This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science. I'm Steve Mursky.

Got a minute?

In 2010, the U.S. fielded a baseball team to compete in the Women's Baseball World Cup in Caracas, not softball, baseball. Most

Americans never heard about the team, but Jennifer Ring knew about it. Ring is a

political science professor at the University of Nevada

Reno. She writes about the team which included her daughter in a new book called

A Game of Their Own, Voices of Contemporary Women in Baseball.

Ring talked about the book recently at the Burghino Baseball Clubhouse in New York City.

Her response to an audience member's question raises the possibility that the fastest

route for a woman to make it to Major League Baseball would likely be as a

pitcher.

Just comparing men to women, how fast can the fastest female pitcher pitch? I'm just curious.

You know it keeps going up and I think this is another thing which is that we don't know

how good women are. Boys have been taught to throw hard from the time they're five or six years old probably too much so there's too much pressure too much on

Injuries too much year-round pressure on boys

The best girl fastball pitchers pitch in the 80s. The thing that makes it easier for girls

to succeed as a pitcher on a boys or a men's team are a couple of things.

One is that you really have to be fast, you have to run fast and you have to big arm if you're

going to be an outfielder. The pitchers can win with

off-speed stuff. So the girls who are the best pitchers can hit their spot can throw off speed stuff.

They can't compete with men throwing in the 90s at this point, although it may be coming. Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Steve Mursky.

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