Tag Archives: Baseball

Why I Wrote YES PEPPER

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By Jason Klein 

Girls play baseball.

My daughters play.  So do thousands of other girls.

Some of them are good.  Some are really good!  All of them make a choice.

Girls who play youth baseball have to decide how comfortable they are playing alongside boys.  Sometimes, that’s hard to do.

YES PEPPER is an empowering new book for girls who play baseball.

A few years back, my daughter questioned her place in the sport.  She asked me if baseball was for girls.  I tried to reassure her but could tell she still had doubts.

To show her how many people supported the idea of girls playing baseball, I asked Twitter for help.

“Show my daughter she’s not alone,” I tweeted.  “She doesn’t think she can play little league with boys this year.  I told her baseball is DEFINITELY a sport for girls, too.  She’s skeptical and I want to show her how many people agree with me.”

The tweet went viral.

My post garnered 5.1 million impressions and 80,000 combined likes and retweets! It received support from Major League Baseball, Little League International, USA Women’s Baseball and Baseball For All.  The Washington Post even wrote a feature story about us.  

Celebrities, athletes, pro sports teams and global brands responded with retweets and direct messages.  I also had thousands of parents reach out to encourage my daughter and to share their personal stories with me.

Jessica Mendoza, a top ESPN baseball analyst and advocate for girls in the game, tweeted, “Tell your daughter I not only agree with you but I’ve got her back!!! Go play!”

Justine Siegel, the first woman to coach at the Major League level & the founder of Baseball For All, told my daughter to, “Go Play and have fun! Baseball is a sport for everyone!!”

The response left me humbled.  It also left me wondering how many other little girls out there have similar concerns. Who is supporting their passions and helping them overcome society’s stigmas? 

I decided to write a book to help build their confidence and inspire them to do what makes them happy.

YES PEPPER is an empowering story of inclusion for girls who play baseball and is set to be released this Summer.

The story’s heroine, Abby, loves eating peppers and playing baseball, but both make her the subject of schoolyard teasing.  Classmates start calling her “Pepper” and claim that “girls can’t play baseball.”  This leaves Abby feeling lonely and insecure.

With some encouragement from her parents, Abby agrees to do what she loves and play in the local baseball league anyway.  What happens next is inspiring and comforting for anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong.

YES PEPPER sends a positive message to any little girl who doubts herself.  My wife and I are raising our daughters to know they have every opportunity to do what they love.  With this book, I hope to spread that same sentiment to others.

Today, women continue to take on some of the most important professional roles in the world.  They are doctors, they are lawyers, they are CEOs and they are even Vice Presidents of the United States.  The same is true in baseball.  

This past year, Kim Ng was hired as the General Manager of the Miami Marlins and Rachel Balkovec was promoted to Manager of the Tampa Tarpons, a New York Yankees affiliate.  Just last month, the New York Mets hired Elizabeth Benn as their director of Major League Operations.  

Eight years ago, a 13 year-old girl named Mo’ne Davis dominated the Little League World Series.  She graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and captured America’s heart.

She also had advice for my daughter who was trying to decide if she could play baseball with boys, too.

“I definitely think she can hang with them and be better than them,” Mo’ne tweeted to me.  “That’s coming from a girl who has done it before.”

Mo’ne chased her baseball dreams, but still, many girls haven’t.  Maybe they don’t believe they can do it.  Perhaps they were teased or told they couldn’t simply because they’re a girl.

I wrote YES PEPPER for them.

I wrote it to build their confidence and help them feel more comfortable with their choice to play ball.

I’m hopeful that young female ballplayers find Abby’s journey relatable and inspiring.  I want them to know that they’re not alone.

Girls play baseball.  They can, too.

PRE-ORDER TODAY! Reserve your copy of YES PEPPER here!

Follow YES PEPPER on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok!

Contact Jason Klein:

Without Sports

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By Jason Klein

I can live without sports.

I just did it for nineteen weeks.

During a global pandemic, some things are hard to make sense of.  For me, one thing became very clear. IMG_3682

I can do it.  I can live without sports.

Long before this virus, my Grandma tried to put things in perspective for me.  It was 1997 and the Jets had just thrown another season away.  I was devastated.  I was inconsolable.  I needed time alone to collect my thoughts and regain control of my emotions.  Recognizing my agony, Grandma put her arm around me, leaned in, and whispered:

“Jason, dear…It’s just a game.”

Just a game?  Just a game?!

She was trying to trivialize one of the most important things in my life.  I couldn’t muster a coherent response.  I sat stewing in silence.  Sports were so much more than “just a game!”  Sports were my passion, my escape, my everything!  How could she not understand that?  How could my own Grandma be so insensitive?  How could someone with so much wisdom be so wrong?

It took me twenty-two years, but now I understand what she meant.

On March 12, 2020, the games stopped.  In that time, I learned how to live without them and better prioritize what really matters. nypostback 3-12-20

Without sports, I focus almost exclusively on my health, my safety and my ability to provide those two things for my family.  I’m more patient, more tolerant and more grateful for the things that I have.

Without sports, my calendar is empty, but my days are full.  While home schooling my daughters, I got to study the American Revolution and do art projects with my 4th grader.  I practiced sight words and built forts with my Kindergartener.  I became a Google Classroom savant and somehow figured out how to fill twelve hours, daily, with socially distant and educational activities.  I also gained immeasurable respect for the teachers who flourish in these demanding roles during normal times.

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Home School With My Daughters

Spending all day, every day, with my children is a blessing and a challenge at the same time.  Coffee helps me perk up and tequila helps me wind down.  I have a better appreciation for my personal time.  I treasure small windows where I can exercise, read, or simply go to the bathroom without little fingers reaching under the door.

Without sports, I know the true value of Clorox wipes, Lysol spray, and a good mask that doesn’t pinch the back of my ears.  I appreciate short lines at the supermarket and a store shelf stocked with toilet paper.

Without sports, I can easily identify real heroes.  They’re the ones who work at the supermarket, deliver my mail, haul away my garbage and battle this disease on the frontline every day.  Healthcare workers, like my wife, make sacrifices to keep themselves and their families out of harm’s way.  It’s something we deal with in our home.  It’s nerve-racking, and at times, scary, but I’m thankful for the protective measures we’ve taken to secure a safe and comfortable living environment.

Jason-Ava-Jade-Alyssa

Staying Safe With My Family

Without sports, I’ve become a big fan of science, facts and rational thinking.  I’m grateful for those in our local community who follow suit.  They’re the ones who keep proper hygiene, maintain their distance and responsibly wear masks in public to protect others.  They’re also the ones who choose common sense and human decency over politics.  They set a good example and help me manage virus-related anxiety and paranoia.  I’m hopeful other parts of our country start to take things this seriously.

During our time without sports, this cruel and savage virus has separated us from our loved ones when we need them most.  I miss hugging my parents and having drinks with my friends.  I miss date nights with my wife and taking family vacations.

Pandemic life has been challenging.  It’s been exhausting.  It’s been stressful.

It’s been without sports.

Until tonight. Hal-Boone-Cashman-Masks

Major League Baseball returns this evening with a small dose of normalcy.  Typically the
soundtrack of my summer, baseball has been silent since mid-March.  An abbreviated 60 game season will start, but the virus determines if it will finish.  Empty stadiums, player testing, social distancing and masks in the dugout still might not be enough to prevent COVID-19 from upending MLB-20.

While it lasts, I’ll enjoy something familiar and reassuring.  I’ll take solace in the mental
escape sports provide.  It will be nice, for a change, to worry about Aaron Judge’s health instead of my own. IMG_3684

For many reasons, it can be argued that this is the most important season in baseball
history. Yet, if COVID cases rise, and more lives are at risk, baseball should stop in its tracks.  After all, my Grandma was right, baseball is just a game.  This virus, most certainly, is not.  Nineteen weeks later, I fully understand this.

I’ve learned I can live without sports.

With baseball back, I’m just glad I don’t have to anymore.

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When My Daughter Had a Question, Twitter Stepped Up To The Plate!

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By Jason Klein

My daughter asked a question.

36,852 people answered.

Little league registration was due, but something bothered my 7 year-old.  She wanted to know if baseball was a sport for girls too.  I tried to reassure her.  Our town doesn’t have softball for her age group, so I reminded her how much fun she had last season playing baseball.

Jason-Ava Baseball

With My Daughter, Last Season.

I also pointed out the other three girls we had on our team.  We reminisced over all the times we’ve played catch and watched Yankees games together.  I even pulled up old YouTube videos of Mo’ne Davis’s dominance during the 2014 Little League World Series.  She still had her doubts.

I decided to do what any reasonable and resourceful parent would do in 2018.

I tweeted.

I asked Twitter users for their opinion: “RT to show my daughter she’s not alone…” I pleaded.  “I told her baseball is DEFINITELY a sport for girls, too.  She’s skeptical & I want to show her how many people agree with me.  Thank you!”

As a second grader, she doesn’t know what social media is yet.  She can proudly count “all the way to 100,” though.  I thought, if I could somehow get a hundred people to back me up, I’d make her a believer.

Fortunately, I did a little better than that.

Over 3,000 people retweeted my post within the first 24 hours.  That’s when Jessica Mendoza (@JessMendoza) of ESPN decided to lend her support.

Mendoza has her finger squarely on baseball’s pulse.  As an announcer for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, she consumes baseball daily.  She’s also been criticized for being a women broadcasting a “men’s sport.”  Certainly, my daughter’s concerns resonated with her.

“Sports, any sport, is for everyone,” Mendoza tweeted to me…and her 107K followers!  “Tell your daughter I not only agree with you but I’ve got her back!!! Go play!”

After that, my tweet’s statistics rose faster than Aaron Judge’s home run totals.

Major League Baseball’s official Twitter handle (@MLB) got involved, addressing my daughter’s trepidation with their 8.1 million followers!

“We agree!  Baseball is for everyone.” They tweeted.

Mo’ne Davis (@Monee__11) – the same Mo’ne Davis I had used as an example earlier in the week – then jumped in.

“I definitely think she can hang with them and be better than them.” Davis tweeted.  “That’s coming from a girl who has done it before.”

Even Little League Baseball’s official account (@LittleLeague) chimed in, urging me to “Tell your daughter we’d love to have her, and any other girl, playing Little League Baseball this year.”

If that wasn’t inspiring enough, the USA Women’s National Team (@USABaseballWNT), Play Ball (@PlayBall) and Justine Siegal (@JustineBaseball) – the first woman hired as an MLB coach and founder of Baseball For All – all chimed in with encouraging words.

From there, hundreds of celebrities, athletes, organizations, leagues and journalists caught wind.  So did thousands of everyday Twitter users: men and women, old and young, all willing to support my message and share their own personal stories with me.

Hundreds of parents sent me pictures and newspaper clippings of their own daughters playing ball.  Many told me that the best player on their son’s team was female.  All of them insisted that baseball was a sport for girls too, and wished my daughter luck with her upcoming season.

Ava-Baseball

Baseball Is For Girls, Too!

The response was humbling.

By March 11, 2018, my tweet garnered 36,852 retweets, 42,036 likes, over 2,600 personal comments and more than 3.7 Million impressions.  I also received direct messages from many supporters, including writer Jacob Bogage (@jacobbogage).  Bogage was so impressed, he decided to write a feature on us for the Washington Post.

Just incredible.

I set out looking to build my daughter’s confidence by having a little fun on social media.

I ended up starting a positive and empowering conversation for young girls looking to simply do what makes them happy…play ball!

I want my daughter to grow up believing she has the same opportunities as boys.  I want her to do what she loves, be confident in herself and accepting of others.  My tweet helped reveal thousands of other parents who feel the same way.

Twitter is often filled with so much negativity.  Many times, it’s directed at women.  I’m happy I could temporarily change the dialog and motivate thousands of people to join in the conversation.

Although my daughter is more impressed by candy and treats than Likes and Tweets, she is convinced that baseball is a sport all girls can play, watch and enjoy.  She even signed up for her second season of Little League.

No questions asked, this time.

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New Players & Fans Set To Experience Yankees in ALCS For First Time

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By Jason Klein  

I walked my daughter to the bus stop this morning.

It’s a short stroll, really.  Around the corner and down a hill – just enough steps to pad my Fitbit stats and see some familiar October sights.  There were pumpkins on porches, leaves on the ground, and an interlocking “NY” on my shirt.

Of course there was.

ALCS Logo

Yankee Stadium Prepares For The ALCS’s Bronx Return.

The Yankees will play Game 1 of the American League Championship Series tonight in Houston.  Watching the Yanks play baseball deep into October is typical of my childhood.  Not so for kids my daughter’s age.

The Yankees reached the ALCS or World Series 7 times from 1996-2004.  Then, 3 more times between 2009-2012.  Since then, their lone Postseason appearance came in 2015 when they lost to the Astros in the AL Wild Card Game.

So, tonight is special for kids like my daughter, born within the last 10 years.

A boy waiting for the bus noticed my shirt and asked if I was excited for the upcoming series.

“Of course,” I said.  “How about you?”

His face lit up.  His smile was huge, like an Aaron Judge homerun swing.

“Yeah!” He said.  “I’ve never seen them play in the ALCS before.”

He then gave me a “thumbs down.”

“When were you born?” I asked.

“2008.  But I was too young to watch the 2009 World Series,” he said.

His excitement reminded me a lot of myself back in 1996 – the first time I’d seen the Yankees win a playoff series.  He had a look of wonderment – like he was about to witness something he’d never seen before.

He is.

My Yankees – you know, Jeter, Bernie, Pettitte, Posada and Mo – are nice historical footnotes for today’s kids.  Now, Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and the rest of this young core of players are ushering in a new generation of Yankees success.  They’re bringing the new generation of fans along with them. Judge-Sanchez

The boy’s reaction did make me further appreciate the late-90s dynastic run.  It’s so difficult to sustain success from one year to the next.  Every opportunity to win a championship should be treasured.  You never know when it will happen again.

Many say these Yankees arrived ahead of schedule.  They weren’t expected to compete this soon.  They are “playing with the house’s money.”

I disagree.

It’s never the wrong time to win a Title.  Teams that get this close must capitalize.  “Wait ‘till next year” isn’t guaranteed.

Just ask the 2015 Mets.

It’s possible, this could be the only shot this young group of Yankees have to win a World Series.

Or, it could be just the beginning of another sustained run of success.

The latter would give kids my daughter’s age a childhood experience similar to mine.  Yankees baseball, deep into the Fall, would once again be a familiar October sight.

Like pumpkins on porches, leaves on the ground, and an interlocking “NY” on my shirt.

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Have The Yankees Found Their Next Captain? You Be The Judge.

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By Jason Klein

All Rise?

Honestly, why would you ever sit down in the first place?

There’s no time to relax between each one of Aaron Judge’s majestic blasts.  They fly out of stadiums at a record pace, travel record distances and leave me sounding like, well, a broken record.

Aaron Judge

All Rise For Aaron Judge.

“He hit another one last night,” is the first thing I say to my wife every single morning.

Forget Groundhog Day.  We’re all living Judgement Day over and over again.

Through 60 games, Judge is hitting .341 with 22 HR and 49 RBI.  It’s a small sample, but he’s showing no signs of laying down his gavel.  His at-bats are can’t-miss events, he comes up with a game-defining hit almost every night and he hears “MVP” chants…on the road!

Oh, and let the record show, Your Honor is a 6 foot, 7 inch, 25 year-old rookie!

It’s Judge’s courtroom.  We’re all witnesses.

Yup, Number 99 is everywhere: the front of Sports Illustrated, the middle of the Yankees’ line up, the back of fans’ jerseys and the top of prominent AL statistical categories, including HR, batting average and runs scored.

He is impressive on the field and poised off of it.  He handles the bright lights of New York with ease and deflects all adulation on to his teammates.

He tells you that he doesn’t pay attention to his individual accomplishments.  Instead, he only focusses on winning games.  For twenty years, Derek Jeter said the same thing.  I always believed him.  Now, I believe Judge.

Like Jeter, Judge has a good head, and a great bat, resting firmly on his shoulders.  His teammates respect him and fans adore him.  Is it possible the Yankees found their future Captain?  Do my two young daughters have their own Jeter to look up to…and grow up with?

There’s plenty of time to figure it out.

No time to sit down, though.

Judge is walking to the plate.

All Rise.

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