Move over, Marilyn — Mo’ne Davis has young ladies singing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
A year after the teen star pitcher from Philadelphia’s Taney Dragons dominated the news cycle — and her male opponents — in the Little League World Series, local hardball leagues are seeing an uptick in girls picking up bat and ball.
“We’ve definitely had a spike this year,” says Joe Orlando of St. Athanasius in Brooklyn. The Bensonhurst baseball haven had only two girls in their program last year. Now their developmental coach-pitch division has 10.
“This has to be a result of the spotlight on Mo’ne Davis,” says Pat Lawler, whose 7-year-old daughter, Kiera, has played in the league for five years. “Parents now ask me for advice if they should let their daughters play.”
At Inwood Little League, the number of girl players has doubled to about 10, says director Juan Moreiras. “It only makes sense,” says Moreiras. “[Davis] got so much attention on television. All of a sudden there are more girls who are signing up.”
At Manhattan’s Peter Stuyvesant Little League, the tee-ball program now has 25 girls, up from 12 last season, says president Jeff Ourvan.
Though Davis’ team lost to a Chicago squad, her poise on both the mound and in postgame interviews made her the toast of youth sports. The 13-year-old sensation landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated last August with the prescient headline, “Mo’ne. Remember her name.”
In Mo’ne’s old Little League, girl participation jumped 25 percent this year, said Ellen Siegel, a member of the board of directors. “This year, the coaches were eager to get girls in the draft, and that has not always been the case,” she noted.
“When I saw Mo’ne play, I wanted to be like her,” said Grace Lanier, 8, from St. Athanasius.
While Little League’s regional office in Bristol, Conn., does not keep official demographic information on players, they said last year’s series was a grand slam for the fairer sex. After all, Davis wasn’t the only girl to play in the elite tournament. She was joined by Toms River, NJ, slugger Kayla Roncin, whose team fell just short of making it to the World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
Roncin told The Post that little girls have told her she made them want to give baseball a try.
“It made me feel really proud, and I was really excited. I want to see more girls play,” said the 13-year-old Roncin.
The girls’ polished play also had a profound effect on male players, says Ourvan of the Peter Stuyvesant LL.
“It’s affected the boys, in a positive way,” he said. “There’s always been the occasional girl who wants to play and an undercurrent of boys not being accepting . . . I don’t see that anymore.”