“There comes a time”: Paul Wiecak, “Female Pitcher Has Simunic Steamed,” Winnipeg Free Press, July 30, 1998, D3.
“Read it,” Neal said: Neal Karlen followed me around during my weeks in St. Paul.
“that thing”: Neal Karlen, Slouching toward Fargo (New York: Avon Books, 1999), 298. Karlen liked Ed Nottle and expressed disappointment when he called me “that thing.” According to Karlen, the comment was made to a Sioux City radio reporter early in June 1997.
“No crying,” he yells: A League of Their Own, directed by Penny Marshall (Parkway Productions/Columbia, 1992).
“How can you let”: From personal, telephone, and e-mail interviews with Ila Borders and her parents, Phil and Marianne Borders, between 1994 and 2015. This comment may have resonated with the family because it touched on a deep issue faced by girls who play baseball: As Jennifer Ring writes in A Game of Their Own: Voices of Contemporary Women in Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), 261: “[Ballplayers’] sense of being an outsider or ‘wrong’ correlates with athletic, more than sexual[,] identity: ‘You’re an athlete and girls aren’t athletes, so which one are you?’” This is particularly true of girls who play a perceived boys’ game like baseball.
“You don’t get many 12-year-olds”: Joseph D’Hippolito, “Borders Breaks Batters’ Hearts,” La Mirada Lamplighter, June 24, 1987, n.p.
At twelve, her fundamentals: Joe Moschetti, telephone interview, July 15, 1999.
Yeah, Mike Moschetti: “Mike Moschetti,” Baseball Reference.com, accessed June 4, 2016, www.baseball-reference.com.
“Being with a woman”: “Quotes,” Casey Stengel: The Official Site, accessed June 5, 2016, http://caseystengel.com/quotes.htm.
No stats exist: Jennifer Ring, Stolen Bases (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 132. Ring quotes Jim Glennie, a passionate supporter of girls’ baseball, as saying that it’s “no tightly held secret’ that girls are ‘simply shoved gently toward softball after Little League and many go there simply because they have a chance to continue playing through college.’”
“Remember . . . Ila’s ‘round the back’”: Susan Johnson, telephone interview and e-mail, November 11, 1999.
“We’ll try to do things”: Rolland Esslinger, telephone interview, May 19, 1999, e-mail, October 11, 1999.
“We still liked to sneak out”: Alyse Isaac, telephone interview, undated.
One coach called: Rolland Esslinger, telephone interview, November 2, 2015.
“There were never”: Rolland Esslinger, telephone interview, November 2, 2015.
Ila was a key: Esslinger interview, November 2, 2015.
Dad rationalized this: Phil Borders, telephone interviews, September 14 and October 6, 1999.
“I was very much opposed”: Marianne Borders, telephone interview, November 10, 1999.
“I had to deal with”: Jay Paris, “Making Her Pitch,” Orange County Register, April 2, 1991, C7.
“I had to get out”: Phil Borders, telephone interview, June 10, 2015.
“Some really encouraged her”: Steve Randall, telephone interview, June 4, 1999.
“The hitters ask”: Paris, “Making Her Pitch.”
the “fear of striking out”: John Corbett, “‘Just One of the Boys,’” Los Angeles Times, undated.
“I’m going to sign”: Miki Turner, “She Won’t Be in a League of Her Own,” Orange County Register, February 4, 1993, 1.
“opponents are our guests”: “NAIA District 3 Code of Conduct,” So Cal Baseball program, Southern California College, 1994, 5.
“Hey,” yells a classmate: Karen Crouse, “Borders Finishes What She Starts,” Orange County Register, February 16, 1994, D12.
“Ila-mania”: Martin Beck, “Borders’ Blues,” Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1995, C4.
“Their players were very abusive”: Register staff, news service reports, “SCC’s Borders Suffers First Loss,” Orange County Register, March 4, 1994, C9.
“We had beaten them”: Charlie Phillips, e-mail, August 6, 2015.
“You saw her pitch”: Phil Borders, conversation with Ila Borders, 1994.
“Media-wise I was shocked”: Charlie Phillips, e-mail, June 5, 2015.
“The [t]aunts are vicious”: Shelley Smith, “Ila Borders,” Sports Illustrated, March 7, 1994. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1004927indexhtm.
“Are you a lesbian?”: Smith, “Ila Borders.”
“I want people to know”: Richard Dunn, “Border(s) lines,” Orange Coast Daily Pilot, February 26, 1994, B3.
“A major portion of lesbian”: Betty Hicks, “Lesbian Athletes,” in SportsDykes: Stories from On and Off the Field, edited by Susan Fox Rogers (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 71.
“women athletes are perpetual”: Hicks, “Lesbian Athletes,” 59.
“To most lesbian athletes”: Hicks, “Lesbian Athletes,” 72.
You can throw: Phil Borders, telephone and e-mail interviews, June 8–10, 2015.
“should not anticipate”: Martin Beck, “SCC Uses Post Office to Fire Baseball Coach,” Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1995.
“Because we care”: Youth 95, 15, no. 2 (March–April 1995, published by Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, CA), inside cover.
“Just what is a real”: Michael Warren, “Would the Real Christian Please Step Forward?” Youth 95, 3.
“Will she wind up”: Tonia Weik, Youth 95, 4–5.
Coach Pigott didn’t care: Mike Rizzo, telephone interview, June 11, 2015.
“the discussion making”: Tim Mead, e-mail, December 8, 2013.
“because it was interesting”: Bob Fontaine, e-mail, December 8, 2013.
“I’ve got my scouts”: Rick Reilly, “Heaven Help Marge Schott,” Sports Illustrated, May 20, 1996, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1008139/index/index.htm.
“Why not play”: Daryn Kagan, “Woman Tries to Make the Cut in Professional Baseball,” CNN Morning News, May 12, 1997.
I showed up for: Barry Moss, telephone interview, May 8, 2013.
“It’s about the only”: Martin Beck, “Borders Cuts Classes, Final College Start,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1997, http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-30/sports/sp-53985_1_borders-cuts.
“When you arrive”: letter from Bill Fanning to Ila Borders, May 8, 1997.
“It goes so deep down”: Neal Karlen, Slouching toward Fargo (New York: Avon Books, 1999), 163.
“There’s a lot of guys”: Ron Lesko, “Love for Hardball, Not Quest for History, Motivates Woman Pitcher,” Associated Press Sports News, May 6, 1997, PM cycle.
“The score didn’t matter”: Mike Augustin, “Borders’ Act Not Bad,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 20, 1997, 4D.
“I don’t put much”: Augustin, “Borders’ Act Not Bad,” 4D.
“She did a whale”: Augustin, “Borders Takes Loss but Has Her Moments,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 23, 1997, 4B.
“In any other given”: Ron Lesko, “Borders’ Work Ethic, Desire Earn Her Spot,” Associated Press report to the Orange County Register, May 29, 1997, sports sec., 1.
“I FUCKING MADE”: Neal Karlen, Slouching toward Fargo (New York: Avon Books, 1999), 293.
“As she was getting”: Mike Augustin, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 2, 1997, 3E.
“There is one thing”: Mike Augustin, “Explorers’ Nottle, Relishing Win, Steers Clear of Borders,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 11, 1997.
“I thought Ila showed”: Terry Hersom, “Explorers Pound Saints’ Pitching,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 4, 1997, n.p.
“She threw me”: Bruce Bennett, “Dukes Defeat Saints with Pitching, Defense,” June 16, 1997.
“When my daddy told me”: Mike Augustin, “Saints Start Post-Ila Era with a Loss,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 27, 1997.
“I will probably be”: Kevin Kotz, “‘I Got Traded for a Girl,’” Duluth News Tribune, June 26, 1997, 1C.
“She is believed”: “Out of the Bullpen; into the Record Books,” New York Times, June 5, 1996.
“Coming up against her”: Larry See, personal interview, June 8, 1999.
“a called third strike”: See interview, June 8, 1999.
“It’s hard to bring”: See interview, June 8, 1999.
“Much of my work”: Steve Shirley, personal interview, June 8, 1999.
“Too much is made of Ila”: Jim Polzin, “Borders Gets New Life in Madison,” Capital Times, June 14, 1999.
“I think the guys”: Ron Ognar, “Borders Sparks Black Wolf, Wisconsin State Journal, June 28, 1999, 4D.
“She battled”: Dennis Semrau, “Black Wolf Can’t Beat the Rain,” Capital Times, July 19, 1999.
“intent to exercise”: Letter from Madison Black Wolf Professional Baseball to Ila Borders, October 20, 1999.
“Ila Borders was one”: Associated Press reports, “Ila Borders Gives Herself the Hook, Retires,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2000, D10.
“women have remained”: Jean Hastings Ardell, introduction of Ila Borders, the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals, July 20, 2003. http://www.baseballreliquary.org/awards/shrine-of-the-eternals-2003/.
“that fat little bastard”: “Artie’s Baseball Challenge pt. 2,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_uNS6-n6Y.
“When I [first met Ila]”: Annie Huidekoper, telephone interview, October 28, 2014.
“When all our hopes”: L. B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, devotional, September 8, http://www.oneplace.com/devotionals/streams-in-the-desert-with-mrs-charles-cowman/streams-in-the-desert-sept-8-1421209.html.
“When Ila finally arrived”: Annie Huidekoper, telephone interview, October 28, 2014.
“[Mike] took a deep breath”: “Annie Huidekoper: St. Paul Saints Vice President Shares Her Story,” Lavender Media Inc., October 8, 2010, http://www.lavendermagazine.com/our-affairs/annie-huidekoper/.
“I am a transsexual sportswriter”: Nancy Hass, “New Mike, Old Christine,” GQ, June 2010, http://www.gq.com/story/mike-penner-sportswriter-christine-daniels
“There’s a process where”: Mark Davis, personal interview, October 5, 2015.
“Teaching our boys”: “Our Lady of Sorrows Academy Forfeits Arizona Baseball Championship over Female Player, Religious Beliefs,” Huffington Post, May 10, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/10/our-lady-of-sorrows-forfeits-baseball-girl_n_1507606.html.
“Even when you’re home”: Ron Shelton, speaking at the Cannery Hot Stove League, Newport Beach, California, December 13, 2013.
“Love is the most”: Jay Bergino, telephone interview, March 28, 2016.