Mo'ne Davis is a 14-year-old pitcher who became the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history in 2014. She led her team to the regional finals while striking out 8 batters in six innings of work. Davis' dominant performance earned her widespread media attention and praise from celebrities and athletes. She has handled the attention with remarkable poise and maturity for her age, inspiring many other girls to participate in Little League baseball.

1. Who Says Girls Can’t Throw? Not Mo’ne Davis!
By Peter Kupfer
“You throw like a girl!” is a taunt generations of boys have used to disparage each
other’s athletic prowess — but that was before Mo'ne Ikea Davis arrived on the
scene.
Davis, a 14-year-old with a rocket launcher for an arm, has laid to rest once and for
all the notion that girls can’t throw as well as boys. In 2014, the 5-foot-4-inch, 111-
pound eighth grader because the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shutout in Little
League World Series history. She is also the first African-American girl to play in the
tournament’s 69-year history.
Davis is the first African-American girl, the fourth American girl, and the 18th girl
overall to play in the Little League World Series. Those are splendid feats, especially
when you consider that more than 9,000 boys have participated in the competition
since it was inaugurated in 1947.
Her triumphs on the diamond have made her a media darling and a household name
in many American homes. Like a Brazilian soccer star, Mo’ne requires only one
name to be recognized.
Davis has been exceeding expectations and trampling barriers since she was a kid.
Steve Bandura, program director of a South Philadelphia recreation center, noticed
her extraordinary dexterity and relentless determination when she was just seven
years old. "She was throwing this football in perfect spirals, effortless, and running
these tough kids down and tackling them," he recalled.
Bandura handed her a baseball glove and tossed her a ball and was astonished by
what he witnessed. "Most kids who never wore a glove before don't know how to
use it. They turn it down and then the ball hits them in their face," he explained. "But
she caught the ball on the backhand like it was nothing, like she had been doing it
forever."
Bandura invited Davis to participate in basketball practice, and once again she
defied expectations. "Her eyes were just glued on the drill and, when it came time
for her turn, she went through it like she has been doing it a thousand times. I just
knew right then (that she was a gifted natural athlete),” he recollected. Not only did
Davis make the team — the only girl to do so — she became his best player.
With the assistance of Bandura and other sponsors, Davis received a generous
scholarship to attend a prestigious private girls' school. She had to endure an 80-
minute bus ride each way to get to and from school, but that didn’t dissuade her
from becoming a point guard on the basketball team, a midfielder on the soccer
team, and a pitcher, shortstop, and third baseman in baseball.

2. Although Davis excels at every sport she plays, she considers basketball her primary
sport. She dreams of playing for the University of Connecticut women’s basketball
team, the reigning NCAA Division I national champions, a distinction they have held
10 times.
If she ever appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated again, Davis remarked,
“Hopefully, it’ll be me in a UConn jersey.” After college she hopes to follow in the
footsteps of UConn alumni Maya Moore and play in the WNBA.
While Mo’ne fantasizes about becoming a professional basketball star, it’s her feats
on the baseball diamond that have made her famous. Pitching for Philadelphia’s
Taney Dragons Little League team, she captured the national spotlight by winning
two key games in 2014. First, she pitched a three-hit 8-0 shutout over Delaware-
Newark National to lead the Dragons into the Mid-Atlantic Region of the World
Series. Then she pitched a 4–0 shutout over South Nashville in the semi-final round.
In her convincing triumph over Nashville, Davis tossed six innings, struck out eight
batters, and gave up just two infield hits. By the fifth inning, the opposing hurler had
reached the 85-pitch limit in Little League baseball, but Davis had only tossed 44
pitches. In the sixth inning — adding an exclamation point to her dominant
performance — she struck out the side.
Davis’ splendid feat electrified the crowd at South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the
longtime home of the Little League World Series. They cheered every time she threw
a pitch and every time she came to bat. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Paul
Graziano, the press box announcer for the tournament for 35 years.
The nationally telecast games instantaneously transformed Mo’ne into a media
sensation. ESPN's broadcast of the semifinals game brought a 3.4 overnight rating —
an all-time high for Little League on ESPN.
After her dominant performance, Davis received congratulatory tweets from her
favorite athlete, Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, as well as from Mike
Trout, centerfielder for the Los Angeles Angels. She was invited to appear on the
Jimmy Fallon show, and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called her the "best new thing
in the world." Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett prognosticated that she would
join the professional ranks one day. Ellen DeGeneres, Billie Jean King, and Michelle
Obama also sang her praises.
The awards and recognition didn’t end there. Sports Illustrated placed her on the
cover — the first Little Leaguer of either gender to earn that distinction . Time
magazine named her one of "The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014," Sports
Illustrated Kids dubbed her "Sports Kid of the Year," and ESPN proclaimed her “Best
Breakthrough Athlete.”

3. Davis was even featured in a documentary entitled, “I Throw Like a Girl,” by award-
winning filmmaker Spike Lee. Adding a cherry on top, she was invited to throw out
the ceremonial first pitch in game 4 of the 2014 World Series between the San
Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Davis has negotiated the onslaught of media attention with extraordinary grace and
poise for a teenager. Asked if she were enjoying herself, Davis replied: “Yes I am.
Sometimes it gets annoying, but I am enjoying it.”
Her coaches have endeavored to shield her by restricting the number of interviews
she gives and the volume of autographs she signs. “I give her all the credit in the
world,” said a volunteer “uncle” who looks after her. “For somebody who is 13 years
old and has been as composed as she is, that’s really amazing.”
That assessment was echoed by Mark Hyman, assistant professor of sports
management at George Washington University. “She’s the most talked-about
baseball player on earth right now,” he opined. “More people are talking about her
than Derek Jeter (the former star shortstop for the New York Yankees). That’s a lot
for a 13-year-old kid.”
Davis’ meteoric rise to stardom has not been without a few hiccups.
In March 2015, a college baseball player made a crude remark about her on Twitter
and was suspended from future play. (After he made a public apology, Davis asked
the school to reinstate him. The school declined but said it reflected “the type of
person she is, her level of maturity and the empathy that her family and coach teach
her.”)
Some observers have also expressed trepidation that merchandisers and marketers
are exploiting Davis’ celebrity for their own profit. For example, a baseball
supposedly autographed by Davis sold on eBay for more than $500, and several
companies are selling unauthorized Mo'ne jerseys.
Davis’ fastball clocks in at a blistering 70 miles per hour — 10 miles per hour faster
than the average velocity thrown by pitchers in her age class. Batters facing her
fastball on a Little League field have about the same time to react as batters facing a
93-mile-per-hour pitch on a full-sized Major League field. Her repertoire includes a
nasty curve ball that gives opposing hitters fits.
Davis owes her success as a pitcher more to precise mechanics than brute strength,
scientists say. She has a windup and release point that never varies by more than 3
degrees. At the end of her throwing motion, her arm is moving forward at peak
angular velocity of 2500˚/sec. That is more than 80 percent of the peak angular
velocity (3000˚/sec) of typical Major League pitchers.
Although her arm is 15 percent shorter than the average Major League hurler's arm,
experts say she is able to deliver balls at over 70 miles per hour because of the

4. efficiency of her motion. Her movement has been compared to that of Jonathan
Papelbon, the star reliever for the Washington Nationals.
Davis undoubtedly has impressive physical skills, but Taney Dragons manager Alex
Rice believes it’s her mental aptitude that really sets her apart. "Just watching her,
she dominates the game," he commented. "She's very level, cool, poised. You won't
see her fall apart on the mound, you can't get to her. She's the leader."
Davis is following a trail blazed six decades ago by Kathryn Johnston Massar, who in
1950 became the first girl to play in a Little League game. Massar had to chop off her
pigtail braids and don her brother's clothes to make the Kings Dairy team in
Corning, New York. She called herself "Tubby" after a comic she liked to read. When
she later divulged that she was a girl, the league barred girls from playing. The
"Tubby rule," as it was known, would survive for 24 years.
In 1972, Maria Pepe became the first girl to start a Little League game, but she was
later benched after opposing teams groused about it. The National Organization for
Women filed suit on behalf of Pepe, and in 1973 a judge ruled in her favor. "The
institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie,” the judge
stated. “There is no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from
girls." The ruling came too late for Pepe, who had already turned 14 (the age limit in
Little League is 13), but it opened the door for Davis and other girls.
Davis’ triumphs have inspired other girls to get involved in Little League and other
sports that have traditionally been the exclusive domain of boys. "I never thought at
the age of 13 I'd be a role model,” she admitted with characteristic modesty. “Being a
baseball role model is really cool."
Thanks to Davis and others like her, it’s no longer considered “special” for girls to
participate in Little League, but it wasn’t long ago that female players were being
harassed on and off the field. Former Little Leaguer Stephanie Tuck remembers
being heckled mercilessly by the fathers of other players. “They would shout, 'Get
that girl off the field,' she recounted. “I used to literally pray the ball would not come
to me in right field, as the pressure was so intense."
Mo’ne is leveraging her fame to make a difference in the world. She has teamed up
with the brand M4D3 (Make A Difference Everyday) to design a line of girls
sneakers, with a portion of proceeds going toward an initiative to help extricate 4
million girls in the developing world from poverty.
One of Mo’ne’s biggest fans is Maime "Peanut" Johnson, the first female pitcher to
play in the Negro Leagues, the predominantly African-American professional
baseball circuit. "I think the world of her," Johnson exclaimed. "And I am so, so
proud of her, because that's me all over again. That's my reincarnation."