French teenager may become the first woman to play Major League Baseball

[stevenleser]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/meet-the-french-teenager-trying-to-become-the-first-woman-in-mlb-192452046.html

Major League Baseball is one step closer to having its first female player. On Sunday, 16-year-old French teenager Melissa Mayeux became the first known female to be added to MLB's international registration list.

That means Mayeux is eligible to be signed by a club during the next international signing period, which begins July 2.

While anyone can attempt to register for the list, only players who have the potential to be signed actually make the cut. Even if Mayeux isn't signed by a club, the fact that she was accepted for the list solidifies her status as a legitimate baseball prospect.

Some within the game have been pretty impressed with her skills, according to MLB.com.
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(more at above link)

[malthaussen]

1. Surprised her arm is strong enough for shortstop

I'd have expected second base. I've always thought a knuckleballer or middle infielder would be the first female in MLB.

Now, can she hit the curve?

-- Mal

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Baseball's a strange game that makes no sense, but that news is pretty awesome...

I can't see anything similar happening in cricket anytime soon, which sucks...

[stevenleser]

3. Cricket seems to me to be more of a gentleman's club game where women are deliberately excluded

...whereas baseball has seemed open to the idea for some time now but because women are steered away from it at a young age, they never develop the required skills. I think that if a woman player seemed able to be able to help a club win, they would sign her in half a heartbeat.

I could be wrong about Cricket.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Women play it at the professional level, but there's mens and womens teams...

...which is pretty exclusionary, especially seeing me as a casual cricket fan can name a few of the current national mens team, but had to go google it to find out the women's national team is called the Southern Stars and I have no idea who any of them are.

I used to play cricket (the backyard variety) when I was a kid, and I'd always beat my brothers, which always resulted in the sulky one of them pulling up stumps and storming off in a huff

[Novara]

4. Call me pessimistic, but....

....if a club picks her up I think it will be a short lived phenomenon only. Baseball purists are so deeply steeped in tradition that I can't see them embracing a female player yet. Unless she is absolutely phenomenal, and then I'm not even sure.

I wish her luck, though. And she can get the ball rolling towards a time when this will be a completely accepted and welcome thing. She might be the first one who can start change rolling.