Celebrating Winning the Championship. This is from the Red Sox first ever Women’s Fantasy Camp.

Major League Baseball, we want to play. Let me say that again. WE WANT TO PLAY BALL! Not softball, but HARDBALL. BASEBALL.

Inaugural Red Sox women’s fantasy camp is a huge hit https://t.co/VOkjUeLgLB via @BostonGlobe

— Hollie Hamilton (@hollieham0) January 29, 2016

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The Boston Red Sox had a women’s-only fantasy camp. Forty-eight women from all over the globe came to Florida to play at Fenway South. The coaches’ names you know: Trot Nixon, Alan Embree, Rico Petrocelli, Butch Hobson, Brian Daubach and Rich Gedman.

The part that had me more excited was the female coaches there: Justine Siegal, the first female coach to work for a major league team; Marti Sementelli, a pitcher for the U.S. women’s national baseball team; Perry Barber, the first female umpire hired to work spring training games for the Mets; and Shirley Burkovich, who played professionally 65 years ago in the AAGPBL.

Let me take a moment to thank Maybelle Blair, 89, a living member of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. She gave the male coaches some sage advice.

“They want to play baseball,” said Blair. “So treat ’em just like you treat the guys. Don’t be nice to them.”

As I was reading the article, I saw the line:

“The coaches had some concerns about salty language.”

I am sorry. When I read that, I laughed and then said, “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Let me clear up this misconception about women. Women swear! Men swear. We objectify men, as men objectify women, and we readjust ourselves. Who hasn’t seen the guy standing on second giving himself a quick grab? We love baseball, men love baseball. We want to play baseball, men want to play baseball. Men get to play baseball. Women get to play softball.

Until now.  Forty-eight women put on Red Sox uniforms and learned the drills and the history and got to play the wonderful game of baseball. The better question to ask is: Why are there not more of these camps? MLB it is time for more women fantasy camps.

Women make up half of the fan base of Major League Baseball. Yet, it is a novelty that a woman is knowledgeable about baseball. I can tell you from personal experience that when I met a woman fan of baseball, we had a great time talking about the game. I have had too-many-to-count experiences with men who would tell me they were baseball fans and then knew nothing about the game. Blair is right. We want to play. We ask for no special treatment. Having played softball, it is NOT the same as baseball. Personally, I hate softball and I am scared of the giant grapefruit being hurled in my direction. Oh, and it is a misnomer that softballs don’t hurt. Yes, they fucking do. (Some more salty language for you.) The orange-size baseball, I have no problem smacking around. Give me a baseball any day.