Strike IX, by Paul Lonardo, InfinityPublishing.com, 2009
This book tells the story of the Providence Friars' final season of baseball in 1999; the program was discontinued primarily because of Title IX.
If you have some sort of connection to Providence College, your reaction to this book will probably be, “this would have been a really great book if the words 'historic season' appeared just one more time.” (The author, Paul Lonardo, went to U. Of Rhode Island.)
During this final season, the Friars had a regular-season record of 43-13, and had a 15-game winning streak. They won the Big East tournament, and made it to the final of the NCAA regional tournament. Five players from this team were drafted. One of them, RF Keith Reed, made it to the major leagues with the Orioles. Three others, SS Jaime Athas, C Dan Conway, and 1B Mike O'Keefe, made it as high as AAA.
If you don't have any connection to Providence, but have played a significant amount of competitive sports, you won't have any trouble finding recognizable stereotypes: Head Coach Charlie Hickey, who makes creative use of the English language; Pitching Coach Sean O'Connor, who played “good cop” to Hickey's “bad cop”; and the diversity of attitudes and the pecking order that you will usually find on sports teams.
If you don't care much about any of this, but have a serious interest in college athletics, it's worth getting a copy of this book just to read the preface and chapter five. You'll find a concise discussion of Title IX and the Cohen v. Brown University.
There are two more categories of people who can benefit from reading this book:
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High schools juniors and seniors who want to play college baseball: Coaches move to other jobs or get fired, and programs get cancelled. It's part of college athletics, and if baseball can get shut down at U. Of California, it can be shut down anywhere. You should have a plan B, and probably a plan C, too.
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Parents of those high school juniors and seniors: When the local priest comes around to tell you that your son should go to Seton Hall/Saint John's/Notre Dame/Loyola Marymount/Gonzaga because of the wholesome environment they provide, don't believe a word of it.
Obligatory NAIA content: The Friars gave Northwood (FL) a 17-1 beating early in the season.