New York Female Giants

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New York Female Giants, 1913 New York Female Giants (baseball) team, 1913.jpg
New York Female Giants, 1913
New York Female Giants pitcher in 1913 (New York Female Giants (baseball)) LOC 3597345119.jpg
New York Female Giants pitcher in 1913
Miss Schnall, catcher, and Miss Slachu with hands on home plate in 1913 Baseball - New York Female "Giants"- Miss Schnall, catcher, and Miss Slachu with hands on home plate LCCN2004679530.jpg
Miss Schnall, catcher, and Miss Slachu with hands on home plate in 1913

New York Female Giants was an all-woman baseball club in 1913.

Contents

The club consisted of 32 women, mostly high school students, who divided themselves into two teams (Reds and Blues) for intrasquad competitions. The team may have been created or supported by John McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants, the men's National League team. [1]

The Female Giants generated mixed responses. The Rock Island Argus reported on the Giants as a "scheme" by "suffragets [ sic ]", though the New York Tribune reported that 1,500 spectators attended a Giants' game at the Lenox Oval in Manhattan. [2] [3] In the game at the Lenox Oval, team member Helen Zenker was arrested for violating the blue laws, by selling score cards to the crowd between innings, despite the game taking place on a Sunday. The game was left unfinished as a result. [3] [4]

Ida Schnall was the captain of the team. [5] [6] She wrote an open letter to the New York Times hoping that the Giants would convince the Amateur Athletic Union, and its leader James Sullivan, to include women within the traditionally masculine sphere of sports. [1] [7] Women were banned from AAU-sponsored events during the Giants' 1913 season; they were admitted to some swimming events in 1914, after Sullivan's death. [8] Women were finally admitted to most AAU sports in 1923, ten years after the heyday of the Giants. [9]

Team

References

  1. 1 2 Rothman, Lily; Ronk, Liz (25 October 2016). "See How the New York Female Giants Made Baseball History". Time . Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  2. ↑ Rock Island (Ill.) Argus (May 5, 1913). "Suffragets Scheme to get Baseball Fan". p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  3. 1 2 New York Tribune (May 26, 1913). "Girls' Baseball Team Beaten by Policeman" . Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Five Cent Gift is Futile". New York Times . May 27, 1913.
  5. ↑ Sharon Ruth Guthrie (1994). Women and sport: interdisciplinary perspectives.
  6. ↑ Paula D. Welch (2004). History of American physical education and sport.
  7. ↑ "C.A.C. WINS AT LACROSSE.; Brooklyn Athletes Defeat New Yorks by 6 to 1 at Travers Island". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  8. ↑ "Women Swimmers and A.A.U" (PDF). The New York Times. November 22, 1914. Retrieved January 6, 2014. While the unexpected action of the Amateur Athletic Union in permitting women swimmers to register hereafter and to compete at sanctioned meets ...
  9. ↑ Ikard, Robert W. (2005). Just For Fun: The Story of AAU Women's Basketball. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. p. 14. ISBN   9781610752220. OCLC   645941637. Early diverging from the prevalent philosophy of physical educators, the AAU in 1914 deemed swimming an acceptable competitive sport for women. After World War I, the union endorsed elite female competition in track and field (1922), then all generally recognized sports (1923), including basketball. In doing so, it turned 180 degrees from the attitude expressed by its president, James E. Sullivan, in 1910. Invoking an increasingly dated outlook, Sullivan had said his organization would not "register a female competitor and its registration committee refuses sanction for...a set of games where an event for women is scheduled.


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