One glance in the stands at any Salem Red Sox home game reveals the obvious: there are many, many female baseball fans at Lewis Gale Field on a regular basis. Yet some of those ladies might want to know more about the game, especially if they didn’t grow up around baseball – how it’s scored, some of the terminology, what it’s like to step out on the diamond and throw a ball around or swing a bat.
That’s where Baseball 101 came in last Saturday, as several dozen women spent three hours in the clubhouse and on the field, soaking up some baseball wisdom from Red Sox players, coaches, broadcasters and front office staff. Senior assistant general manager Allen Lawrence led the women on a tour of the stadium, which opened as Salem Memorial Baseball Park in 1995.
Radio Broadcaster Evan Lepler was up next, holding court in the lower level clubhouse as the Baseball 101 class heard stories about long bus trips, major league players that came through Salem (Boston’s Daniel Nava was here last year – he hit a home run in his first major league at bat this season) and the odds of Salem making the playoffs this season.
Some asked Lepler questions that many men would have trouble answering – like what is the difference between slugging percentage and on base percentage, or how do you tell a passed ball from a wild pitch? Like the pro that he is, Lepler laid it all out in easy to understand terminology.
Red Sox director of ticketing and special events Jeanne Boester said this was the third time in five years that the Salem single-A ball club had tried Baseball 101, “to try and reach our women fan base. We do a lot of stuff for kids and men, but we’re trying to reach out to a different audience. We thought this would be a good way to do it.”
For the past two years Baseball 101 has been tied in with the Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation; the event last Saturday ended with lunch and a talk by two breast cancer survivors. Participants also were given two tickets to a Red Sox game. “It’s a neat way of getting women involved,” said Boester.
Wanda Hendrick knew so little about professional baseball when attending her first game in 2009 that when everyone stood for the 7th inning stretch she thought it was time to leave. So she did. Now the diehard Red Sox fan drags her brother to games. She called her brother once, when he still lived in Idaho, to ask him, “what’s an RBI [run batted in?].”
Hendrick, an old pro now, called Baseball 101 “a good chance to get inside the stadium, to see things you normally don’t.” A year later Hendrick calls herself a tremendous fan. “I come to all the games and I know what RBI means . . . I also know not to leave in the 7th inning now.”
Red Sox hitting coach Carlos Febles seemed to be enjoying himself as he helped out with the program. “This is great for the fans. I did it last year. That’s how we get fans a little more involved with our franchise. We’re having fun with these ladies.”
In the outfield grass Salem Red Sox trainer Brandon Henry showed the women stretching techniques the players use before games – twists, chops, etc. “We do [stretches] twice a day,” said pitcher Kyle Fernandes, who also displayed his trademark sense of humor. “I know this stuff is boring, but it’s my life,” he noted.
When some of the women dropped thrown balls during one exercise, Fernandes remarked with tongue in cheek, that “ladies, this is a game of catch – not fetch.” For comic relief he even did the Hokie Pokie, shaking it all about for the Baseball 101 Class of 2010.
“My husband would be proud,” said one woman as she deftly caught and threw a baseball to her partner on the outfield grass at Lewis Gale Field.
By Gene Marrano [email protected]