Crying Foul : Rule to Keep Boys Off Softball Teams Prompts Anger

Ten-year-old Joe Torres Jr. didn’t think he was fast enough to play Little League baseball. So, for the last two years he has played on a Little League softball team. But now a policy change handed down from national Little League headquarters may ban Joe and other boys from further participation in the sport.

The order prohibiting boys from playing on Little League softball teams was sent last November to Little League district administrators nationwide. The national officials decreed that, beginning this year, the league will no longer allow boys to play softball because baseball is available to them. The reasoning is to ensure that girls have more opportunities in softball.

Joe’s parents, who are active in the San Diego Sunshine Little League, have not taken the matter lightly.

They contacted the San Diego office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sent a letter to Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pa., asking officials to rescind the ruling in California or face legal action.

“Somebody has to stand up for these kids,” said Joe Torres Sr., manager of the Sunshine Little League senior team division. “We won’t stand for it. We want to be heard.

“It was a good coexistence between both male and female,” he said. The boys “are pretty hurt. They can’t see why they can’t play with girls. It makes them feel they’re being picked on on the basis of their sex. It’s not fair for these kids to have to sit out of baseball. Basically, it’s discrimination.”

Of the 62 softball players on five Sunshine League teams last year, 21 were boys. Torres said he was expecting about 20 more boys to enroll this year.

Softball season begins Feb. 23, and if the new ruling is not changed, boys will not be able to play.

Torres said he wasn’t opposed to the league’s desire to create more opportunities for girls. He said, however, that league officials should find another way to accomplish that goal.

The ruling doesn’t affect girls who want to play baseball, and Torres said he is glad. He hopes the girls’ right to play baseball “is never taken from them. They fought for that right and they deserve to have it.”

At least one Sunshine League parent who has provided several hundred dollars in support has threatened to withdraw her sponsorship if the new regulation goes into effect, Torres said. The Little League was taken to court in 1973 for not allowing girls to play baseball, and the court ruled that the league must let them play, said Tom Boyle, director of the Little League western regional office in San Bernardino. The league introduced softball as a sport the following year, Boyle said, but it wasn’t specified whether boys could play.

ACLU staff attorney Gregory Marshall said the league’s policy violates California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which says everyone in the state is “entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges or services in all business establishments of every kind.”

Marshall sent a letter to league national president Creighton J. Hale, asking him to rescind his all-girl baseball decision by Friday afternoon. The policy “creates opportunities for girls that are not available for boys,” Marshall said. If the policy is not rescinded, he said, “then we will go to court and seek injunctive relief sometime next week.”

Beverly Gray, a secretary at Little League national headquarters, said Hale was out of town until Thursday. She added that they had not received Marshall’s letter on Monday and said that it would be given to their attorney once it arrived.

Linda Hills, director of the San Diego ACLU office, said the league’s actions were not “mean-spirited.” She, too, suggested that league officials try other means, such as starting several levels of softball like varsity and junior varsity or having separate boys’ and girls’ teams, to give girls a better chance to play.

Marshall J. Dinas, district administrator of Little League District 33 in central San Diego, which includes the Sunshine League, said, “I think this kind of thing had to happen to find out the legal precedent. We have a good program. We certainly don’t want to tarnish it with something that’s questionable.”

Dinas said he thinks the policy was changed to promote safety rather than to prevent boys from playing softball. Each league has a farm team program for boys who don’t have the skills to play on a Little League major team.

“We’ll follow the directive” prohibiting boys from playing softball, unless it is rescinded, Dinas said. “We go by the book.”