Neyer: A harder look at female scouts shows more in the job than thought
From SABR member Rob Neyer at the New York Times on March 28, 2016:
When the Seattle Mariners hired 22-year-old Amanda Hopkins in December, it was widely reported that she was the first full-time female scout employed by a Major League Baseball team since the 1950s — which seems to be true.
In 1946, the Philadelphia Phillies hired Edith Houghton, and in the first 65 years after Houghton left baseball in 1951, not a single woman seems to have been employed by an M.L.B. team as a full-time scout.
It was also reported, at the time of Houghton’s death in 2013, that she might well have been the last woman to work as a scout, part time or full time — which was not true.
But let’s begin before Houghton. Let’s begin with the first known female scout: Bessie Largent, who partnered with her husband, Roy, for 18 years.
Read the full article here: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/sports/baseball/a-harder-look-at-female-scouts-shows-more-in-the-job-than-thought.html
Originally published: March 28, 2016. Last Updated: March 28, 2016.