When Kim Mulkey faced sexism and selflessly bit the bullet in baseball: "Not allowed to play in the game, they wouldn't let me sit in the dugout"

Even as a 12-year-old, Kim Mulkey was focused purely on winning. Mulkey was the first girl to play in Hammond, Louisiana's Little League Baseball, and also played in the Pony League. She made it to the All-Star team as a catcher, pitcher and shortstop.

However, the Little League commissioners issued an ultimatum, stating that her team would be forced to forfeit if she was included in the game or in the dugout.

As the game was set to be televised, Mulkey had the option to contest the commissioners' ruling, with media representatives swarming the field. However, she made a selfless choice by deciding against it to avoid hurting her team's chances of winning.

"Not only was I not allowed to play in the game, they wouldn't let me sit in the dugout," Mulkey said in a May 2023 interview with WBRZ (13:30).

"So, I had to stand outside of the dugout but in that moment, my dad said what do you want to do because if you play they have already said you're going to forfeit the game. Well I'm not about to hurt my teammates and I said no way, and I said we will fight this later somewhere along the way in the courts or whatever and that's a true story."

Mulkey's team won the game and dedicated the victory to her, honoring her stance. Although Kim Mulkey's father hired a lawyer after the incident, the family ultimately chose to step back to preserve the eligibility and future of the other players.

Kim Mulkey highlights early life lessons from the discriminatory incident

The LSU Tigers coach discovered that even when the odds are against her, she prioritizes group success over individual achievement. While it took her some time to acknowledge the discrimination she faced, she came to understand that there are various forms of prejudice one can encounter in daily life.

"First, I didn't want to be selfish and say, 'No, I'm playing and I don't care,'" Kim Mulkey said (15:04).

"Think of your team first. The second thing that I think it taught me is there are all kinds of discrimination. We think of discrimination as always being race-related, there's all kinds of discrimination and I felt looking back years later, 'Wow, that was a form of discrimination because I was a girl.'"

Kim Mulkey's unselfishness was evident in her college career with the Lady Techsters. Despite being the first Louisiana female player to score 4,000 points in high school as a freshman, she quickly adapted to a defense-oriented playmaker role.