By: Paige Fry, Editor-in-Chief
13-year-old Mo’ne Davis is the 18th girl to enter in Little League World Series history, but she is the first girl to strike out boys with her 70 mph fastball.
Davis led her team, the Taney Dragons from Philadelphia to the United States’ semi-final game. She is one of the most well-known players in the game right now, which is exceptional for a slugger who’s entering the eighth grade. Davis also wraps up the attention of all types of sports stations across the nation, becoming the first little league player to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
With the spotlight on Davis, she stays humble and is just there to play ball, not to rack up fans.
“I first heard about [Davis] from instagram on MLB’s account. She’s a good pitcher, and I watched an interview of hers and she wasn’t self-centered, she was very about the team,” senior Brandon Allan says.
Davis is an inspiration for young girls everywhere. She proves that girls can not only hang with boys in the game of baseball, but can also strike them out.
Sophomore Nicole Saporito responded to the phrase ‘you throw like a girl’ by saying, “I think of it as a negative connotation because typically boys think girls are weaker, but I disagree. If someone told me [you throw like a girl] I would say ‘thank you, so much’ because Mo’ne Davis is probably better than 85% of boys who play [baseball].”
Davis and the Taney Dragons were one win away from making it into the United States’s championship game, only to lose to a team from Illinois. She still managed to make more noise in the media than any other little leaguer, even without winning the championship.
Sophomore baseball player Jadin McMachon-Dahn says Davis’ impact “on boys, nothing much, girls, a lot. It’ll bring a lot of girls into the baseball community. [However, girls] shouldn’t be in predominantly male sports because it may change the game dramatically.”
Davis still wishes to continue her baseball career, but she also would like to make a career out of her main sport: basketball. Her goal is to be a point guard for the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team and then play in the WNBA.