Knocking Down the Fences is a short film documentary about the first female athlete recipient of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. AJ Andrews is a black professional fastpitch right fielder who was playing for the Akron Racers when she won the award in 2016.
Rawlings is a global sports brand and manufacturer of baseball and athletic equipment. The Rawlings Gold Glove Award was created in 1957 and is given to the best player in each defensive position of both the National and American baseball leagues. For 59 years the award only recognized male baseball players but in 2016 the decision was made to include one fielder in the National Professional Fastpitch league.
The documentary also addresses the wage discrepancy between male and female players. According to the film, male major league baseball players on average earn 650x more than female players. AJ supplemented her less than $15,000/year softball salary by working as a coach and a sports commentator. During that time she was also a graduate student working on her master’s degree at Louisiana State University.
“…there are so many barriers already placed on women that if even one can get knocked down then young girls can believe they can knock down others,” AJ Andrews.