Female Baseball in NS

[Ump29]

The following was brought forward from the "Ask the Umpire" section thread about interference by runner where a reference was made about the player called "she" and my comments about females and softball and baseball.

 

Just a bit of defense of my comments (in the "Ask the Umpire" section). I sometimes jump on people who assume "she" refers to softball. This may be true in many locations. However in my area (Nova Scotia) and many other areas of Canada , female baseball is quite common. This occurs mainly in youth ball but also beyond. There are many hot beds of female baseball around. These are usually mixed teams but there are many complete female teams around who play in the male leagues. There are also advanced female teams who play to advance to provincial / national championships for all female teams. Also there are many female umpires who work male games as well as mixed and all female teams. Again sorry if I stirred anything up.

[Ump29]

In the Ask the Umpire section there were queries re female baseball in Nova Scotia.

I have a few stats about this. I do not have anything about Softball Nova Scotia as they do not seem to publish anything.

Stats are for 2019.

Total registration 8993  7773 male 1220 female  (18.6 %)

Coaches  1194  970 male 224 female (18.4%)

Umpires  488 462 male  26 female (5.3%)  (lagging behind)

 

For reference the population of Nova Scotia is just under 1 million.

[beerguy55]

16 hours ago, Ump29 said:

In the Ask the Umpire section there were queries re female baseball in Nova Scotia.

I have a few stats about this. I do not have anything about Softball Nova Scotia as they do not seem to publish anything.

Stats are for 2019.

Total registration 8993  7773 male 1220 female  (18.6 %)

Coaches  1194  970 male 224 female (18.4%)

Umpires  488 462 male  26 female (5.3%)  (lagging behind)

 

For reference the population of Nova Scotia is just under 1 million.

Yes, and don't be surprised to see female softball participants in the 10000 range (and don't be surprised to see male softball participants in the 3000 range)....even if "only" 5000 girls play softball that would mean that only 20% of females play baseball vs softball - so that any generalization/assumption that "she" is playing softball would be a safe one...even if wrong from time to time.   And don't be surprised to see a significant number of those females playing baseball ALSO play softball.

To take the converse of your argument...though a high number of males play softball (especially in Canada) nobody gets their shorts in a bunch when we assume that "he" is playing baseball.   The fact is, a boy is more likely to be playing softball than a girl is to be playing baseball.    Especially in the US, where the vast majority of these posts comes from...but it's also true in Canada, if to a lesser degree.

There is no malice in these assumptions...it's pure, cold, pragmatic, indiscriminate math.

[aaluck]

18 hours ago, Ump29 said:

In the Ask the Umpire section there were queries re female baseball in Nova Scotia.

I have a few stats about this. I do not have anything about Softball Nova Scotia as they do not seem to publish anything.

Stats are for 2019.

Total registration 8993  7773 male 1220 female  (18.6 %)

Coaches  1194  970 male 224 female (18.4%)

Umpires  488 462 male  26 female (5.3%)  (lagging behind)

 

For reference the population of Nova Scotia is just under 1 million.

Interesting. Any particular historical reason for the interest in baseball by these ladies in this area. Nearly 20% in both players and coaches is quite high and unseen here in the US. In the last 5 years I can only remember seeing one female playing baseball...at any level, around me.

[beerguy55]

On 10/14/2020 at 1:57 PM, aaluck said:

Interesting. Any particular historical reason for the interest in baseball by these ladies in this area. Nearly 20% in both players and coaches is quite high and unseen here in the US. In the last 5 years I can only remember seeing one female playing baseball...at any level, around me.

Canada doesn't have the high school framework that the US has for baseball/softball - the weather isn't conducive to it - volleyball, basketball, football, yes...baseball/softball no - and I know in the US female participation in high school baseball is VERY low - something like 1 girl per 400 boys? (I suspect that mainly because at that age girls typically don't want to be the only female on the team...and you just don't see all female teams/leagues within high school baseball).

Because all our baseball and softball happens in leagues outside of school, and start in the evenings during the school year before spilling into summer, there's more of a grassroots ability to have all girl teams, in both sports (even then, the baseball numbers are lower, less girls, less teams, which compounds itself)  - and more casual flexibility to go back and forth, especially in the community/rec setting....and where there isn't all girl teams you still have some girls play with the boys (we see it in hockey too)...but typically, as the girls hit puberty most would rather play with all girls...and the likelihood is that means softball - the girl's baseball teams end up being club teams in many cases.   

Baseball interest aside, fastball is the avenue for Canadian girls to get scholarships (partial/full) to US colleges - NCAA/NAIA/JC - not baseball.

Edit: Likewise, baseball is the avenue for boys to gets US scholarships, not softball.

[BT_Blue]

The WBSC has international women's baseball tournaments (there was supposed to be one this year in Mexico, but has been moved... no one knows why) as well as a men's softball which happened back in February.