Little League Stands Firm on Softball Policy : ACLU Intends to Sue Over Ban on Boys From Teams

As national Little League officials Friday were defending their ban against boys playing on girls’ softball teams, the American Civil Liberties Union was stating its intention to file a lawsuit next week to have the ban lifted in California.

The ban is designed to create more opportunities for girls in softball, said Creighton J. Hale, national president of Little League, because “our board felt that the (softball) program was being dominated by boys.”

Over the years, Hale said, softball teams composed mainly of boys have defeated girls’ teams by large margins. He said that in some cases girls refused to play softball because they didn’t want to compete with boys who were better athletes.

San Diego Little League representatives were the only ones in the country to question or protest the softball ban for boys, Hale said.

After speaking Friday afternoon with the lawyer for Little League, ACLU attorney Gregory Marshall said his office plans to file suit Tuesday.

“They (Little League) feel confident that the league’s position will prevail in court,” Marshall said. “I feel confident our position will prevail. We’ll see what the court says.”

Marshall said the ACLU will seek an injunction to prohibit the league from enforcing its ban in California.

A directive issued in December from Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pa., to its affiliates banished boys from Little League softball teams.

Joe and Roberta Torres, who are active in San Diego’s Sunshine Little League and whose son, Joe Jr., has played softball for two years, sought help from the ACLU to have the ban lifted.

The ACLU last week sent a letter to league headquarters asking officials to rescind the ban, calling it a violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex discrimination.

Roberta Torres, vice president of Sunshine Little League, said she has received letters from people who support her efforts to lift the ban. Some Little League parents and UC San Diego students are circulating petitions against the softball segregation, to be sent to league headquarters, she said.

Businesswoman Mary Quiroz, who was planning to sponsor the Sunshine Little League, said she is withdrawing her sponsorship offer because of the ban, which she feels takes relationships between boys and girls a step backward.

“It’s really dumb. It’s un-American,” Quiroz said. “I feel that these people should have really researched the work before they made an order. They didn’t get other people’s opinions. I feel it almost takes us back years and years.”

Marshall J. Dinas, administrator for Little League District 33, which includes the Sunshine Little League, said he “hadn’t heard of any situation on the West Coast” where boys dominated softball.

“We have an awfully good caliber of softball with the girls playing,” he said. “We’ve never had any problems to speak of.”