Although At a professional level, women’s baseball as such does not exist yet. (there is the softball with some differences in their rules), the MLB gave a show of support to him in the MLB Cup 2023 held in CDMX. For the first time there was a women’s category with teams from different states.
Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Baja California, Chihuahua, Puebla and CDMX are participating in the women’s tournament MLB Cup 2023. Six selections with players who entered baseball from a very young age and with experience in international tournaments such as the Pan American Games.
Here at Sopitas.com We set out to discover how this first women’s baseball tournament was and to know the impressions of some participating coaches about the importance and the need to open this space to women’s sports.
“Any space I have to watch the girls’ game, I go”
Fernando Pérez, coach of the Nuevo León teamwas very happy to be in the first women’s tournament of the MLB Cup 2023Well, this event has been taking place in Mexico for some years now, but only in the men’s category. highlighted the quality of matches between women’s teams, which everyone wants to go see when they find some free time.
“We are enjoying the adults and the children’s delegations. We’ve had feedback from teams in other states that ‘any space I have to watch the girls’ game, I go and watch the girls’ game because it’s so relevant.’ It is being handled in a historic way. It is very cool to be part of this and promoting women’s sports“.
The coach told us that many girls start playing in men’s teams due to the lack of women’s leagues. But inevitably there comes a time, when they grow up and for safety, that they stop doing it. that’s when Most of the girls are dedicated to the aforementioned softball, where there are leagues and the opportunity to compete continuously..
That is why it is so important to create spaces where women’s baseball leagues can be played just as the MLB did this 2023. “Until today there can be three baseball tournaments a year. Softball exists too much and that is where they remain active, but in a matter of baseball there are still very few and that is what we are looking for, to grow“, Coach Fernando also told us.
“Baseball needs a lot of support”
We also talked with Eliseo Villarreal, coach of the Jalisco team. agreed that There comes a certain age when girls can no longer play with boys. (around 11 or 12 years old… some until 14 or 15, but they are the least). That’s why it’s so important open a women’s category as happened in the MLB Cup 2023.
“Women’s baseball needs a lot of support to have this development with girls. Girls want to play most are softball players. All this that is being done as tests in the MLB Cup is very important. A professional league does see it as far away”.
Something very interesting that “El señorcito Villarreal” told us was that his team attended the 2023 MLB Cup supported by the Charros de Jalisco, professional team of the Mexican Pacific League. Hence he considers that It would be a good idea for each team in the men’s leagues to have its respective women’s squadbut as he had already told us, he sees it as far away for that to happen.
“It was the best that could happen, that in the basic forces of professional baseball there was a league for men’s prospects and a league for women’s prospects”.
What some players who compete in the MLB Cup 2023 think
Similarly We talked with some of the girls who raffle it off (and a lot) playing baseball and participating in the MLB Cup 2023. Most agree that they did not have major obstacles to play baseball despite the taboos and prejudices of a society like Mexico, but they all did it in men’s teams.
“I started playing beige at the age of 7 and the truth is that everything was very relaxed with the children. nothing more once I had a little problem with a boy who said that girls couldn’t play beige, but everything was fine because I ended up being better than the boy“Dani, from the Nuevo León team, told us.
“I’m very excited because girls had not been taken into account much in this tournament and it seems very cool to me that they are already making a women’s category“he told us Romina Casillasfrom the CDMX team, who already has experience in the Pan American Games representing Mexico and getting the ticket to the U-15 World Cup together with her teammates.
“For me it was not so difficult (playing baseball) because I started when I was little, the children accepted me well. Later, some said that it was a children’s sport and I couldn’t play it. but i kept playing“
Romina Casillas
As you can see, there is a lot of female talent in Mexico for baseball and softball. In Tokyo 2020, a historic 4th place was achieved, for example, but the debt is still there: the creation of a professional women’s baseball league or at least exclusive amateur leagues for them. Spaces like the MLB Cup 2023 They are a first step, without a doubt, but more is needed.
