“It seems like more and more fans are women. Why don’t the big-league clubs solicit women’s attendance?” was one of the good questions I handled at the Forum before the morning’s program at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Naples on April 17.
The answer is, of course, that they do solicit women’s attendance, but the go about it all wrong. They give women insulting gifts like aprons. Or they put on a fashion show. What has a fashion show to do with baseball?
The closest they get to offering a program for women that relates to baseball is to offer to show women how to play the game.
Women don’t need to find out how to play baseball. They’ve been exposed to baseball all their lives. Many are serious fans and know how to keep score. Some have been playing the game themselves for years.
What do they need?
They need to have their play evaluated by big-league coaches. They need to have their teams and leagues sponsored by big-league teams. And they need to have all of Organized Baseball change its attitude toward women’s play from denigration to acceptance.