The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play

by Frank Andre Guridy

Madeline Blais, a recently hired reporter for the Boston Herald. Both encountered frosty receptions from the Red Sox public relations staff and players. Team officials tried to dissuade them from interviewing players on the field and in the dugout. When Shah met with Bill Crowley, the team’s public relations person and gatekeeper of the press box, he informed the young sportswriter: “I’m not sure what your legal status is, but around here we don’t let women into the press box. Or onto the field. Or into the dugout.” Shah pressed on, yet Crowley refused. “I had become increasingly annoyed with Major League Baseball’s attitude toward women,” she recalled years later. “Back then we were lured to the ballpark with pantyhose giveaways and half-price tickets.” Teams had treated women as sideshows. “In Philadelphia, they could roam the stands in cute little miniskirts as ushers. In Baltimore, they could rush onto the field between innings to sweep off the bases… those were baseball’s concessions to women.” After she threatened to sue, the team and the local baseball writers had a change of heart and grudgingly granted her permission to enter the press areas of the ballpark.30