Marika Lyszczyk will be the first female catcher to play baseball with her male colleagues, one of the sports forever dominated by men
This too, in some respects, is a great achievement. Not that in American sports women’s disciplines are not very successful, indeed, the example of the great popularity of the players, winners of the women’s world cup, is clear, but never would a woman have dared to challenge men in the most masculine sport there is.
The 21-year-old Canadian, the new star of American baseball, will make her debut this summer in the Futures League with the jersey of the men’s team Brockton Rox ,which years ago was a professional baseball franchise of members of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball.
There is always a first time
If usually in sports there is a clear distinction between men’s and women’s teamsto break down any prejudice and conviction will think about it Marika Lyszczyk, 21-year-old Canadian catcher due next summer will take the field with the Brockton Rox shirt, an American baseball team from Massachusetts that participates in the Futures League. And if there is one sport that is more masculine than others this is precisely baseball, which in the United States has always been considered the most American discipline of all. For now it’s just an eight-man tournament for the summer, but it could also become the gateway to new goals in women’s sport. Marika is considered by scouts one of the stars and stripes baseball’s emerging talentshis climb began at Rivier University nel New Hampshire, where she would become the first NCAA female catcher on a men’s team and the first Canadian woman to play baseball in the NCAA. After a season in the local college club, he now wears the second division jersey for Sonoma StateUniversity of California, under the guidance of the historic Head Coach John Goelz.
An epochal turning point
What we can define as an epochal turning point for the entire world of women’s sport will become reality next summer with the entrance of the twenty-one-year-old Canadian into the world of men’s baseball through the front door, but she already has very clear ideas: “I prefer to play with boys because for me softball was, in fact, too ‘soft'”he said. “And then the idea of changing didn’t scare me, even if there were people who advised me not to.” Surely she will have to break down other walls, overcome other mistrust, but there are those who are willing to bet that she will be the first woman to wear the legendary shirt of the Boston Red Sox. “And I am like all the boys who play with or against me” Marika herself closes the question, proving to be very determined.
