Baseball bleachers taken down after ruling that girls softball team's seats must be

[smddad]

I was told, when I was in IL., that I couldn't donate to the softball program, w/o donating to the baseball program. I wanted to give them a dozen balls. Oh, well.

You should have donated 6 optic yellow softballs to the softball team and 6 optic yellow softballs to the baseball team. I'm sure they would have made it back to the softball program.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

The AD also went on record in the investigation as not liking the baseball seating - thought they were a safety hazard for being above the protective fence - and not minding if they were removed.

 

[PA SB Dad]

I know I will probably get flamed for this, but here goes. I ran the softball program for our LL for years, and I always had trouble getting volunteers to help the softball program, whether it was fundraisers, field maintenance, you name it, it was always the same few parents involved. The baseball side of the LL never had a problem getting parents to help out. It may be because there were simply more families of baseball players than softball players, and the numbers difference translated to whether or not there was sufficient help on any given day. But there were plenty of families with both a boy and a girl in the LL where the parents were more than willing to help out the baseball side but were non-existent on the softball side. The softball program could never have existed on its own because financially it relied so much on the registration fees and fundraising on the baseball side to stay solvent. It was most obvious when parents sponsored teams - the softball teams might have had one or two families sponsor a team for the entire program, but the baseball teams never had a problem with parents stepping up to sponsor a team. In more subtle ways, there was always this inequality - the boys majors division for our LL had nothing but expensive composite bats in the bags of the boys, but the girls, even in the older divisions, were still using old baseball gloves and $20 aluminum bats from Walmart (even in an affluent suburban township outside of Philly!).

There are lots of dedicated fans of girls fastpitch on this site (and rightly so), but we do have a skewed reality when it comes to how many families view baseball and softball and prioritize their commitment to each sport. I personally believe many of the inequalities that Title IX tries to address begin at home.

 

[p_funk]

I know I will probably get flamed for this, but here goes. I ran the softball program for our LL for years, and I always had trouble getting volunteers to help the softball program, whether it was fundraisers, field maintenance, you name it, it was always the same few parents involved. The baseball side of the LL never had a problem getting parents to help out. It may be because there were simply more families of baseball players than softball players, and the numbers difference translated to whether or not there was sufficient help on any given day. But there were plenty of families with both a boy and a girl in the LL where the parents were more than willing to help out the baseball side but were non-existent on the softball side.

I know your location says PA, but are you sure you don't live in my city/state, lol. That is a carbon copy of what happens in our LL. Our VP of softball got in trouble for purchasing new batting helmets for the girls this year and she was denied when she asked for new catchers equipment. It is sad, and not safe, when you are given an adult sized chest protector for 9-10 year old girls to wear, but are denied the request for new catchers gear. Needless to say, the two other coaches and myself purchased new catcher gear for our team. It gets really old seeing the baseball side of things not having to struggle, but when it comes to the softball side, we have to end up paying for things put of our own pockets.

 

[JoeKC]

I can tell you with utmost certainty that the Baseball programs in the state of Idaho have far superior facilities than the Softball programs .........

There is a difference in practice facilities at my daughters high school as well. I think the baseball program needed those extra amenities for self esteem reasons. The softball team keeps bringing home state championship banners to improve the look of their facilities.

 

[absdad]

My DD's 4A HS team has been to state 3 of the last 4 years (including a championship) and doesn't even have a field of their own. Their only facility which they are "lucky" to have i suppose, is sharing two shoddy batting cages with the baseball team. Baseball has their own field on the school grounds, but their only knowledge of the post season is hearing kids from other schools talk about it. Softball team uses a softball park operated by the city for practices and games. The other HS in our district has the same issue, and also uses the park.

It's true that Softball doesn't get the same fair shake.

 

[Cannonball]

As an FYI, I watched the interview. The political slant that was posted and attack on Fox News was somewhat misleading. The parents themselves reported their opinions on what happened. If that was inaccurate, it was their opinions. No one put words in their mouths. I dealt with Title IX for a very long time. It has a lot of great qualities about it. It also has some flaws.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Well, I missed the part that this was from FOX news. I would have taken the story less seriously.

 

[PA SB Dad]

I know your location says PA, but are you sure you don't live in my city/state, lol. That is a carbon copy of what happens in our LL. Our VP of softball got in trouble for purchasing new batting helmets for the girls this year and she was denied when she asked for new catchers equipment. It is sad, and not safe, when you are given an adult sized chest protector for 9-10 year old girls to wear, but are denied the request for new catchers gear. Needless to say, the two other coaches and myself purchased new catcher gear for our team. It gets really old seeing the baseball side of things not having to struggle, but when it comes to the softball side, we have to end up paying for things put of our own pockets.

Don't get me wrong, our LL Board was extremely supportive of the softball program and went to great lengths to be sure that softball got their fair share of resources. As I said, the softball program could not exist on its own since they essentially "borrowed" from the baseball side. My main point was that while the public/private institutions do their best to be fair, the families themselves may have very different priorities and it shows in both subtle and not so subtle ways.

 

[spleen1015]

I guess we're lucky where I live. Both HS in our district have Varsity and JV fields for baseball and softball. The baseball fields have more stands, but there's a lot more people at baseball games than softball games. Both of the softball Varsity fields were reconditioned this year as well.

As far as the youth league goes, softball is a part of baseball, but it operates as its own entity. We have a rec league of 55 teams, 6u up to 16u and we have 9 travel teams. Our fields are in a public city park, maintained by the city for the most part. We take care of them for games but the city cuts the grass, etc.

I feel very fortunate hearing some of your stories.