Educational Media Reviews Online

Each year in Cuba, there is a national women’s baseball tournament. The tournament is unusual not for the fact that women are playing in it, but that they are playing baseball. In high schools and colleges in the U.S., the organized competition for women is in softball rather than baseball. When baseball was an Olympic sport, it was for men only. Women competed in softball.

But in Cuba, women are playing hardball, when they can get the chance. The national tournament is the only large-scale organized competition in the country for women’s baseball. Some women’s teams end up playing against men just to participate.

Cuba has a great baseball tradition, and the video says women’s baseball was popular in Cuba in the 1940s. But it lost the spotlight as men’s competition got the attention again. Some men interviewed still frown on women playing, saying baseball is a man’s sport and a woman’s job is at home. Even the manager of a woman’s team shows some sexism. He says in the video that he insists the women look feminine and always have polished nails.

The prospects for women who want to play baseball would make for an interesting long-form documentary on ESPN. This video is less than 30 minutes and was apparently intended to promote women’s baseball in Cuba. It raises some issues, but is not a substantial enough exploration. The video is recommended for those libraries with large collections in Latin American studies or women’s studies.