I have been documenting the rise of girls and women playing baseball for the past 25 years, since the Colorado Silver Bullets, a professional all-women's team, barnstormed the country playing men's teams for 4 seasons. In their wake, girls and women's teams and leagues began to form, rejecting the traditional narrative that girls play softball and boys play baseball.
In the 1970s girls had to sue Little League and demand the right to play. Today there are so many more opportunities for girls and young women to play hardball. While there are a growing number of girls playing in high school and college-usually as the only girl on the team- there are now also local girls teams, national tournaments for girls and young women and USA Baseball sponsors a women's team that competes at an international level. This generation is the first to be able to choose play the game- with other girls, with boys, or with both. They are expanding our expectations of what a baseball player looks like, what a girl looks like and what supporting girls looks like.
Baseball is only a game, but games are structures that help us to challenge ourselves, define our goals, and discover our abilities and our limitations. Sports are at their best when they help us to clarify our potential and our capacities. Sports also reflect our society back to us, showing us our priorities and our prejudices. The girls of the Boston Slammers are changing what it means to “throw like a girl”.
All photos shot with 120 black and white film.
