Pioneering baseball reporter Alison Gordon dies at 72
When Alison Gordon began covering the Toronto Blue Jays for the Toronto Star in 1979, she became Major League Baseball’s first full-time female beat reporter. The membership card she was given by the BBWAA infamously referred to her as Mr. Alison Gordon, because they’d never had a women in the association.
Gordon, who died Thursday in Toronto at the age of 72, was described as a pioneer and a trailblazer by her peers as she overcame many challenges to help pave the way for a future generation of female sports journalists.
At the time she started though, a number of teams weren’t keen on having a women in the clubhouse, including her hometown Blue Jays.
“We had four or five guys that really rallied around not letting her in the clubhouse,” longtime Blue Jays outfielder Lloyd Moseby told the Toronto Star’s Brendan Kennedy.
“She could have very easily taken the words that a lot of guys said and took it to heart and went back to her bosses and said, ‘I’m not doing this. I don’t get paid to take abuse.’ But she never did. She kept showing up. A lot of women that are in the profession right now should be very thankful for what Alison did and what she went through. I’m just proud to have known Alison.”
Gordon ended up spending five years on the Blue Jays’ beat, quickly earning the respect of the players as well as a legion of regular readers. Baseball was just one of her many interests and after leaving the beat she showed off her other talents. Gordon went on to become an accomplished fiction author, publishing five novels between 1988 and 1997.
“I don’t think she went into it with the idea of, ‘I want to be a trailblazer,” her brother, Charles, told the Canadian Press.
Well, it may not have been her intention, but that’s exactly how Alison Gordon will be remembered.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
