ABSTRACT

According to many observers of the American scene, baseball is central to US culture. The game highlights widely accepted values that influence competition, leisure, work, patriotism, and many other everyday life issues. A common theme in the depictions of baseball in fiction (e.g., The Boys of Summer), film (e.g., The Babe), and sports journalism is the way the sport defines what it means to be a man. Similarly, studies by sociologists focus on the process by which baseball, especially Little League, teaches boys how to be men. Only rarely have authors in the mass media or sociology given attention to the impact of baseball on what it means to be a woman. This omission is understandable, given that most players, coaches and ancillary personnel at all levels of baseball are men.