The Burden of Being Mo'ne

Whose jump shot will Mo'ne Davis's take after? She famously said she throws her "curveball like Clayton Kershaw and my fastball like Mo'ne Davis," but she recently told ESPN her real goal is to play basketball for UConn and then head to the WNBA. It's great that a 13-year-old girl already has such clear determination and drive, but a lot of people are hung up on the potential loss of hardball's golden child, the one we think could break barriers and glass ceilings. To that, I say: It's not her fucking problem.

Women have been deliberately steered away from baseball for 100 years, but we shouldn't be so quick to place the burden of change on the small shoulders of Mo'ne. If baseball is her first passion, which it appears not to be, then by all means let's show her the support she deserves. But it's not Mo'ne's obligation to blaze trails because crotchety dudes who believe women are physically and emotionally weaker than men have placed hurdle after hurdle on the path to big-time baseball. Mo'ne doesn't owe anyone anything, no matter how crazed the narrative has become.

Part of the Mo'ne Mania narrative are the real numbers behind what many of us already knew: Fans are ready for and want to see America's pastime include women and girls. We won't see a woman in Major League Baseball any time soon, but the outpouring of positive attention for Mo'ne demonstrates that there is, at the very least, real interest in women playing baseball.

Philadephia's game against Nevada, which they lost 8-1, brought over 40,000 people to the Williamsport stadium and over 5 million people tuned in to the broadcast, blowing the previous viewership record out of the water by about 1.7 million. Yes, Mo'ne Davis was the impetus behind those numbers, but she won't see the profits she brought in from advertisers. ESPN will see all of that money. However, unfortunate as it may be, money talks, and one path to serious coverage of women's leagues and women in sports in general is by proving they can pull in viewers.

Possibly the most important set of eyes amongst those 5 million observers are those of none other than MLB commissioner-elect Rob Manfred. He made an in-person appearance at Thursday's Little League game to meet Mo'ne and her teammates. There, he told reporters, "Fifty years ago, people would've had a list of things that women couldn't do that was as long as you arm, and they're doing every single one of them today, so I'm not betting against the gender."

Pretty good for a rich, old, white guy! Manfred seems like the see it to believe type of dude, and luckily for all of us, Mo'ne's success and support is proof. Manfred also said he is "very, very interested" in getting involved with youth baseball, the arena that must be built up to establish any sort of pipeline for female talent. It's good news for all of us Burn The System types that the new commissioner wants to see the Majors, Minors, and the pee wees.

The next Mo'ne, or the next couple hundred girls in the sport, will come from children's leagues that understand that if you can play, you can play. There's no need to designate girls to softball, which Ghazaleh Sailors, the only female currently playing college baseball, says is like comparing "tennis to ping pong." Clearly, the example of Sailors and Mo'ne proves that the passion and inspiration is there, it's just up to the adults in charge to break the glass ceilings and pave clear, stable paths like the ones already in place for little boys.

Wherever Mo'ne ends up, be it the WNBA or otherwise, she will not singlehandedly change the present state of affairs, no one person can do that. Besides, the story is not about what we want from Mo'ne, it's about what we want from our beloved sport of baseball. Real cultural change in sports is a burden that no one person, especially a teenager, should have to bear. The era of co-ed baseball will come only as a result of dozens, hundreds, or hopefully thousands of girls being taught that they have a right to hardball, and that they're just as capable as the little boys in the batter's box.

Follow Lindsey Adler on Twitter.