She truly is in a league of her own.
Fifty years ago, Maria Pepe of Hoboken, New Jersey, changed the trajectory of women’s sports by fighting for the right to play Little League baseball.
“It wasn’t just about baseball,” Pepe, now 63, told the Post. “It was about the role of girls in society. Now they are able to play and reap the rewards of the sport.
On Saturday, Pepe’s groundbreaking victory will be honored in the Peter Stuyvesant Little League Opening Day Parade – marching at 8 a.m. from Manhattan’s First Avenue, on 20th Street, through Stuytown to Con Edison Field – with Mets legends John Franco and Dwight Gooden joining the procession.
“We are happy to celebrate this milestone,” Peter Stuyvesant Little League President Nick McKeon told the Post. They currently have about 200 girls in their league, many of whom play softball and a few who opt for baseball.
“Without someone like Maria, my own daughter can’t play. We take it for granted now,” he added.
Today, no one blinks an eye at a girl on the Little League diamond. Female sporting greatness is anchored in our culture and highlighted every day, breaking stereotypes – and records. Monday’s Elite Eight college basketball game between LSU and Iowa led by Caitlin Clark drew 12.3 million viewers.
But in the 1960s, there weren’t many options for girls — in Hoboken or anywhere else in the United States — beyond cheerleading.
But Pepe was surrounded by neighborhood boys and fell in love with the American pastime. She collected baseball cards and supported Bud Harrelson and Tom Seaver.
She watched the Mets and Yankees so much that her father felt like she was monopolizing the television, so he bought Pepe his own mini-TV.
“From the age of 5, I was out after school. I loved playing with the boys. We played wiffle ball and moved on to hardball,” Pepe said.
In 1972, she accompanied her friends as they registered for tryouts for the newly formed Hoboken Young Democrats. The team sponsor spotted her and asked if she wanted to join as well. Pepe, then 11 years old, was listed as a pitcher.
But there was a problem. By 1951, Little League had adopted a rule prohibiting girls from participating.
“My teammates agreed with me because they saw that I was contributing, but there was this general feeling that I shouldn’t have been there,” Pepe recalls.
After three games, he was asked to leave or the city would have its charter revoked.
“I had a seizure and my parents could see it. It was a big disappointment. No one could deny that I didn’t know how to act,” she said. “It was just my gender that was the problem.”
The National Organization for Women heard about Pepe’s story and asked to represent her in a lawsuit against Little League Baseball.
The Yankees also reached out by inviting Pepe to a game with his family. But not everyone appreciated his legal fight.
“There were tough times where people could be tough and say, ‘You should be at home with your mom.’ My parents received a little warmth from the neighbors,” Pepe remembers. “I was a kid who absorbed a lot of things. If someone said something harsh, I didn’t tell my parents because I didn’t want them to break up the fight.
“There was a general feeling that I should have left alone.”
And it was not an easy battle. Two years later, in 1973, a New Jersey judge ruled in Pepe’s favor; it took another year for the Superior Court to confirm it.
By the time the exclusionary rule was officially abandoned, Pepe was 14 and had left the league. She played high school basketball and college softball at St. Peter’s College (now University) in Jersey City and became an accountant. She is now the deputy comptroller for her hometown of Hoboken.
Baseball never left his blood. The sport has not forgotten its name either.
In June, Little League will host the inaugural “Maria Pepe Little League Baseball Legacy Series: A Girls with Game Experience,” a girls baseball tournament in Williamsport.
“It’s been fifty years and I’m happy they’re doing this event,” Pepe said.
To date, 22 girls have competed in the Little League World series, including, in 2014, sensation Mo’ne Davis, who went on to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Seeing girls perform on this stage is “the gift that keeps on giving” for Pepe.
As for her breakthrough moment fifty years ago, she credits her late parents Patsy and Angie with giving her the strength to keep going, saying, “I’m glad my parents are by my side.”
In 2016, his hometown of Hoboken named local batting cages after him.
“My father died at 65, so he couldn’t see the positive side of everything,” Pepe said of that day. “But when I heard the news, I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my mother.
Pepe’s imprint on the game extends beyond his pioneering case. His 1972 uniform cap is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
“I’m just thrilled and heartened by the reception I’m getting from everyone, and I’m happy that we’re in a better place,” Pepe said.
“I wish I could grow up again.”
New York Post
