Girls’ Softball

“Girls League Sues to Level Playing Field in West Hills,” April 17.

I certainly agree that the facilities available at Westhills Baseball are head and shoulders above what is available to West Valley Girls Softball, and I’m not so sure that the city’s position over the years didn’t reflect an ancient gender-based discrimination about athletic ability. However, your use of Westhills baseball to demonstrate a boys-versus-girls issue is inaccurate at best.

You only mentioned boys at Westhills baseball. My daughter happens to play baseball at Westhills and has for several years, as do many girls between 5 and 14. As I see it, Westhills views players as just that . . . baseball players. Not boy players or girl players. Thus Westhills is an inappropriate example of a “boys’ facility.”

Second, you speculate that the quality of facilities at Westhills may somehow be connected to the city’s possible preference. Yet you barely mentioned the true explanation, which League President Jeff Kaplan offered you: Westhills is directly supported by parents. Parents of girls and boys, mind you, and parents of a broad socioeconomic spectrum. The city has nothing to do with it. Blame us for the successful fund-raising, accuse us of a well-run and therefore well-supported program, but don’t suggest that our facilities are better because boys happen to play there or the city is supporting the facility more than other athletic leagues. That’s a bunch of hoo-ha.

RICKI VINYARD MARDER, Calabasas