Girl on the Field

Contribution from Madeline Drexler:

Prior to working as a print journalist, I was a staff photographer for the
Associated Press. I had begun photo stringing for the AP in college (mostly
covering Ohio State football games), and was hired on staff in March 1978.
I was 23 at the time, and was only the third "girl" photo jock hired by the
AP.

I was based in Cleveland, and because Cleveland was then a four-sport town
-- the Indians, the Browns, the Cavaliers, and the Barons/Crusaders
(hockey) -- about 90 percent of my assignments were major league sports. My
favorite sport, and my strongest, was baseball. You may remember that
Cleveland Municipal Stadium was one of the very few in the major leagues
(maybe the only one) that permitted photographers to plant themselves just
outside the first and third base lines -- a practice decidedly off-limits
today. It was bliss.

In the late spring of either 1978 or 1979, I was covering an
Indians/Yankees series in Cleveland. On a Saturday afternoon, I found
myself on the first base line crouched next to Neil Leifer, the estimable
Sports Illustrated photographer. He asked me who I was. I told him. And in
the interest of collegial repartee, he proceeded to inform me that female
sports photographers would never be as good as men -- because "women lack
hand-eye coordination."

I thought of several fine rejoinders ... much later that day.
 
(PS: I have a complete woodworking shop in our basement -- still trying to
perfect my hand-eye coordination.)