Yes, this is the information age. We hear constantly about the huge amount of data being amassed through the new technologies. Some of us wonder when it’s going to be used to make the world better, or even just taken into consideration when decisions are made. Often, this extensive new information is simply ignored. Continue reading “Nov. 30, 2013”
Nov. 7, 2013
Facts presented in my new four-essay contribution to The National Pastime Museum about women in baseball history surprise readers, especially those who assume that women came late to the National Game and that they never played professionally until the establishment of the women’s league of the 1940s.
Sept. 20, 2013
Last week, after addressing the women of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League at their annual reunion at a historical society in the Chicago area, I found myself impressed all over again with these strong and cheerful women.
They stood straight and spoke to each other (in person, and from the dais) in clear, forceful words, many of them with strong doses of humor. Gathered together, as they are each year, they greeted each other with their baseball nicknames, hugged, remembered the ones who had passed on, and talked about the good times they’d had, all with the most cheerful attitude. They told jokes and stories, took part in silly skits, welcomed visiting players from Australia, laughed at funny pictures of themselves, praised the vintage team members who played a baseball game with some of them, and assented to every request for an autograph or interview.
They seem like extraordinarily healthy people. I decided that either they were robust and energetic before they entered the League, or else being in the League made them so. Or both.
I know for sure that after a half-century, they still remember their experience in the League with great joy, deep pleasure, and much gratitude for the opportunity to play baseball in a league that demanded a high level of competence and where they achieved success and earned appreciation for their skill and efforts. They say it all the time, but they don’t need to, because every movement they make expresses that pleasure.
Since I am their age and undergo the same age-related physical problems they have, I know that nobody in their 80s feels that “together” all the time. But they surely put on a good front. Even when disagreeing with each other about a policy the league might adopt, they remained pleasant and even jocular.
I’ve read a lot of interviews with these women as well as quotations from them in articles and books, and I can say now that, in person, they are just as amazing as they seemed in print.
More power to them! — as if they needed it. I think of them as “the power ladies.”
Aug. 14, 2013
A lot of catalogs arrive in my mailbox every day. That’s because I buy a lot of things through catalogs, or online, since I’m not as mobile as I once was.
In looking through the catalogs I received recently, I realized that something was bothering me about the models, something that seemed unnatural. I finally realized what it was: The models never do anything.
Aug. 11, 2013
I attended the 43rd annual convention of the Society for American Baseball Research from July 31 to Aug. 4 in Philadelphia. Here are some photos from the event, courtesy of SABR:
Dorothy Seymour Mills, right, waits to ask a question during a research presentation at the SABR 43 convention on Saturday, August 3, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
SABR 43 presenter Coral Marshall, left, listens to a question from baseball historian Dorothy Seymour Mills during Marshall’s research presentation on ethics in baseball at the SABR 43 convention on Saturday, August 3, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Baseball historian Dorothy Seymour Mills listens during a panel discussion on baseball scouting at the SABR 43 convention on Saturday, August 3, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
July 23, 2013
One reason women are greatly underrepresented in power positions like those in the national government is the media’s depiction of them as powerless. Young women do not aspire to high government positions when they fail to see frequent role models. They perceive leadership as masculine. Continue reading “July 23, 2013”
July 21, 2013
This week I emailed Acura, the car maker, to make clear my disapproval of the company’s ad in the New Yorker magazine dated July 22. It showed a photo of a car and another of a woman with the words MADE FOR MANKIND. This ad appeared to be stating that cars and beautiful black women are made for mankind. “What do you have for womankind?” I asked Acura. “Or, better yet, for humankind?”
Continue reading “July 21, 2013”
July 16, 2013
When in 2001 I wrote a book of vegetarian recipes called Meatless Meat, not many Americans were interested in becoming vegetarians or vegans. I wouldn’t have been, either, if I hadn’t suddenly discovered that I could no longer digest meat.
July 14, 2013
A few years ago a film director named Max Tash decided to prepare a film called “Girls of Summer” about a group of baseball players named the WBL Sparks. “WBL” stands for “Women’s Baseball League.” The girl players are, at most, 12 years old. Each year a team of girls 12 years old and under is selected by the director of the League, Justine Siegal, to play in the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament, which takes part at Cooperstown Dreamspark in Cooperstown, New York. Continue reading “July 14, 2013”
June 28, 2013
Have you ever read the magazine of Major League Baseball? It’s called MLB Insiders Club Magazine, and you can subscribe to it through the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. One of the regular features of this magazine is a set of stories written by fans about their wonderful experiences in ballparks. They are heart-warming.
Until you begin to realize what they omit from their stories. Continue reading “June 28, 2013”