17

FRIDAY

It’s tough enough for women to survive, much less thrive, in the manly, scratch-and-spit world of professional baseball. Unfortunately, they haven’t always had the best representatives. Witness A League of Their Own—remembered mostly for providing Little League coaches everywhere with the overplayed line “There’s no crying in baseball.” But the late Marge Schott, the controversial onetime owner of the Cincinnati Reds and one of the most famous female figures in baseball, practically made you long for the sight of Rosie O’Donnell in that disturbing baseball skirt. After all, she owed her fame to her unpleasant demeanor, her racist, anti-Semitic remarks, and her unapologetic ownership of a Nazi armband. Jean Hastings Ardell, in her book, Breaking into Baseball, includes some anecdotes about Schott—but, thank goodness, also offers a broader, kinder view of women’s struggle in our national, patriarchal pastime. Ardell and filmmaker Aviva Kempner speak at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919.