It is getting closer to the World Series, and once again the U.S. turns to its attention to the baseball scoreboards. To men’s baseball, of course. Women here don’t play baseball. Women play softball. But as Baseball Scoreboards news has found out, a University of Nevada political science professor is determined to expose the plight of female baseball players to the world. Her name is Jennifer Ring and after winning a research grant she wrote a book called “Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Do Not Play Baseball”. She is also now writing a follow-up book to this one.

Ring says that her passion for baseball has been a lifelong one. She jokes that she was probably born with a baseball gene, which she has even managed to pass on to her daughter, who is part of the U.S. National Women’s Baseball Team. Ring says that her daughter is a talented athlete, but it is difficult for her to find professional teams she can play for after the Little League. This is a problem that many female American baseball players encounter.

The first book that Ring wrote, “Stolen Bases”, talks about baseball history, and exactly how women have managed to fit into the sport. The follow up book will be more like a documentary, which will contain some of the interviews Ring conducted with female players, delving into their struggles with the sport. The $1,000 grant she has won will give her the opportunity to travel and do some good research for the book, which could also end up being made into a documentary film. Ring is particularly pleased with winning the grant, because most research conducted about baseball is all about the men who play it. She says it was an honor to get a grant to do research on female baseball players.

American women have been invisible and below the radar for the American people, earning very little-known places on the American National Women’s Baseball Team. But this team has won many medals in competitions of international level against teams of Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Cuba, India, and Hong Kong. USA Baseball does give the national women’s team its support, but the baseball scoreboards highlight them just every two years. Other than this, there is almost no institutional support in baseball for girls or women in the U.S. So, it is extremely difficult for women to find a baseball team they can play on and where they can develop their skills.

Jennifer Ring is the former University of Nevada women’s studies director. She teaches courses on race, ethnicity, gender, class, diversity, and identity. After writing papers on political theory and her promotion to full professor, Ring decided that she earned the right to write about her passion. She says that she has been interested in American pop culture for a long time, especially in American sports, and that is exactly what she aims to do.

For more information on women’s baseball go to: en.wikipedia.org