Ila Borders became a sensation during her years in college.
She appeared on The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, was featured in Sports Illustrated and her college was even contacted
about a potential movie deal. She was also featured in a woman in baseball
exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame’s museum in Cooperstown, New York. The
media storm took Borders by surprise. “I thought only the local press
would be here. I got to the ballpark about an hour before the game, and there’s
TV cameras and trucks and reporters everywhere. I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, what have
I gotten myself into?’ I was not prepared for that” she said in an interview
for Campus Life. During her first
season at Southern California College (SCC) she was followed everywhere by the
press. She eventually learned only to give interviews while she was still at
the ballpark. She says “When I’m here at the field I’m comfortable. The Baseball
field is like my home, my playground” (Moring). Limiting interviews to one
venue allowed Borders to live a somewhat normal life. This was not an easy
task. The media often asked rather inappropriate questions and Borders always
had to explain her presence on the baseball field. One New York Times reporter
asked her, “are you a lesbian?” She answered him even though it would have been
within her rights to deny answering such an intrusive question. Her response
was “no, I like men and I love baseball. I’m not here to prove anything about
women. This is nothing to do with women’s rights. I love the game, nothing
else” (Smith). The worst criticism often came from women reporters. Borders
really did not like them, describing her experience with them in this way: “if
I make the [men’s] team, then I am saying women’s sports are not good enough.
But if I fail, it’ll be ‘You set us back.’ I don’t trust them” (Brauer). The
media is not the only place Borders ran into criticism. She came onto the field
to the sound of vicious and vulgar taunts, laced with profanity and innuendo. 

Her coach, Charlie Philips, often caught some of the backlash for
placing a girl on the mound. He (Philips) told reporters, “people think I took her for the
publicity – I don’t need this, I took her because she can pitch and she can
help this team” (Smith). The fans did not even think she belonged on the
baseball field. One woman spectator said, “she won’t last the season. She’s not
that good. There are lots of guys better than her” (Smith). Borders took it all
in stride telling reporters, “college has definitely been hard to adjust to,
everyone tells me I don’t belong out here. Sometimes it gets to me, but no
one’s going to run me off” (Smith).