Lanny Moss (1974)
"A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules"
Although women have been playing baseball since 1866, the first baseball team created solely for women at Vassar College didn't come until many years later. The first woman ever to own a major league team was Helene Britton, who owned the St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1917. Even later than owning professional teams (which usually doesn't involve that much contact with the actual game itself) and professionally playing baseball themselves, women weren't generally thought of as responsible for men's teams. Not until Lanny Moss became the first woman to manage a men's professional baseball team in early 1974. She was hired by the minor league Portland Mavericks. Whether she knew it at the time or not, Lanny helped pave the way for future female victories in the unspoken game of baseball. On June 12, 1974, girls were officially given admittance to Little League, previously reserved strictly for boys. 1984 saw Victoria Roche become the first girl to play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. In 1994, Ila Borders became the first woman to pitch for a men's baseball team. She played for Southern California in Costa Mesa, California.
If you played professional sports, would you find it uncomfortable playing for a female coach?
Justin Gray: The only reason this might not be such a good thing is because it is important for the coach to determine the physical capabilities of his/her team and also create a “father/mother” figure. This is much easier to achieve with a same-sex coach.
Matt Mahar: Definitely not. I played golf under a female coach in high school and had absolutely no complications with it at all.
Rich Barie: No I don’t think so, as long as she was experienced just like I would expect from any coach.
How do you think your behavior would change in reaction to being around a female coach?
Matt: I feel as though I was possibly more respectful toward my female golf coach than I had been towards some of the male coaches that I had in the past, but female coaches have to earn that respect just the same as male coaches do.