(Not ‘One of the Boys,’ But She Plays Like It)

As a reporter for the Mayefield Messenger, Thomas Carroll captured the soul of his hometown by writing about “real people,” not just those considered newsworthy.  His feature stories were well regarded and occasionally came to the attention of the metropolitan daily, the Beacon Light, which published Thomas’ stories under the heading “Dispatch from Mayefield.”  The following is one of these Dispatches, published in 1976.

 Not ‘One of the Boys,’ But She Plays Like It

 By Thomas Carroll

 Mayefield Messenger

Marty Ledbetter is no male chauvinist.  He’s a coach who likes to win, and winning means getting the best players possible for his Mayefield High baseball team.

Karen Wilcox isn’t really a feminist; rather, a ninth grade girl who likes to play baseball, and she plays as well as many of the boys around town.

Karen is now a member of Ledbetter’s Mustangs team, the only girl ever to make the squad.  Both coach and player treat the situation matter-of-factly, saying there are “no problems at all.”

When Karen first tried out for the team, Ledbetter didn’t really think she had much of a chance.  In his four years of coaching at Mayefield, other girls have tried out, but none before came close to making it.  But he utilized the same standards as he does for boys, and when the season started, Karen was a member of the team.

“She bats with confidence,” he says, “and is really working hard.  She has a good arm and is as fast as any boy on the team.”

Karen will be playing left field, but is not scheduled to as a starter.  In the season opener last week, she didn’t get an opportunity to play because the game was close and Ledbetter kept his first string in.  The coach insists she will play in the future.

Mixed sports teams are a relatively new phenomenon in the county school system, allowed by the federal Title IX rules.  A school that doesn’t offer a girl’s equivalent to a “non-contact” sport must allow boys and girls to compete together.  Since Mayefield High doesn’t currently offer softball for girls, Karen was eligible to try out for baseball.

For Karen, baseball is not a substitute for softball.  If the alternate girls team was offered, she still would favor baseball, because, she says, “it’s more work and I like things that make you work and run.”

Besides her fondness for the game, Karen had a little bit of women’s lib in her motives for making the team.

“People said a girl couldn’t make it,” she says with a smile of determination.  “I wanted to show them girls could do it.  I didn’t know if I was good enough, but I gave it a try.”

She acknowledged that coach Ledbetter treated her fairly in the tryouts, but feels it was harder for her than the average boy to make the team.

“Many of the boys were judging me as a girl, not as a baseball player.  But I worked hard and showed them I could do it.  Now we all get along well.”

The boys do accept her now.  When her name was inadvertently omitted from the original roster, it was the boys who were the most vocal in insisting she be listed.

The internal problems ironed out, Karen still hasn’t had an opportunity to show what she can do in a game situation.

But the time will come soon, her coach insists.  And Karen will be ready.

And we will follow up with this story.

(Robert J. Marton)