Thursday, April 5, 2012

Life lessons on Opening Day - Play Ball, girls!

This young girl knows that baseball is
no laughing matter. Photo: Tim Sarnoff 
Every opening day, I remember this one big lesson from life.

One day in 3rd grade, we got word that the next day the boys would be able to bring in their transistor radios.

What?!  Boys?  Could bring in their radios?!

That's lifting one of the biggest rules in school -- no radios.  Back then, that was like saying no phones.  Yeah!  The principal was lifting a rule about one of the biggest distractions in school.

What the heck was this all about?

I did a little investigating and found out that it had something to do with baseball.  The next day was baseball's Opening Day and apparently this was big enough to break all the rules.

But what's this about the boys and not the girls?   Our principal was sending me and my posse the message that

1. we must not like baseball.
2. we had no interests important enough to change the rules over.

This was pre-Title 9 and I like to think that some of the ruckus we made that next day led to some of the breakthroughs for women that followed.

We did what 3rd-grade girls do best: We pestered the heck out of those boys.  There was no corner of the playground where they felt safe huddled, listening in Boyland to their radios.  We showed them that we could listen too.   We may not have been part of the gang in the principal's eyes, but we showed them we understood the excitement in the crack of the bat and roar of the crowd.

And we showed them that they could not keep us from listening.


Robin J. Phillips, Tempe





4 comments:

The Oakland Faithful said...

I enjoyed reading this while listening to Red Sox-Tigers on my headphones, minimizing and maximizing my screen every few minutes as the announcer's voice fluctuated with a deep drive or big strikeout. Love this time of the year! Players wearing turtlenecks and sitting around space heaters in the bullpens. And soon, April gives way to May, and June - and the glories of summer... (Go A's!)

Unknown said...

I have a feeling, Mr. Faithful, that you would not have even noticed us hovering around you and your radio.

Enjoy the day!

Lori Lavender Luz said...

You go, grrrrlz! I'm glad that in many ways, times have changed.

Maybe enough for the Rockies to win it all??

Unknown said...

I love the Rockies. Wish I could go to their home opener on Monday.

They are undefeated so far!

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