The Hall of Very Good Podcast is focused on you, the fan. Each week, Shawn Anderson and Lou Olsen sit down and talk to people in and around the game of baseball that help make America's Pastime great.
20 years ago, Ila Borders broke through baseball's "glass ceiling" when she appeared in a game for the St. Paul Saints. From Mick Veeck to (yes) Marge Schott, her journey was an interesting one.
Yeah for both Ila Borders making history and motivating other females to play and excel in sports, if that is where their heart is. When I was senior in high school in 1958 in Weatherford, Texas High School, my mother Shirley Hall was elected to the local school board. My mom, who had been the Long Beach City junior girls tennis champion when she was 19 years old, made a motion in a school board meeting to the men, her other school board colleagues, that she thought that the girls deserved a chance to have a girls' tennis team because they would look feminine wearing skorts, and make WHS proud. It passed. We did not have a softball team at WHS, but Implayed softball with my brothers in a vacant lot. By the way, my mother made tasty homemade treats for the Thursday night school board meetings. Later in life, I kidded her about knowing that the stomach was a way to get new opportunities for the girls of WHS. She also made a batch for my 4 siblings and me. There is a Shirley Hall Middle School just a few blocks from where my family used to live. My mom served on the WHS School board for 30 years. Most of the schools there are named after the Alamo heroes or a males superintendent. My how times thankfully have changed.
almost six years ago
Idontknow
Go for it. Just do Irish harp
almost six years ago
Cyn Cooper
Thanks for this. All props to Ila Borders. Great story. You should also know that Mamie 'Peanut' Johnson pitched from 1953-55 in the Negro Leagues, which, of course, was a professional league filled with incredible players. She was the first and only woman pitcher -- 33 w to 8 l. Two other women played in the Negro Leagues.