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It was not a bad weekend at all for females who am comfortable with bats and balls. And no, smartass, I don’t mean either Enes Kanter Freedom nor Royce White.
One of the joys of the otherwise dog days of August for sports fans is to see so much attention being paid to Little Leaguers. The baseball side has been a staple for ESPN and ABC since the days where Wide World Of Sports would make a pilgrimage to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the championship game–in an era when it was one of the few live broadcasts they even attempted—and in more recent ties has exploded into a far more prominent presence on its Unlimited platform starting with state and regional championships that provide live competition from dawn till dusk. It’s a growth spurt similar to what the Disney networks have given to college baseball, and it’s been rewarded with high ratings and strong engagement from coveted target audiences. In the case of Little League, it’s both parents and kids that now are much more likely to found on YouTube than on even the Disney Channel, making it a throwback gold mine for back-to-school brands and purveyors of sugary cereals to reach both those who control decisions (kids) and those paying for it (parents) at the same time.
So much as they have with the NCAA in spring, the platforms have embraced the growth and explosion of Little League softball, which got out in front of their hardball breathren (and sistren!) with tournament play that began last month and ultimately culminated in what transpired yesterday afternoon in front of a partisan crowd in a town rapidly becoming as well known as Williamsport. Per USA TODAY’s Sherlon Christie and Jon Hoefling:
After six days of high-intensity action, the Little League Softball World Series concluded with this year’s championship game between North Carolina and Kentucky. North Carolina would be the team emerging victorious, defeating Kentucky by a final of 2-0 behind an impeccable complete game shutout from Anna-Lynn Clark…North Carolina’s win is the state’s fourth overall LLSWS title and first since 2024, when Pitt County Girls Softball Little League from Winterville, NC, won it. USA TODAY Sports had full coverage of both the LLSWS third place consolation game and the LLSWS championship game on Sunday, Aug. 9 in Greenville, North Carolina.The defense and pitching were phenomenal with only one Kentucky runner ever reaching scoring position, but that happened in the first inning. From then on, it was just diving catches, weak contact, and strikeouts…The squad from Clayton, North Carolina did not get off to a hot start, as they lost their starting second baseman Sophie Catarazolli to injury in the first inning, but Johnston County Little League, the Purple bracket champions, clearly rallied behind their teammate, who was seen crying tears of joy in her father’s arms after the game.
You’d be correct to point out that this not the first name that girls have proven to be heroes in Little League games, as they’ve been competing in baseball since the mid-70s when they were as much of a zeitgeist trail blazer for equality as Billie Jean King, Virgina Slims and Ruffian. The apex mountain perhaps occurred twelve summers ago when a feisty young lady became an overnight sensation, as THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’
For the last few years, Mo’ne Davis has enjoyed her anonymity. It had been 11 years since Davis was the first girl to pitch a shutout at the Little League World Series when she decided to give pro women’s baseball a shot despite having never played baseball with women before. It had been five years since she played competitive baseball, and at age 24, she wasn’t sure if a comeback was in the cards. Then, she decided, why not? After playing flag football last summer, she felt the competitive juices start to flow again, so she entered her name in the Women’s Pro Baseball League draft and became one of the first members of the Los Angeles Queens.
Last weekend the Queens began actual on-field competition with Davis perhaps one of the most recognizable faces behind an effort last attempted in the 1950s and most recognizable to fans of this century from movies. As FAST COMPANY’s María José Gutiérrez Chávez reported:
A) new league is coming for America’s pastime, letting women into the professional field for the first time in 72 years. The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) kicked off its inaugural season on Aug. 1 after the unveiling of the first the league’s first four teams, all named to honor pioneering women: San Francisco Firebells, New York Heights, Los Angeles Queens and Boston Hunters. .. The newly established league follows in the footsteps of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was popularized in the 1990s hit film A League of Their Own. That league brought women to the professional stage for over a decade, but folded in 1954, leaving a vacuum in professional women’s baseball.
While the teams on paper represent four communities, in reality they are all competing at a single venue in Springfield, Illinois–much the same economic toe-dipping route that other start-ups and reboots like Unrivaled and the USFL have employed in recent years. The important thing is that the majority of their games are on tee-wee–on ESPN Unlimited just like their little sisters–and that they’re actually playing competitive games that are providing further outlets for the brands that are advertising and partnering with the WNBA and NWSL, which ESPN has already turned its summer Sundays to. The WPBL already has some recognition thanks to the presence of folks ranging from Davis to former softball star and current Savannah Banannas sensation Kelsie Whitmore to even Maybelle Blair, the real-life inspiration for the character Madonna played in Penny Marshall’s movie adapation and became an LGTBQI+ icon when she came out at age 95 in the wake of the launch of the sadly less entertaining TV series reboot that Sony and Amazon finally launched after years of stop-and-start development that I was personally involved with.
And in the spirit of there’s not necessarily any such thing as bad publicity when one is just starting out, there was even this story which naturally FOX NEWS’ Ryan Gaydos felt compelled to amplify:
The Women’s Pro Baseball League started Saturday with a game between the Los Angeles Queens and the New York Heights but sports fans were seemingly drawn to the festivities before the first pitch was thrown. Martha Reeves, the lead singer of the Motown group Martha and the Vandellas who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and have one of their hits, “Dancing in the Street,” listed in the United States Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, was among those who were tapped to sing the national anthem before the game. Reeves and two other women left a lot to be desired as their rendition of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” was panned on social media. The fans who packed Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, as well as some of the players were taken aback by the performance.
It was indeed a brutal rendition evoking memories of Roseanne Barr’s allegedly comically-motivated bastardization of the anthem at a San Diego Padres game decades ago. But it has provided a welcome distraction from the other kind of snarky coverage that has resulted from the WNBA yet again proving its rank and file can’t seem to get out of its own way to provide still more controversy that takes away from an otherwise stellar and competitive season. CASSIUS’ Bruce Cassidy II had the latest on that front yesterday:
Sophie Cunningham is at the center of another WNBA controversy… But this time it was initiated on the court at the hands of an opposing player during Saturday’s game at United Center. Her Indiana Fever were taking on the Chicago Sky when, in the first quarter, she went up for a layup, and then DiJonai Carrington refused to let her have the easy two points. So instead she hit Cunningham in the cheek and appeared to wrap her arm around her head, causing her to fall to the ground. Cunningham immediately jumped up, and the two got into each other’s face and grabbed at each other before Cunningham’s teammate Makayla Timpson dragged her away. Carrington was immediately issued a flagrant two and ejected from the game. While walking towards the tunnel, she flashed a smile as the crowd clapped for her. Soon after, she took to social media to air her frustrations, posting “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on her Threads account and tagging the Indiana Fever.
It absolutely boggles my mind–and frankly, those of a lot of folks who have come to actually pay attention to the league after nearly three decades of near-obscurity thanks to the presence and marketability of Cunningham and her even more popular teammate Caitlin Clark–that the level of anger and frustration that continues to be hurled at them by theretofore unknowns like Carrington get more headlines than their actual level of play. Note that I qualified the caveat of there being no such thing as bad publicity when one is just starting out. For a mature and rapidly expanding three-decade-old team the fact that folks like Carrington get equal time to Carrington and Clark–and superior to that of rookie standout Olivia Miles of the league’s current best-in-class Minnesota Lynx–is the kind of self-inflicted wound that tarnishes the efforts and inspirations we have seen from those distaffs of the diamonds.
We all know there’s no crying in baseball. I kinda wish basketball would follow suit.
Courage…