Julie Croteau

Julie Croteau (born December 4, 1970) is an American former college and professional baseball player. She is recognized as the first woman to regularly play men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball, as well as the first woman to coach men's NCAA Division I baseball and one of the first women to play in a Major League Baseball-sanctioned league.

Julie Croteau
First basewoman
Born: (1970-12-04) December 4, 1970
Prince William County, Virginia, U.S.
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • First woman to play men's NCAA baseball

Croteau attended Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Virginia, where she and her parents filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the school to play baseball on the men's team, which she lost. In college, Croteau, a first basewoman, had a .222 batting average her freshman year as the St. Mary's Seahawks finished with a 1–20–1 win–loss–tie record. In 1994, she played for the all-women Colorado Silver Bullets in their inaugural season, where she batted .078 against semi-professional male competition; after the year, she played for the Maui Stingrays of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league. Her baseball glove and photo are on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. As of 2022, Croteau was on the staff of Stanford University.

Playing and coaching career

Julie Croteau was born in Prince William County, Virginia,[lower-alpha 1] on December 4, 1970, to Nancy and Ray Croteau, both lawyers.[2] Growing up, Croteau played tee-ball and Little League Baseball, and as she got older she played in the Babe Ruth League and in Major League baseball (a youth league).[3] Croteau watched her first baseball game at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.[4] She attended Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Virginia, where she tried out for the junior varsity and varsity baseball teams; she made the junior varsity team as a bench player during her ninth-grade year, but never made the varsity team.[2][3] In 1988, Croteau and her parents filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the high school for the ability to play on the boys' team, but lost.[5] The court ruled that she had "received a fair tryout and that the decision to cut her was made in good faith and for reasons unrelated to gender".[6]

Mike Zitz, manager of the semi-professional Fredericksburg Giants baseball team of the Virginia Baseball League, invited her to try out for the team.[3] She made the team and played several seasons of semi-professional baseball for them.[2] In her first season with the Giants, she was hit frequently with pitches.[7] At St. Mary's College of Maryland, she made the men's baseball team as a freshman walk on.[3] In her debut for the St. Mary's Seahawks, Croteau, who played first base, went 0 for 3 with two groundouts against the Spring Garden College Bobcats as the Seahawks lost 4–1. Defensively, she committed no errors[8] on six attempts.[3] In making her debut, she is credited as becoming the second [9] woman to play in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college baseball game.[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] Cameras from NBC and Cable News Network attended the game.[8] Croteau finished the season with a .222 batting average as the team finished with a 1–20–1 win–loss–tie record.[2] She would later quit the team her junior year due to sexual harassment[3][12] and sexism from teammates and the athletic department.[13] She finished her collegiate career batting .171 over 76 at bats.[13] After playing as an undergraduate, Croteau attended graduate school at Smith College[14] and continued her career by coaching men's NCAA baseball at Western New England University (Division III) as an assistant in 1993[12] and then at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Umass; Division I), also as an assistant,[15] from 1995 to 1996.[5] Her tenure at Umass made her the first woman to coach an NCAA Division I school for baseball.[5]

Professional baseball

"I remember when I left the courthouse and I was really upset, because I didn't feel like justice had been served. Now I feel like it's poetic justice: I'm playing professional baseball, and I don't think any of those other guys are."

— Croteau on playing with the Silver Bullets[7]

In 1994, Croteau played with the Colorado Silver Bullets, a women's professional baseball team that played against semi-professional men, in its inaugural season.[16] There, she batted .078, third-worst on the team, with four hits and two runs batted in over 51 at bats. On defense, Croteau had a fielding percentage of .989 with two errors and a team-high 174 putouts.[17] She had thirteen walks compared to nine strikeouts, one of only two players on the team with more walks than strikeouts,[1] as the Silver Bullets finished with a 6–38 record.[18] When she played for Colorado, Croteau stood at 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) and weighed 130 pounds (59 kg).[1] After one season, she and teammate Lee Anne Ketcham joined the Maui Stingrays of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league for their 1994 season,[19] becoming the first women to play in a Major League Baseball-sanctioned league.[16]

USA Baseball

In 2004, Croteau was selected to be the third base coach for the United States women's national baseball team, which captured the gold medal at the 2004 Women's Baseball World Cup in Edmonton. In 2006, Croteau was promoted to become the manager of the women's national team which won the Women's World Cup in Taiwan. She became the first woman to manage a women's baseball team to the gold medal in any international baseball competition.[20]

Personal life

Croteau graduated from St. Mary's with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[21] Her collegiate baseball glove and photo are on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.[5] In the 1992 Columbia Pictures film A League of Their Own, Croteau served as a baseball double for actress Anne Ramsay,[15] who portrayed first basewoman Helen Haley.[22][23] In 1997, she broadcast Pacific-10 conference baseball games, and "became the first woman hired to broadcast a National Basketball Association" game, according to author Paula Edelson.[2] In 2017, she received the President's Trailblazer award from St. Mary's University. As of 2017, Croteau was married, had two children and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.[21] As of 2022, she works as director of communications in the human relations department at Stanford University.[24]

See also

Notes
  1. According to the Colorado Silver Bullets, Croteau was born in Berkeley, California.[1]
  2. Though an article in Society for American Baseball Research 50 at 50 credits Susan Perabo with playing for Webster University (Division III) in 1985, the article still cites Croteau as being "the first woman to play [NCAA] baseball".[10]
  3. According to an NCAA spokesperson, women might have played college baseball during World War II.[11]

References
  1. "Julie Croteau". Colorado Silver Bullets. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  2. Edelson, Paula (2014). A to Z of American Women in Sports. Infobase Publishing. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-4381-0789-9.
  3. Gregorich, Barbara (1993). Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball. Harcourt. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-15-698297-9.
  4. Holtzclaw, Mike (July 25, 1994). "Julie Croteau: Baseball Player". Daily Press. pp. D1, D3 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "The New Pioneers – Julie Croteau". Sports Illustrated Women/Sport. Spring 1997. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2009.
  6. Croteau v. Fair, 686 F. Supp. 552, 554 n.3. (1988); see also id. at n.4 ("Although there was no persuasive evidence here of discrimination, there was abundant evidence, accepted by the Court, that plaintiff is a fine athlete and a dedicated baseball player. But the competition for a place on the Osbourn Park varsity team was keen. For reasons wholly unrelated to gender, plaintiff did not succeed. The Court notes, however, that plaintiff's ability, industry and determination promise that in the future she will succeed more often that not in whatever endeavors she undertakes.").
  7. Bailey, Kate (April 15, 1994). "Finally, a Team of Their Own". Times-Advocate. pp. C1, C2 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Digilio, Alice (March 19, 1989). "A Woman Swings into Baseball Record Book". The Berkshire Eagle. p. B-7 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Women in College Baseball History - Baseball for All". 14 April 2021.
  10. Berlage, Gai Ingham (2020). "The Colorado Silver Bullets: Can Promotion Based on the 'Battle of the Sexes' Be Successful?". SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research's Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game. University of Nebraska Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-4962-2268-8.
  11. Beck, Martin; Hamilton, Tom (February 4, 1993). "SCC Baseball Signs a Woman, Makes History". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  12. Parks, Brad (June 21, 1997). "Croteau's Love of Baseball Exceeds Pain of Past Slights". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  13. "'Boys will be Boys' Sad Excuse for Fouling Her Out, She Says". The Washington Post. June 25, 1991. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  14. Hall, Charles W. (April 5, 1994). "Finally, a Team to Call Her Own". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  15. "'A League of Their Own' Inspired Baseball Pioneer Croteau". The Boston Herald. Associated Press. April 26, 2020.
  16. Miller, Ernestine G. (2002). Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women's Sports. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-07-139053-8.
  17. "1994 Statistics". Colorado Silver Bullets. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  18. "1994 Game Results". Colorado Silver Bullets. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  19. Lawes, Rick (June 6, 1996). "Female pitcher eyes pros". USA Today. Retrieved April 26, 2009.
  20. Ring, Jennifer (2015). A Game of Their Own: Voices of Contemporary Women in Baseball. University of Nebraska Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-8032-4480-1.
  21. "First Female NCAA Men's Baseball Player Croteau '93 Receives Trailblazer Award". St. Mary's College of Maryland. April 12, 2017. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  22. Willis, John (2000). Screen World 1993: Screen World 1993 Comprehensive Pictorial and Statistical Record of the 1992 Movie Season. Hal Leonard. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-55783-175-0.
  23. Graham, Pat (April 17, 2020). "'A League of Their Own' Inspired Baseball Pioneer Croteau". Associated Press. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  24. "Julie Croteau". Stanford University. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
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