Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Who's your hero?

I caught some of the semifinal game in the Little League Softball World Series last night. First my obligatory women's sports gets less coverage than men's sports comment: while the Little League Baseball World Series has been on the ESPN networks fairly frequently with coverage around the country of the regional games, I have only seen the softball once and it was after the teams had arrived in Portland, Oregon--no regional game coverage.
As part of the coverage each member of the team introduces herself. Last night Tennessee played Connecticut and the Tennessee players all gave their names and positions and the name of their favorite player. It was refreshing to hear them all give the names of softball players like Monica Abbott and India Chiles and Caitlin Lowe. When the Connecticut team did the same they gave names like Derek Jeter and A-Rod. But the questions were not the same: The TN team was asked who their favorite player was where the CT team was asked who their favorite athlete was. So despite the fact that these girls clearly follow softball and admire the players they still default to men as their athletic heroes. Except for one CT player who said her favorite athletes were her three sisters--you go, girl!

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