Never in the history of Major League Baseball has a woman pitched in an official game. That gender barrier is slowly breaking down with women like Ila Borders and Eri Yoshida playing in minor and independent leagues on co-ed teams but no one since them has come within an inch of the majors. While we wait for such an event, Fox is exploring the groundbreaking possibility in their scripted series, Pitch. The story centers on Ginny Baker (played by Kylie Bunbury) who gets the call to play for the San Diego Padres.
Ahead of the show’s Sept. 22 debut, Fox asked a group of adorable kids if they thought a woman could ever play in the big-leagues and if so, what would she be like. According to the youngsters, she would have to be “very athletic,” “really burley,” “really hairy,” be very tall, and possess “good hand-eye coordination” along with “super strong leg muscles.” Adhering to gender stereotypes that say a woman would have to be ultra-masculine in order to play among the men, some of the kids were also skeptical about the possibility of such a thing happening because, as one kid put it, “every baseball game I either see in person or on TV, I’ve never seen a girl play.” Kudos to the girl who says it is possible because “if a guy can do it, a girl can.”
In the Hollywood Reporter’s exclusive video, they were then shown clips of Baker playing in a fictional MLB game and their astonished reactions are pretty heartwarming. “That’s, like, blowing my mind,” said one adolescent. The best part, however, is hearing some of them focus on her technique rather than gender, with another in the video complimenting her on her “good motion” and “great follow-through.”
Check out the above video and see if you can fight back the tears. I dare you.
(via The Hollywood Reporter, image via Screencap)
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