By Judith Stiles
Kate Phillips never collected baseball cards and has never particularly followed the Mets, Yankees or any Major League team. Her parents didn’t play baseball in their youth and she doesn’t have siblings who are baseball nuts either. However, at age 15 she has a boundless passion for playing baseball herself — pitcher, shortstop, catcher or anywhere she is needed on the field.
At age 6, starting with T-ball, she became totally smitten with the game and began an eight-year journey as a star baseball player on mostly boys’ teams in the Greenwich Village Little League.
“When Kate was 12, not only did she hold her own among the best of the boys, but she excelled as one of their star pitchers year after year,” says Rob Silverstein, a G.V.L.L. coach.
Kate fondly remembers a “terrific” coach, Mike DeRosa, who started her out on pitching and catching. “With Mike, being a girl on a boys’ team was never an issue,” she says. “One day he asked me if I wanted to try pitching, so I tried it. He was always very positive and encouraged kids to enjoy the game no matter what.”
In those days only the catcher was required to wear a protective cup. Kate recalls her catching “career” began when none of the boys had cups for a league game so she became the designated catcher while one of the fathers frantically ran out and bought cups for her teammates. However, Kate did a great job on her first outing as catcher and often continued in the position for her team.
At the end of middle school, Kate had dreams of playing baseball in high school. Why not? She loved the game, she knew how to work hard, and she had a very successful run as a pitcher in the supportive environment of G.V.L.L. But when Kate arrived at Bronx High School of Science she was told that baseball was for boys and that girls should play softball.
The same thing was told to young Donna Lopiano who was a star baseball pitcher in her youth before Title IX, the education amendment of l972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all educational programs and activities that are recipients of federal funds. She was relegated to softball.
Says Dr. Donna Lopiano, now chief executive officer of Women’s Sports Foundation, about her own experience: “I was told as a pitcher that softball was the same sport, which is ridiculous. I was a good pitcher and was not even allowed to try out for the baseball team. All of a sudden, I had to go play softball and learn how to pitch upside-down.”
There is no doubt that New York City’s Public School Athletic League is governed by Title IX. However, there is a debate as to whether softball is the “same” sport as baseball, where girls supposedly have the opportunity to play the same game. In softball, the field is smaller, the ball is bigger, the pitcher’s mound is closer and also…Kate Phillips is no longer pitching. It was not the same game for this pitcher. She was, however, voted M.V.P. as catcher in her freshman year, playing softball at Bronx High School of Science.
Asked if any girls were playing baseball this year, Robert Pertsas, P.S.A.L. commissioner of baseball, answered that he thought it might have been possible that girls had played baseball before his four years in office, but he was not certain. He did admit there were no girls at last fall’s college showcase, an event where top colleges coaches scouted baseball players from 126 metro area varsity teams — players eager to gain coveted scholarships and spots on college teams. When asked if girls were allowed to try out for varsity baseball, Pertsas responded, “I don’t want to get into a political thing.”
When asked if high school girls should play baseball or are better off playing softball, Susan Poakeart, P.S.A.L. commissioner of softball, responded, “I think girls should play whichever they are best at. If there is a girl who is an excellent baseball player, I would fight for her to be on the team.”
These days when you ask Kate Phillips about playing baseball in high school, she admits she “thinks about it all the time, what it would have been like to play varsity baseball.” But she made a decision not to “make all that additional effort to play baseball” because breaking gender barriers is not how she wants to expend energy. She simply wants to focus on playing ball because she loves it.
Most likely there will soon be another freshman girl coming down the pipeline who is capable and has a burning desire to play varsity baseball like Kate Phillips. Yet when you visit the Web site of PSAL.ORG, the baseball information is not “girl-friendly.” In the long list of eligibility requirements to play sports it covers academics, school attendance, etc., and no mention of gender eligibility for specific sports such as baseball. But on the toolbar it clearly places baseball under the heading of “BOYS’ SPORTS,” and no mention of trying out or playing baseball in the girls’ section.
As Julie Croteau — the first woman to play N.C.A.A. college baseball in l989 on an otherwise all men’s team for the Seahawks of St. Mary’s College of Maryland — puts it, “My playing college baseball sent a message to high schools. If it’s alright at college, it should be alright at high schools and middle schools.”
Kate Phillips transferred to Lab School in Chelsea where, as a high school sophomore, she is now on the girls’ varsity softball team. Watching her, one can immediately see that she has a great deal of experience playing ball just in the way she makes quick throws from homeplate with accuracy and self-assuredness. When pitcher Melina Gills was flagging during a tough game against the Bulldogs from the High School of Art and Design, Kate walked out to the mound and said a few key words to Gills to get her through the inning. Kate is well respected by her teammates and as Silverstein is quick to add, “She is every coach’s dream, a solid citizen who leads by example.”
Kate Phillips still finds pickup games in the city parks where she is welcomed by the guys as a thoroughly capable baseball player. She lights up with enthusiasm when she describes how fun it is to practice pitching and catching a hardball one-on-one with a friend. She isn’t thinking about college yet. As she wisely puts it, “I just want to enjoy playing ball now. I’ll think about softball, baseball and college later. It’s just a game.”
