Since I was 3 years old, I've played t-ball for 2 years, baseball for 1, and softball until last spring. I came out over the summer and everyone's extremely accepting. People on my softball team thing I should still play, but I don't really think I'd feel comfortable doing so. Being on a girls team, wearing a girls uniform, people will consider me a girl. I want to play baseball, but I'm worried. I know there's some different rules, different equipment, and well at least in my town much more competition. I need to train a lot, gain muscle, be fit, and everything. Any tips? Anyone with more baseball knowledge then me will help a lot.
I played baseball for a year when I was nine, now I play softball for my school. The only major differences are the field size (baseball fields are much larger), pitching style, and equipment regulations. Most baseball teams can only use wooden bats and typically use metal cleats. I'm also pretty sure that diving is illegal in baseball. Since the distance between bases is a lot longer in baseball, I would recommend doing lots of throw/catch exercises. I don't remember much else, but I hoped this helped a little. Good luck!
Baseball is an extremely male-dominated sport. With very rare exceptions and "office" teams, you're probably not going to find an accepting coed team. I played baseball regularly with friends and casually on a community team until mid-high school. I lost interest as I started branching out into other sports, but also my male friends got bigger and started pitching harder and hitting farther than I ever could, so that was a bummer too. Strength is a big component in baseball (as is the case with softball), but precision and technique are just as important. I'm sure there are all-female teams out there. You should look into it!
" hitting farther than I ever could, so that was a bummer too." In baseball hitting a ball far has as much if not more to do with technique than strength. Yea strength helps but just for a comparison Griffy jr hit 630 HRs in his career Sosa hit 609. In his later years Sosa was a muscled up ogre (steroids) his swing was mechanically awful and he used pure arm strength to hit em out so muscle helps. However Griffy was not and has never been a muscled up goon. You could use his swing to write textbooks on hitting because his swing was poetry in motion. I quit baseball (and all other sports) after 9th grade I never hit any HRs but half of what I hit hit the fence (I was only about 5' 4") my swing looked slow and casual but because of technique it generated alot of torque through 'the zone'. If you want to exercise to improve how far you can hit a ball work on your core (abs and lower back) because that is where you generate the torque for your swing. Other than that it's pretty much all down to technique.
In the major leagues, yeah, that works. However, we were in high school or younger and when someone knocked it out of the parking lot or over the outfield players in general, the overall consensus is that you're fucked.
