Baseball Women

With Madonna and Geena Davis starring as 1940s pro baseball players who overcome sexism and inside fastballs to save America's sagging spirits during World War II, Columbia Pictures' coming "A League of Their Own" can't help but be outrageous, audacious and occasionally dramatic. The movie, as odd as it sounds--women, playing hardball for a living?--is based on fact. In the long history of professional baseball in this country, women have had their own league only once.

It was a beautiful spring day in Los Angeles, but I was frantic. I was on the road, late for a date with the chance of a lifetime. As I drove, desperate not to blow it, I was suddenly slowed by the sound of a motorcycle cop's siren. I hate that sound. "Well, young lady," smirked the officer, like a hunter who'd just bagged a big one, "where're you headed, and why the hurry?" I told him. "I've got to get to Dodger Stadium because the Braves are letting me pitch."

Ila Borders, the only female player in men's professional baseball, has retired, ending a career in which her manager called her "one of the most courageous people" to play the game. The 26-year-old left-hander, who played at Whittier Christian High and Southern California College, left the Zion Pioneerzz on Thursday, a day after she gave up five hits and three runs in a 10-6 loss to the Feather River Mudcats. "I'll look back and say I did something nobody ever did," Borders said.

Fire had swept through the San Pedro home of Little Leaguer Victoria Brucker, destroying much of the 13-year-old's memorabilia, including photos taken when she became the first American girl to play in the league's World Series. Victoria, who is staying with her grandmother, said Thursday in a telephone interview that she lost a scrapbook filled with pictures taken throughout her baseball career and several balls she kept as mementos of her home runs. But "I have my uniforms," she said.

The best-hitting high school catcher in the county may not be male. Jenny Topping, a junior at La Habra High, has wowed softball players, coaches and spectators for three seasons with her powerful swing, strong arm and overall athletic excellence. She leads the county in average (.592), though opponents pitch to her only when they have to. Last year, Topping hit .588 with seven home runs and and a county-leading 42 runs batted in.

History will remember this night. Ila Borders would rather forget it. Borders became the first woman to pitch in a regular-season game Saturday night, when she came in during the sixth inning of the St. Paul Saints' Northern League game against the Sioux Falls Canaries. But she struggled from the outset, facing three batters and giving up three earned runs without getting an out. The Canaries went on to win, 11-1.

Tennessee Jackson, in Chicago, and Red Mahoney, in Houston, could hardly contain themselves. The two retired ballplayers, gray-haired and in their 60s now, had just received the happy news: The Hall of Fame had decided to include them in a special Cooperstown exhibit, tentatively scheduled for 1989. "This is so wonderful," said Jackson, a reserve outfielder who hit just .220 with three major league clubs in the 1940s. "All of a sudden, everyone wants to know about us."

It had been 39 years since Sylvia (Tommy) Thomas played her last game. On a recent day at the ball field, with her 50-year-old leather baseball glove on her left hand, the 76-year-old Thomas was eager to play ball again. "I love the game!" a jubilant Thomas said as she took batting practice and caught fly balls. For Thomas, of Laguna Hills, playing baseball is still in her blood.

Baseball no longer is the forbidden fruit for female athletes. Three former Cal State Northridge All-Americans gave it their all at an open tryout Sunday for the Colorado Silver Bullets, the nation's only women's professional baseball team. Priscilla Rouse was a member of two NCAA Division II national championship softball teams at CSUN. Tamara Ivie and Shannon Jones played in the NCAA Division I college softball World Series twice with the Matadors, who moved up to that level four years ago.

UC Irvine, a university known more for its quirky nickname than its athletic teams, turned to its students to try to change that. They voted this week to raise student fees, which will bring back baseball, add two women's sports and breath financial life back into existing Anteater programs. Students voted for a $33 fee hike per quarter, beginning in the fall of 2000, which will put the athletic department on even better footing than it was before the 1992 budget crunch decimated its programs.

History will remember this night. Ila Borders would rather forget it. Borders became the first woman to pitch in a regular-season game Saturday night, when she came in during the sixth inning of the St. Paul Saints' Northern League game against the Sioux Falls Canaries. But she struggled from the outset, facing three batters and giving up three earned runs without getting an out. The Canaries went on to win, 11-1.

The best-hitting high school catcher in the county may not be male. Jenny Topping, a junior at La Habra High, has wowed softball players, coaches and spectators for three seasons with her powerful swing, strong arm and overall athletic excellence. She leads the county in average (.592), though opponents pitch to her only when they have to. Last year, Topping hit .588 with seven home runs and and a county-leading 42 runs batted in.

You might spot her one row up from the Angels dugout at Anaheim Stadium, or in a box seat next to the Padres dugout at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. You might spot her chatting with scouts behind home plate at Arizona Fall League games or at Cactus League spring training contests. You also might spot her at recreational baseball fields around Arizona, Nevada and California, suited up in a baseball cap and jersey, cheering on women playing amateur hardball.

Baseball no longer is the forbidden fruit for female athletes. Three former Cal State Northridge All-Americans gave it their all at an open tryout Sunday for the Colorado Silver Bullets, the nation's only women's professional baseball team. Priscilla Rouse was a member of two NCAA Division II national championship softball teams at CSUN. Tamara Ivie and Shannon Jones played in the NCAA Division I college softball World Series twice with the Matadors, who moved up to that level four years ago.

It had been 39 years since Sylvia (Tommy) Thomas played her last game. On a recent day at the ball field, with her 50-year-old leather baseball glove on her left hand, the 76-year-old Thomas was eager to play ball again. "I love the game!" a jubilant Thomas said as she took batting practice and caught fly balls. For Thomas, of Laguna Hills, playing baseball is still in her blood.

Ila Borders, the only female player in men's professional baseball, has retired, ending a career in which her manager called her "one of the most courageous people" to play the game. The 26-year-old left-hander, who played at Whittier Christian High and Southern California College, left the Zion Pioneerzz on Thursday, a day after she gave up five hits and three runs in a 10-6 loss to the Feather River Mudcats. "I'll look back and say I did something nobody ever did," Borders said.

The score was 1 to 0, with the team from San Pedro ahead. Twelve-year-old Victoria Brucker stretched over her bat, and then pulled her long dark hair away from her neck, where it was sticking in the muggy Pennsylvania heat. She picked at the shirt of her uniform. Finally, she stepped up to the plate, and in doing so on Wednesday became the first girl to play on an American team in this youngest version of the national pastime--the Little League World Series.

With Madonna and Geena Davis starring as 1940s pro baseball players who overcome sexism and inside fastballs to save America's sagging spirits during World War II, Columbia Pictures' coming "A League of Their Own" can't help but be outrageous, audacious and occasionally dramatic. The movie, as odd as it sounds--women, playing hardball for a living?--is based on fact. In the long history of professional baseball in this country, women have had their own league only once.

How about a trip to watch the moss grow on Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo? Or a trip across the Arctic on board a nuclear-powered Soviet icebreaker? Or a leisurely sightseeing tour of Scud missile damage in Israel? What about a journey with 200 other women to meet single, available men in Australia, Ireland or Paris? How about a voyage to Tahiti to watch sharks feed off the coast of Bora-Bora?