Stolen Bases

Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball

Author: Jennifer Ring

A revealing look at the history of women's exclusion from America's national pastime

Cloth – $25.95

978-0-252-03282-0

Paper – $17.95

978-0-252-07915-3

Publication Date

Cloth: 03/03/2009

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About the Book

Far from being strictly a men's sport, baseball has long been enjoyed and played by Americans of all genders, races, and classes since it became popular in the 1830s. When the game immigrated to the United States, numerous prominent women's colleges formed intramural teams and fielded intensely spirited and powerful players. With the professionalization of the sport in the twentieth century, however, women were discouraged from playing, with female players perceived as obstacles to rising male players' stakes of success.

Stolen Bases questions the forces that have kept girls who want to play baseball away from the game. Jennifer Ring also looks at American softball, which was originally invented by men who wanted to play indoors during cold winter months but has become the consolation sport for most female players. Ring searches for ways to rescue baseball from its arrogance and exclusionary entitlement.

About the Author

Jennifer Ring is a professor of political science and former director of women's studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her previous publications include The Political Consequences of Thinking: Gender and Judaism in the Work of Hannah Arendt, and articles on gender in American sports.

Reviews

"Sharp, thoroughly researched examination of gender discrimination in [baseball]."--Los Angeles Times

"Throwing 'like a girl' is an age-old taunt, and Jennifer Ring has had enough of it."--Washington Post

"The story Ring tells is outrageous. Her title is accurate: baseball has been stolen from girls."--Women's Review of Books

"An extraordinary account of the rejection of female players from baseball. . . . [Ring] searches for ways to reclaim baseball's nickname, 'the people's game,' and encourage females who want to play a game they are passionate about. Highly recommended."--Choice

"An important work. . . . Ring traces over a 100 years of issues arising from individuals, cultural biases, legal arguments, and the like to develop a full picture."--Cave 17.com

Blurbs

"By examining the systematic exclusion of women from baseball, this compelling book goes into depth about a topic that most historians do not even question. With a gripping storyline and strong, clear prose, Stolen Bases contains some of the best sportswriting I have seen."--Susan K. Cahn, coeditor of Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader

"This book blends history, political economy, sociology, and biography to form an engaging narrative about the place of women in baseball. Jennifer Ring offers fresh insights, focusing on the game's maternity and the development of efforts to preclude women from playing baseball or acknowledging their place in the game's past."--Adrian Burgos Jr., author of Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line