“Philadelphia’s Taney Dragons, Mo’ne Davis, a thirteen year old, was the first girl to throw a shutout in the Little League World Series, the sixth to get a hit in World Series history and the first Little Leaguer to get front-page attention on one of the nation’s top sports magazines. “A girl on the cover of Sports Illustrated for her prowess in a man’s sport,” cheered “Inside Edition” host Deborah Norville in an e-mail. “Mo’ne is wowing not just the sports world but all of us!”
As an avid baseball fan, I am thrilled that Mo’ne broke one of many glass ceilings in sports. Perhaps more girls who love baseball will take the risk to stand up and say I want to play. For those of you who are not sports fans most girls are taught to play softball. Softball is a wonderful athletic, skilled sport and women excel at it but what about hardball! Women have long been thought to be too fragile for such a demanding and dangerous sport. As we have seen, serious injuries are part of the sport. One thirteen-year-old girl may have changed that perception forever.
The Pirates drafted my dad to play major league baseball right out of high school, but an injury during spring training caused his mom to pull her underage son out of the sport. Soon after he was drafted and never went back to professional baseball but he continued to play the sport he loved locally and taught all his kids (four daughters and one son) to play the game. The first two homes we lived in were next to baseball fields. Most weekends were spent at Forbes Field in Oakland watching the Pirates and my favorite, Roberto Clemente.
I too loved baseball but when I was young, however, girls were not allowed to play in baseball leagues, so we were fans. We played pick-up games in someone’s back yard so seeing Mo’ne struck a chord in me. I thought to myself, finally! Now Mo’ne is not the first girl to play baseball but the success she has achieved is unmatched in kid’s baseball. Let me repeat she was the first girl to throw a shutout in the Little League World Series and the sixth to get a hit in World Series history.
Then she made history again! On Sunday night, Oct. 26, 2014, fifth fame of the major league world series, Mo’ne was asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. If you are a baseball fan, you have watched ceremonial first pitches for years, and there is no guessing where that ball will go. Most don’t even throw from the pitcher’s mound because it is a long way (60.5 ‘). It is such a tough task that major league pitchers throw strikes 65% of the time.
On Sunday, Mo’ne was walked onto the field to throw out the first ball. Drum roll, please. The staff walking her advised her stand at a comfortable distance from home plate. No one expected this small, slight, young girl to pitch from the mound and most people who throw the first pitch don’t. Mo’ne stopped looked at home plate, looked at the pitcher’s mound, weighing her chances, turned and walked straight to the pitcher’s mound. The crowd roared for her courage even before she threw her pitch and then she did. Mo’ne threw that pitch 60.5’ from the pitcher’s mound straight, fast across home plate. Strike! The crowd stood and roared again, this time in praise of her skill, talent and determination.
Thank you Mo’ne. You have inspired us all.
“Do what you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt.