South Bend Blue Sox Women's Baseball, Inc. is an Indiana, 501(c)3, not-for profit organization whose purposes are but not limited to:
1) Serving as an advocate for girls and women who are denied an opportunity to play baseball
2) Providing and promoting opportunities on the playing field in baseball for girls and women
3) Offering instructional baseball playing skill clinics for girls and women
4) Educating and dissemminating information to the public on the long history and tradition of girls and women in baseball
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| Women's Hall Of Fame Baseball Classic Returns To Kenosha July 3-5, 2009 |
The Women's Baseball Hall of Fame Classic which helped see a rededication of historic Simmons Field in Kenosha in 2008 returns to that venue as the largest women's baseball tournament (so far) of 2009. During the course of the weekend, fans will be treated to appearances by some of the former players of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.
Eight teams playing in two divisions will battle at Simmons Field as well as nearby Carthage College. Six of the teams are from the United States and two are from Ontario, Canada (Annette Women's Baseball and Royal York Cardinals). Each divison will crown its own champion. One division will play its title game on Sunday, July 5, while the other divison will crown its champion during on July 4. Both title games take place at Simmons Field.
RESULTS:
Division I.......Friday, July 3 @ Simmons Field (Home team listed last)
9:30 am...New England Red Sox (14) vs Washington Stars (0)
12:30 pm...Chicago Pioneers (15) vs DC Thunder (5)
3:30 pm...Washington Stars (3) vs Chicago Pioneers (8)
6:30 pm...DC Thunder (0) vs New England Red Sox (10)
Division II......Friday, July 3 @ Carthage College (Home team listed last)
9:30 am...Chicago Gems (9) vs South Bend Blue Sox (10)
12:30 pm...Royal York Cardinals (2) vs Annette Women's Baseball (16)
3:30 pm...Annette Women's Baseball (21) vs Chicago Gems (6)
6:30 pm...South Bend Blue Sox (10) vs Royal York Cardinals (9)
Division I....Saturday, July 4 @ Carthage College
9:30 am...Chicago Pioneers vs New England Red Sox
12:30 pm...DC Thunder vs Washington Stars
3:30 pm...3rd vs 1st, Winner advances to finals on Sunday (Flip for home)
6:30 pm...2nd vs 4th Winner advances to finals on Sunday (Flip for home)
Division II...Saturday, July 4 @ Simmons Field
9:30 am...Annette Women's Baseball vs South Bend Blue Sox
12:30 pm...Chicago Gems vs Royal York Cardinals
3:30 pm...3rd vs 4th Consolation (Flip for home)
6:30 pm...1st vs 2nd Championship (Flip for home)
Division I, Sunday, July 5 @ Simmons Field
10:00 am Championship Game
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| Blue Sox And The Chicago Women's Baseball League (CWBL) Team-Up With GoGirlGo! of Chicago |
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| The South Bend Blue Sox and Chicago Women's Baseball League teamed-up and instructed nearly 100 girls during a baseball clinic on Saturday, May 30 at Mann Park in Chicago. During the clinic, the girls and clinicians were treated to a visit by former All American Girls Professional Baseball League infielder, Dolly Konwinski. The clinic was a FIRST-EVER collaboration between GoGirlGo! of Chicago and girls/women's baseball organizations. The basic structure of this clinic can now be modeled for other organziations who will want to partnet with a GoGirlGo! organization in their community. With this successful collaboration under their belt, there have been some preliminary discussions about creating a girls baseball league in Chicago in 2010. |
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One Less Hoop To Go Through!
The state of Indiana is well-known for its hoops, basketball hoops that is. However, in the past two years, two females had to deal with another type of "hoops", that of legal variety as both sought to play high school baseball.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has had a policy of not allowing a girl to try out for high school baseball, unless a school does not have a softball program. Otherwise, if a school has both, baseball and softball were deemed equivalents of one another. That meant that boys played baseball and girls played softball.
In 2007, Heather Bauduin of Wabash, Indiana won her battle to try out and this year, Logan Young of Bloomington was also victorious in her quest.
In both instances such as this a "hardship waiver" is required to be filed as part of the paperwork to let a female tryout for baseball.
Recently, the IHSAA voted by a margin of 18-9 to let females tryout for baseball without filing the additional paperwork, rather than battle this issue every year.
In both of these cases, the Blue Sox served as a consultanting party on the players behalf, presenting current and historical documentation for each case.
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Over the last several years, South Bend Blue Sox Women's Baseball, Inc. was able to assist a number of young women to follow their dreams of playing baseball. Players and parents contacted the organization for help and they were directed to a resource person in their community and to a national resource, the Women's Sports Foundation Advocacy Department. These players came from Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, Maryland, Colorado and Missouri.
If you know of a female player who has been told she cannot participate in a youth/high school or adult baseball program, please contact: John Kovach at knucksie1@aol.com
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Local Pitch, Hit & Run Can Be Organized
For Girls Only
(New Carlisle, Indiana) During this past winter, the South Bend Blue Sox have continued to made strides to open more baseball opportunities for girls.
One such discussion was with the organizers of the national Pitch, Hit & Run competition. The Blue Sox asked their organization if it was possible on local level of competition to have girls compete only against girls. It was explained to P,H&R that such an opportunity might allow communities to recruit or creat an all-girls baseball program in their area.
According to the P,H&R representatives, communities are welcome to separte the boys and girls in the local competitions. The hosting organization would have two sign-up to host two competitions, thus insuring two sets of results, one for girls and one for boys. P,H&R however, said the girls should be told as they advance to the Sectional level of competition, the competition at that stage and higher is on a mixed basis.
Several leagues have already expressed an interested in hosting a competition locally to allow the girls to compete against other girls.
The competition is open to players between the ages of seven and 14 years of age.
For more information about the Pitch, Hit & Run, visit their website at:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/kids/mlb_pitch-hit-run.jsp.
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Youth League Challenges Indiana Public Accommodation Law
(New Carlisle, Indiana) The two-year old story case Rolling Prairie Baseball Association (RPBA) not allowing a girl to play in its Intermediate Baseball Program is finally near an end.
In June, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission found enough evidence to say that there was "probable cause" of a discriminatory practice based on gender, the league has been steadfast in their claim that they do not have to let girls play baseball and they are not bound to follow the Indiana public accommodation laws.
However, the law is quite clear and states that a public accommodation, "is an establishment that caters or offers its services, facilities or goods to the general public (IC 22-9-1-3(m)." Places of recreation are covered under that law.
In a recent conversation with the Indiana Department of Education, it was also made clear that "a school corporation's policy concerning the use of its facilities should be non-discriminatory when a school makes its facilities available for use by community groups."
Since the RPBA and a number of its members use school property for their activities, they could also be considered in violation of school corporation policies as well.
A judges final ruling on this case by the end of March (if not earlier) will close a dark chapter of youth baseball in Indiana.
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| In August of 2007, Irina Kovach pitches for the Chicago Pioneers. Earlier that spring she had been told by a local recreational baseball league that she could not participate in their baseball program because she was a girl! Recently, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission had found "probable cause" that she had indeed been discriminated against. <See news release at right> |
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JULY 2, 2008
Indiana Civil Rights Commission Finds “Probable Cause” In
Youth Baseball Discrimination Complaint
(Indianapolis, Indiana) In January of 2007, 12 year old Irina Kovach of New Carlisle, Indiana was told that she could not sign-up for the Intermediate Baseball Program offered by the Rolling Prairie Baseball Association because she was a girl. A discrimination complaint was filed with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission by Irina’s parents. The complaint named both the Rolling Prairie Baseball Association as well as the Kankakee Valley organization they are affiliated with.
After over a year of gathering information, Barbara Malone, Acting Director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, released a statement that said, “Available evidence indicates that the league agents informed Irina’s parents that her denial was due to her sex and that the organization steered her toward playing a different game altogether rather than allowing her to play baseball with a group of males in her age group.” Malone went on to add, “Probable cause exists to believe that an unlawful discriminatory practice occurred.”
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2008 Can-Am
Spirit of SportsmanshipTournament
BLUE DIVISON CHAMPIONS---Aussie Hearts
RED DIVISION CHAMPIONS---Pawtucket Slaterettes
The City of Chicago is the tentative site for the 2009 Can-Am!
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| Robin Wallace, Nashua Pride Pioneers (at far right) leads a group of young girls through some of the finer points of pitching basics! |
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| 2007 Season Wrap-up
The 2007 baseball season will prove to be one , if not the most successful for both women and girls.
In February, the Girls-n-Sports Day again drew clinicians from the girls and women's baseball world to Orlando, FL where they gave a baseball experience of pitching, hitting and fielding to some 600+ girl scouts.
April saw the return of the WBL Women's Baseball Leadership Conference. The 2007 conference was held at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. Featured speakers included: Justine Siegal of the WBL, Terri Lakowski from the Women's Sports Foundation, former major league pitching coach Bob Cluck and three younger players, Anna Cella and Lindsay Horwitz of Chicago and Irina Kovach of New Carlisle, IN.
Numerous tournaments for women, including a first-time venue in Detroit in June with teams from the US and Canada to the always popular Roy Hobbs tourney in Ft. Myers, Fl.
Opportunities for the younger players also continued to blossom with a girls tourneys in Detroit and Ft. Myers; a girls baseball camp in Toronto as well as participation of an all-girls team in New York and Delaware co-ordinated by the WBL.
In Chicago, the Pioneers, an all-girls team became possibly the first such team to pay in what was considered a "boys baseball league". The Pioneers also participated in tournaments and hosted a pair of all-girl baseball games at historic Thillens Stadium in Chicago!
The Pawtucket Slaterettes program made the leap into national play in 2007 competing in both the Detroit and Ft. Myers girls' tourneys.
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| Irina Kovach, WBL Sparks 2006 |
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BATTLING TO PLAY BASEBALL
Pictured on the left is Irina Kovach or New Carlisle, Indiana. In January of 2007, the Rolling Prairie Baseball Association (RPBA) (Rolling Prairie, IN) told Irina that she could not play baseball in their program because she was a female and they did not allow girls in that offering. The RPBA is a member of the Kankakee Valley Association (KVA) in northern Indiana.
Irina has played baseball for six seasons in Little League, 12U travel teams (including the Women's Baseball League WBL Sparks, an all girls team) and in the summer of 2006, she represented the United States at the World Children's Baseball Fair in Japan.
Research has shown that the the RPBA/KVA may be the only baseball organizations in the state of Indiana that excludes females from playing baseball in their programs.
Complaints have been filed with both the Indiana ACLU and the Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC).
This is the type of cases that shows up far too many times. In most instances, it only takes a simple call to explain to an organization why a female is allowed to participate in a baseball program. For others, it's a far more time consuming task, but one that needs to be tackled to insure that players, especially those who play in rec programs like the RPBA/KVA are not discriminated based on their gender.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS STORY, VISIT www.womenssportsfoundation.org AND TYPE IRINA KOVACH INTO THE PAGE SEARCH.
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"Where's The Ponytail?"
Below is a powerpoint presentation created for the April, 2007 Popular and American Culture Conference in Boston, MA.
The presentation focused on the question of why images of young girls are used in baseball-related materials for popular culture consumption. The premise seems to contradict the actual on the field baseball opportunities that are open to female players.
Most noteworthy is this presentation is the Little League Baseball and Softball logos which clearly depict the gender of its participants, with the baseball image that of a male and the softball image a female. This depiction runs counter to the actual program offerings of Little League, since girls can play baseball and, Little League offers a separate softball program for both boys and girls.
Click on any of the images below to enlarge.
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| Maggie Riley, New York Bloomer Girls, 1931 |
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Linedrive and Lipstick Exhibit Debuts in April of 2008!
For the first time ever, an exhibit about the history of girls and women in baseball from 1866 to present day will make its debut at the Legends of the Game Museum in Arlington, Texas on April 6, 2008.
The exhibit curated by John Kovach with commentary by Barbara Gregorich is being produced by Exhibits USA of Kansas City Mo.
Other venues on the schedule include: Fort Morgan Museum, Fort Morgan, CO; Kansas City Sports Hall of Fame, Wichita, KS; Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, Arkansas City, KS; Museum of Seminole County History, Sanfor, FL; The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; Louisville Slugger Museum, Louisville, KY and the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center.
If you have a museum in your community that might be interested in hosting this exhibition, please email Rachel Saalweachter from Exhibits USA at: ramona@maaa.org
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Organizations
BaseballForAll..........www.baseballglory.com
American Women's Baseball Federation...........www.womenplayingbaseball
Chicago Pioneers Girls Baseball.............www.chicagopioneers.com
Pawtucket Slaterettes Girls and Women's Baseball..........www.slaterettes.com
Girls Play Baseball.............http://www.girlsplaybaseball.com or www.girlsplaybaseball.org
USA Baseball, Inc...............http://mlb.mlb.com/usa_baseball/index.jsp
Women's Sports Foundation...............www.womenssportsfoundation.org
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