SPORTS

Thank You, Alyssa Nakken

ALICE MARTIN Managing Editor

In a time when I didn’t know what a pandemic was, I played softball. I played third-base and I loved the sport, the community, and the friends I made along the way. I was pretty good at it, but I never attempted to move higher than a B ranking. That was fine by me; I played softball for fun. You don’t make a professional career out of softball.

Well, actually, I was completely wrong, and I am blaming stereotypes and my own misconceptions for it. On April 12th, Alyssa Nakken—my new personal hero—made history by being the first on-field female coach in a regular season. When Antoan Richardson, first-base coach for the San Francisco Giants, got ejected on the basis of unsportsmanlike behavior, Nakken stepped up to the plate (not literally, but quite close) to replace him. She received huge amounts of applause from the crowd and a handshake from Padres’ first-baseman Eric Hosmer as she was officially smashing another barrier for women in professional sports leagues.

That’s right– as well as being the first on-field coach in a regular season game in Major League Baseball history, Nakken also made history for being the first coach on-field in an exhibition game and the first full-time female coach in MLB history.

Her background? Softball. All throughout high school and university, she distinguished herself as an accomplished softball athlete. She played firstbase for the Sacramento State Hornets until 2012 and joined the San Francisco Giants organization as an intern in 2014, getting promoted to full-time staff at the start of 2020.

As she was seen standing proudly near first-base on April 12th, ready to give coaching advice to her fellow Giants in the batting lineup after the altercation between Richardson and the third-base, TV broadcast commentators could be heard in awe as they confirmed history being made. They spoke of how, as dads of girls, they were happy to see women advancing slowly but surely to the major leagues. They are right; women athletes like Nakken will definitely serve as excellent role models for any young girls playing softball (or baseball for that matter). I know I would’ve needed a role model like her when I was a little younger, before I dropped out of softball.

According to a report by Canadian Women in Sport dated back to 2020, 1 in 3 girls engaged in sports will leave the sport by their late teens, while 62% of girls do not engage in sports at all. Compared to teen males, there is a large difference: only 1 in 10 boys will leave sports by their late teens.

Now, there are a lot of reasons why girls drop out of sports so much. The main one is academic and social lives taking up a lot of space. I’ll admit, I’m the first one to say I’m overwhelmed by both. However, we do not see women in sports nearly as much as we see men in sports and that can influence how much girls see a reason to pursue sports. But that is changing.

Alyssa Nakken isn’t the first woman we see in a professional sports league. Also, I’m aware baseball isn’t most people’s favorite sport (it’s not boring I swear!), so let’s talk about hockey. Manon Rhéaume is another trailblazer in women’s sports history and an amazing goaltender from our very own Quebec. Manon Rhéaume was the catalyst, the first women to play in any major North American pro-sports league. She signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning and played in exhibition games with them in 1992 and 1993. Oh yeah, she is also an Olympic silver medalist and an IIHF gold medalist. No big deal. To this day, her jersey is proudly and rightfully displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I know I’m going to be met with the criticism that there is a reason as to why there are more men than women in pro-sports. However, I like to believe that the sports performance gap we see between men and women is constantly shrinking and that, actually, it’s not as prominent as we think. If you still have The Plant’s February Issue near you, I invite you all to look back on my article in the Sports section to further understand my point.

In any case, I was unbelievably happy to see Nakken on the field last month. As a fan of baseball and as a fan of women’s sports, I hope I will see more of Nakken and I hope to see more women in pro sports.

Nice going Nak. p p

Raising the Stakes: Croquet on the Rise

EMMY RUBIN Sports Editor

Cucumber sandwiches. Jam and scones. Vats of tea. The smell of cleancut grass perfuming the summer air. You might be thinking of 1940’s Brits dressed in tweed having a picnic on the lawn of their country estate, when actually, this scene is of a game of croquet being played at a modern family get-together right here in Quebec. Even so, it’s understandable that you still think of a bunch of Brits in tweed having a picnic, and you wouldn’t be too far from the truth as this scene is extracted from the recountments of our beloved Editor-in-Chief, Pipa Jones, whose grandparents brought their annual croquet tournament traditions from the great motherland of the United Kingdom to Canada to spread the wealth, one might say, or rather, the commonwealth.

And yet, as much as we associate croquet with England, they might have merely been the original trend-setters– not the creators. Originating as a game played by 13th century French peasants, croquet slowly became more well-known when the Irish began to pick it up in the 1830’s and lovingly named it “crocky”. Two decades later, the British did what they do best and looked over their green neighbor’s fence and started manufacturing equipment for it, subsequently adopting the game as a staple of the British leisure class. This is where the tweed and the country estates come in. After 1870, the game reached the colonies where it was relished by all the young folk who were finally given an excuse to run after a waylaid ball together and have private moments of courting without the eye of an ever-watchful chaperone to ruin the mood.

As any well-educated and cultured young person would know, Kate and Anthony spend an iconic scene of bickering and prolonged eye contact wacking around their balls until they spitefully hit the other’s across the field. When they go to retrieve the balls, they spend many moments alone, courting, until the Bridgerton father’s grave puts a damper on the game.

With the surge of Bridgerton and the fashionable trends from the 19th century, croquet as a sport is more relevant to the current generation than ever before, and will probably only grow in popularity among younger people. Think of it as the modern, more aesthetic golf. There’s a common assumption that being played by very British people in very British places, croquet is only played by old people. According to Pipa Jones, however, the sport has already been embraced by the more youthful members of society even though their grandparents and grandparents’ friends were the ones to introduce it. Speaking about the amount of older players at their family’s annual croquet tournament, Pipa said, “...young and old enjoy the game on these summer days. Often, after the ‘main’ tournament is over, the children will take over (kids from 5-25 years old) and play their own game amongst themselves.”

Without their annual croquet tournaments, the newer Jones family generations and the friends they’ve made in the community of Ile Bigras would have likely never heard of croquet, let alone ever played it. As stated by Pipa, “Have I ever heard of the game outside of this yearly tradition brought

It takes precision and delicacy, but also strength and a certain willingness to be cold and calculating, even against your dearest friends and family.

Photo VIA THE TAB

on by my grandparents? Nope.” This is to be expected since, while croquet has been well-established for centuries in Europe, the game has only recently been brought across the pond to North America, and in Canada especially, Croquet is in its infancy. Within the bracket of croquet, competitive playing is evermore underplayed in the form of recreational croquet, which can be played on any lawn and is more flexible than competitive play. It usually follows the ever-changing and sometimes ridiculously malleable house rules. “I must say, every year there is an instance where my grandfather, the overseer and referee of sorts, is called over to argue a play or a roquet limit. And every year, the rules seem to change a little bit,” said Pipa when reflecting on the difference between playing croquet in Montreal as opposed to anywhere else.

The house, as it seems, is its own country, and the government is made up of nepotism and indecisiveness. Nevertheless, there is hope that croquet will surge in popularity as, since the 1980’s, the number of competitive players has risen from 50 to over 8,000. The estimated number of backyard sets sold annually in Canada surpasses 100,000. Croquet is clearly knocking the ball out of its own park.

Sadly, croquet is not for everyone. Not any average person could handle the stakes of the game; according to Pipa: “It takes precision and delicacy, but also strength and a certain willingness to be cold and calculating, even against your dearest friends and family.” p p