She’s really in a league of her own.
Fifty years ago, Maria Pepe of Hoboken, New Jersey, fought for the right to play Little League baseball and changed the trajectory of women’s sports.
“It wasn’t just about baseball,” Pepe, now 63, told the Post. “It was about the role of girls in society. Now they can enjoy sports and benefit from sports.”
On Saturday, Pepe’s pioneering victory will be honored. Peter Stuyvesant Little League Opening Day Parade — marching from 20th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan through Stuytown to Con Edison Field at 8 a.m. — Mets legends John Franco and Dwight Gooden also joined the procession.
“We are happy to celebrate this milestone,” Peter Stuyvesant Little League President Nick McKeon told the Post. There are currently about 200 girls in the league, many of whom play softball, but a small number choose baseball.
“Without someone like Maria, my daughter wouldn’t be able to play. We take it for granted now,” he added.
Nowadays, no one blinks an eye at the girl on the Little League diamond. Women’s athletic excellence is woven into our culture and showcased every day, shattering stereotypes and records. Monday’s college basketball Elite Eight matchup between LSU and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa State drew a whopping 12.3 million viewers.
But in the 1960s, there weren’t many other options for girls in Hoboken or other parts of the United States other than cheerleading.
However, Pepe was surrounded by neighborhood boys and became obsessed with the American pastime. She collected baseball cards and cheered on Bud Harrelson and Tom Seaver.
She watched the Mets and Yankees so much that her father felt she was monopolizing the television and bought Pepe his own mini-TV.
“Ever since I was five years old, I would spend time outside after school. I loved playing with the boys. We played wiffle ball and graduated to hardball,” Pepe said. Ta.
In 1972, she and a male friend tried out for the newly formed Hoboken Young Democrats. Her team’s sponsor noticed her and she asked if she wanted to join too. Pepe, then 11 years old, was named to her roster as a pitcher.
But there was a problem. In 1951, Little League enacted a rule prohibiting girls from participating.
“My teammates saw me contributing and had no problem playing, but overall there was a feeling that I shouldn’t have been there,” Pepe recalled.
After three games, she was asked to leave or her town charter would be revoked.
“I had a meltdown and my parents were witnessing it. I was so disappointed. No one disputed that I didn’t know how to play,” she said. “My sex was the only thing that mattered.”
A national women’s organization heard Pepe’s story and asked to represent her in a lawsuit against Little League Baseball.
The Yankees also reached out and invited Pepe to a game with his family. But not everyone welcomed her legal battle.
“There were some terrible moments where people might say harshly, ‘You should stay home with your mom.’ My parents were getting heat from the neighbors,” Pepe recalled. . “I was a kid who absorbed a lot of things. Even if someone said something terrible, I didn’t tell my parents because I didn’t want them to shut up. [on the fight].
“There was a general feeling that I should have left it alone.”
And it wasn’t an easy fight. Two years later, in 1973, a New Jersey judge ruled in Pepe’s favor. It took another year for him to be upheld in the High Court.
Pepe was 14 years old when the exclusion rule was officially lifted, making him too old for the league. She played basketball in high school and softball at St. Peter’s University. [now University] I became an accountant in Jersey City. She currently serves as deputy auditor in her hometown of Hoboken.
Baseball has never left her blood. The sports world has not forgotten her name either.
In June, Little League held its firstMaria Pepe Little League Baseball Legacy Series: Girls with Game Experience”, a girls baseball tournament in Williamsport.
“I’m glad they’re holding this event now, 50 years later,” Pepe said.
To date, 22 girls have participated in the Little League World Series, including sensation Morne Davis, who later appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2014.
For Pepe, watching the women play on that stage is “the gift that keeps on giving.”
Regarding her defining moment 50 years ago, she credits her late parents Patsy and Angie with giving her the strength to see it through, saying, “I’m so glad my parents were there.”
In 2016, her hometown of Hoboken named a local batting center after her.
“My father passed away at the age of 65, so I couldn’t look at everything positively,” Pepe said of that day. “But when I heard the news, I burst into tears. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell her mother.”
Pepe’s influence on gaming extends beyond her pioneering incident. Her uniform hat, made in 1972, is now housed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Pepe said: “I am so happy and heartwarmed by the hugs from everyone. I am happy that we are in a better situation.”
“I wish I could grow up again.”
