Elizabeth Denham : She’s Assistant GM of Texas League Club

Elizabeth Denham has an ideal job for a lifelong baseball fan.

Denham, who grew up watching the “Red Machine of Cincinnati,” is in her second year as assistant general manager for the Shreveport Captains, the double-A farm club of the San Francisco Giants.

She is the only female club official in the Texas League and may be the only one with such duties in all of organized ball. Marge Schott is chairman-owner of the Reds but that’s a whole different game.

Denham’s work with the Captains concerns public relations and sales rather than what happens on the field. But she says that is quite all right.

“I know from my own experience that I am not capable of judging a pitcher’s talent, but off the field there is so much a woman can do,” Denham said. “I act as a liaison between the community and the team.”

She arranges for charity and promotional appearances for the players and also keeps all the unofficial daily team statistics to give scouts and announcers during the summer. In a pinch, she has also filled in as a game announcer.

“There’s no reason that a woman can’t do those kinds of things . . . anything other than on the field,” Denham said.

“Now I’d be the last one to say a woman cannot play baseball or shouldn’t play baseball. (But) I tend to be a traditionalist when it comes to baseball, so I’m not sure I would welcome women on the team or being the manager . . . wearing the uniform, so to speak.”

Denham, whose naval officer husband was killed in a car accident four years ago, taught English and French for a while but got tired of teaching. She learned from friends the Captains would expand their staff as they moved to a new stadium.

“I thought, ‘Why not? It’s something different,’ ” she said.

According to Denham, she and Captain president Taylor Moore hit it off well.

“He doesn’t have any preconceived notions to what women can or cannot do. I think he realized I loved the sport and that I was capable and confident and organized,” she said.

“I didn’t have any baseball experience, but there aren’t too many people who come into baseball with baseball experience, because where are you going to get it?”

Denham, 32, has found little resistance from baseball professionals, but some fans have accused her of taking the job only to meet the players.

“I never want to be classified as a Baseball Annie. I find myself jumping in real quick, explaining that I work for the Shreveport Captains,” she said.

Some of the players need time to figure out she is not a secretary or the owner, she said, but then they work with her with few problems.

“You have to be careful not to be a pushover,” she said. “Sometimes they may ask Jon (Long, the Captains’ general manager) for something and he’ll say no, so they think maybe I’ll be a softer touch. But if that’s the rule, buddy, that’s the rule.”

Denham would like to see the business become a career for her and is eyeing a move to triple-A or even the majors someday. She also hopes her job will open doors for other women in baseball.

“If the time ever comes that I leave Shreveport,” she said, “I hope I’ve done my job (so) that Taylor--or any of them--would not hesitate to hire another woman.”