Women’s Organization Unravels Relationship with Chicago MSL

by Jeff McGaw/HardBall

Fall 2008
 

The four-team division, which played a full season as part of the MSL, now operates under the umbrella of the Chicago Gems, an organization that formed six years ago to play in tournaments and promote women's baseball.

Divorce, Chicago Style

What was seen as a great marriage ended in an ugly divorce. "I took a chance," said MSL president Larry Kolcz. "I seriously believe they used us to further their venture. They learned from me how to do things. They used me."

The 2007 season was a success. No forfeits, and much anticipation for the upcoming season, said Gems board chairman Amy Schneider who supported its creation.

HardBall reported the birth of the division in its 2997 Fall Issue 2007. Some viewed the new unit as an evolutionary advance for women's baseball as it combined an enthusiastic, but less- developed women's baseball movement (the Chicago Gems) with a mature league's established infrastructure of fields and umpires (the MSL) - a relationship that Schneider hoped could be a model for women's leagues elsewhere.

Disregarding League Policies

Like the Titanic, the new division looked great as it sailed from port - but ice lurked. Sometime after the conclusion of the season a dispute emerged between the Gems and the MSL. The hull-piercing event came in the form of a survey the Gems conducted among its members - most of whom played in the new women's division of the MSL. That survey violated long-established MSL rules designed to protect team rosters from tampering by outside forces, according to MSL President Larry Kolcz.

"I wanted them back. I wanted them to stay with us," Kolcz said. However, he added, "they had an alternative organization running within the MSL. The Gems were the ones making all the rules and regulations…they bypassed the MSL rules that protect my managers…you're either part of the MSL or you're not."

Circumventing the Coach

Tony Feo, who coached the Red Birds in the new women's division, and who formerly coached the Gems, agreed. "Why are they mailing my team?" he recalled thinking. "That's something that doesn't take place in the MSL. There is a structure of communication."

Schneider said she was unaware of any such rules about communication, and said further that there was no initial objection voiced to the survey. Feo blamed the subsequent demise of his Redbirds team -- all but a handful of players quit -- on the Gems' survey.

In need of reinforcements to preserve the Redbirds, Kolcz requested the list of new recruits from the Gems, but the organization would not share the list. Schneider said those players, recruited and trained by the Gems, were not community property to be dispensed by the MSL.

Male - Female Viewpoint Differences

"They did not want to operate by MSL rules," Kolcz said. "You're using my fields, my umpires, my Web site. How do I allow them to operate behind closed doors? I couldn't let that happen."

"Although the MSL gave us a place to play, finding enough players to make the four teams was the responsibility of the players that had been practicing and playing together (collectively, the Gems) for the past few years," Schneider explained.

The Gems, she said, "did not cease to exist or suspend operations simply because the MSL decided to offer a women's division," Schneider said. "The Club's mission is to support and promote women's baseball in Chicago through a variety of programs - not just this local league initiative."

The survey helped the Gems get basic feedback on the first MSL season, answer basic questions about the Gems continued role in recruiting and finances, and to solicit feedback that would allow it to be responsive to its members.

End of Experiment

With that, Kolcz elected to drop the women's division. "It was an experiment on my part, and they got what they wanted out of it -- free publicity. They took that and they ran with it," he said.

"It was sad to see it go down," said Feo who owns and operates a baseball training business called "Go Hardball" with his girlfriend and fellow MSL baseball player Kate Mitchum.

As a team manager and longtime supporter of women's baseball, Feo said he was concerned about injuries to women players that resulted from improper baseball mechanics.

"A lot of these girls had never played baseball or even softball," he said. "That was a major concern of mine that I felt had to be addressed. It is a demanding sport," he said, adding that some girls and women "need help getting up to speed."

"We are disappointed that the situation did not work out," said Schneider. "It was, and still is, our strong opinion that you cannot just put together four teams and then leave them all on their own to survive." Men's leagues operate that way because a lot of men are looking to play, she said. "But it's different with women…Women's baseball programs are so rare that women--even those who are passionate about the game--don't even know that this is an option. You have to go out and find them, demonstrate that they can play baseball and then help them get ready to do it."

That, she said, is the work of the Gems, not the MSL. "That's not what they do. They provide fields, umpires and a structure under which teams can play league ball. They are not in the business of recruiting and training players, raising money to defray equipment costs for start-up teams, or anything like that."

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