train, lugging along their own canvas "stadiums" and grandstands to small towns across the Midwest and western states. Bloomer Girls teams had actual baseball talent and were the cause of much excitement in the towns they visited. 北达科他州魔鬼湖的一篇文章， Inter-Ocean 1900年5月11日，他气喘吁吁地宣布

Bloomer Girls coming … The team was one of the sensations during the ball season in the Red River Valley last summer and wiped the earth with every team they met … The girls are claimed to be refined and moral in every particular, and their games have been patronized by the best people everywhere. They carry with them a grandstand covered with canvas, also their own fence.

The teams were not met with a warm welcome everywhere they 旅行led, 不过:1895年10月在德卢斯举行的比赛, 明尼苏达州, was called off by the mayor who did not "approve of women appearing in trousers of any style." They also undoubtedly met with ample amounts of the sexism displayed by the cattlemen of Centerview, 科罗拉多州, 谁参加了比赛?, feeling that it was "their duty to examine every bunch of stray calves that drifted onto their ranges," as reported in the 30 August 1898 edition of the 《og体育官网》.

最终虽然, Bloomer teams became known for their baseball talent and provided some measure of fame, 旅行, and money for women in a world which otherwise provided limited opportunities. Oddly these teams also offered opportunities for men. Bloomer teams usually fielded at least a couple of men—often pitchers and catchers--known as "toppers" who donned curly wigs and dresses to match their teammates. Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby and Smoky Joe Wood were among the men who got their major league start on Bloomer Girls teams.

《og体育平台》

经过四十年的经营, the last of the Bloomer Girls teams disbanded in 1934, but these were not the last women to play baseball. 二战期间, facing a shortage of male players due to major leaguers enlisting in the war effort, Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley formed the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. 就像铆工罗西, women ball players were given an opportunity to show off their skills in a male sphere. 比如洛克福德桃子队, 拉辛美女, and Kenosha Comets kept the game of baseball alive during the war years, proving that women could play the sport at a very high level. The days of opportunity for women in baseball soon ended, 然而, as the league passed a rule in 1952 barring women from becoming professional players. A lawsuit in 1974 opened up Little League baseball to girls, 但是到目前为止, no professional-level baseball leagues for women have survived more than a few seasons.