PITCH: Shifting the Narrative
December 30, 2016 by rozofla
As a young girl in August, there was Little League Baseball Championship to watch as the end of the summer dawned and school was about to start.
Depending on the summer, I would watch with family friends and we’d marvel at the twelve to thirteen year old boys who played baseball with heart.
Mo’ne Davis (Photo Credit: Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images)
In 2014, I watched again. That summer, the world met Mo’ne Davis, who was one of two girls in the final tournament.
Mo’ne Davis wowed the world, pitching a shut-out and getting a hit as a batter.
She turned heads and raised the bar about women in male-dominated sports.
Soon after that summer watching Mo’ne play with the boys, FOX had Pitch hit the small screen. What I feel in love with with Mo’ne Davis was given a few face: Ginny Baker [as portrayed by actress Kylie Bunbury.]
While Mo’ne played with pre-teen boys, Ginny Baker plays with the men. Men of Major League Baseball. It’s no easy task to be the lone girl in the room, testosterone all through the clubhouse.
What happens?
Ginny succeeds. It’s not easy, to be sure, but for a woman watching another woman play with the guys, getting there is the success.
Kylie Bunbury as Ginny Baker in Pitch
As in most of my life, there are guys who don’t trust Ginny for her skill or her finesse, but as the end of the season closed, Ginny was so close to a no-hitter.
She was just like every other pitcher who had gone through a game without a hit.
In a world where life wants to throw lemons at everyone from left and right, Ginny Baker’s success showed the world that half the population isn’t lesser than these men who hit balls over three hundred feet and throw a ball over one hundred miles an hour.
Pitch is a show that allows women to finally see that in sports, we don’t just have to play with the other girls. Mo’ne Davis and Ginny Baker are two women (one real and one fictitious) who defy odds and make it clear that just maybe the glass ceiling’s ready to be smashed in every part of society.
The message of Pitch didn’t reach as many people as I’d like, but I still hope that the ratings are good enough for another season. Ginny’s recovery from her injury is too important (and too real for sports fans) to not root for her and hope for a longer narrative.
Rueben's Ramblings 
PITCH: Shifting the Narrative
December 30, 2016 by rozofla
As a young girl in August, there was Little League Baseball Championship to watch as the end of the summer dawned and school was about to start.
Depending on the summer, I would watch with family friends and we’d marvel at the twelve to thirteen year old boys who played baseball with heart.
Mo’ne Davis (Photo Credit: Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images)
In 2014, I watched again. That summer, the world met Mo’ne Davis, who was one of two girls in the final tournament.
Mo’ne Davis wowed the world, pitching a shut-out and getting a hit as a batter.
She turned heads and raised the bar about women in male-dominated sports.
Soon after that summer watching Mo’ne play with the boys, FOX had Pitch hit the small screen. What I feel in love with with Mo’ne Davis was given a few face: Ginny Baker [as portrayed by actress Kylie Bunbury.]
While Mo’ne played with pre-teen boys, Ginny Baker plays with the men. Men of Major League Baseball. It’s no easy task to be the lone girl in the room, testosterone all through the clubhouse.
What happens?
Ginny succeeds. It’s not easy, to be sure, but for a woman watching another woman play with the guys, getting there is the success.
Kylie Bunbury as Ginny Baker in Pitch
As in most of my life, there are guys who don’t trust Ginny for her skill or her finesse, but as the end of the season closed, Ginny was so close to a no-hitter.
She was just like every other pitcher who had gone through a game without a hit.
In a world where life wants to throw lemons at everyone from left and right, Ginny Baker’s success showed the world that half the population isn’t lesser than these men who hit balls over three hundred feet and throw a ball over one hundred miles an hour.
Pitch is a show that allows women to finally see that in sports, we don’t just have to play with the other girls. Mo’ne Davis and Ginny Baker are two women (one real and one fictitious) who defy odds and make it clear that just maybe the glass ceiling’s ready to be smashed in every part of society.
The message of Pitch didn’t reach as many people as I’d like, but I still hope that the ratings are good enough for another season. Ginny’s recovery from her injury is too important (and too real for sports fans) to not root for her and hope for a longer narrative.
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