After Atalanta

A story about the baseball team from Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows Academy forfeiting a state championship because there was a girl playing on the opposing team . I thought it was a farce. It is ridiculous--but it is true. The academy, located in Arizona, is founded and adheres to the principles of the Society of Saint Pius X, a separatist branch of the Catholic Church. One of these tenets is the separate teaching of boys and girls--which extends to sports. Perpetual Sorrows is a regular season opponent of Mesa Prep--the state winner, by default--but the players in questions, second baseperson Paige Sultzbach had voluntarily sat out of previous encounters. But she didn't think it was fair to forfeit her own rightful place as a player in a state championship. So Perpetual Sorrows opted not to compete. It's their right to do so of course.  But I wonder what lessons their students are learning from this? Opting out is not new. Stories about male wrestlers "choosing...

I've been lukewarm on ESPNW since its inception for many reasons. Now I have one more: this article about how fat baseball players are . Well, not exactly an article. It is listed as an opinion piece. Still... So in light of MLB's All-Star Game and based on some observations, writer Amanda Rykoff is pointing out how large some baseball players are--as in overweight. An additional motivation, as stated in the opening paragraph is "to laugh and poke fun at some absurdities in the sports world." Let me just own up to the fact that I was observing a young guy in the gym the other day who has clearly bulked up in the last year. He was wearing a UMass Baseball t-shirt. And it made me think "is he too big to play baseball effectively?" Of course he could simply be a fan and not a player. And he isn't fat--just bulky. Still, I thought about how/why larger players can and are prized in baseball. I have theories about the focus on home runs and some masculinity is...

...like I did. The Women's World Baseball Cup was held last month in Venezuela. The tournament gained attention (again not mine--I missed this whole thing; though I did read that there was very little media coverage; regular Sports Center watchers might be able to report whether the WWBC got any air time in the US) because of a shooting that occurred in the first few days of the tournament, held every other year. A South Koren player was hit by a stray bullet* in the leg. She was treated and is fine, though the team pulled out of the tournament. Japan seemed to dominate most of its competition throughout the tourney and came away with the gold. They beat Australia in the gold medal game. The US team won the bronze medal game against home team Venezuela. Two Americans were named tournament all-stars. *What exactly makes a bullet stray anyway? It's an odd phrasing, no? As if bullets just are randomly flying around like trash that people toss out their car windows. Completely eras...

Having lived in Red Sox Nation* for the greater portion of my life and never having an interest in professional baseball, I have to say, I'm not quite sure of the way this manifestation of fandom works. Now I don't live in dark cave nor am I visually impaired; I've seen the anti-Yankees stuff. The Yankees Suck t-shirts. The Calvin peeing on a Yankees cap car decal. I'm aware of the rivalry. I'm also aware of the generally high level of fanaticism among Boston/New England fans. But I was pretty shocked to see a guy wearing a t-shirt that said "A-Rod slaps balls". I wonder how he explained that to his young son who was shopping with him. "You see, son, slaps balls is a double entendre meant to convey the Alex Rodriguez likes playing with men's genitals which means he is gay, which makes him less of a man and thus less of a ball player even though he just set that record. Because all the people we don't like are gay. Even if they aren't, we c...

Woo-hoo, look at me, up on the breaking news that Mark McGwire has admitted to taking steroids. Shocker. Seriously. But even in admitting his deep regret and wishing he had never ever taken steroids, the heartfeltness of it all remains suspect--to me, anyway. First of all is the naivete or the feigned naivete or the deliberate denial of the role and intent of his steroid use. He was injured so he wanted to take something to get better--he wasn't after strength!! So, yeah, definitely a substance (or substances) so suspect that it's illegal--that's what I would turn to to fix my injuries. And of course strength alone does not make a good hitter, McGwire still contends--it's all about the hand-eye coordination. Well, sure. But my guess is that everyone hitting in the major leagues has above average hand-eye coordination. What set him apart was STRENGTH . If he really believed that strength was not a huge factor in his successful hitting career he wouldn't be so underst...

So I am not, let it be stated for the record, going to discuss any of these best of the decade stories. It is a principled stand based on the fact that it's not the end of the decade. Not until next year. 'Cause you can't start counting at zero. That said I read one of those very pieces (I said I wouldn't blog about it, not that I wouldn't read them) that included some of the best or most interesting or ironic sport quotes of the years 2000-2009. Some indeed interesting, some not so much. But I was reminded of that incident with John Rocker in 2000 (which, as we know was not the start of the current decade or even century; I am being too nitpicky about this?) where he said to Sports Illustrated that he would never play baseball in New York because he didn't want to ride the subway with, among others, the queer with AIDS. That got Rocker a lot of press and a two-week suspension at the start of the season and a $500 fine. So I was thinking about this in light of t...

See, I knew I would be back to critiquing someone this week. And how appropriate that is the anonymous columnist from my alma mater's student newspaper. (In my day, when I wrote for The New Hampshire , they didn't allow anonymous columnists.) Anyway, anonymous Joe (he admits to being male), has a holiday wish list for the University of new Hampshire that includes a few sport-related things. First he wishes for a new football stadium because the current one is "small" and "ugly." I never thought it was that bad. He said that because the team has done so well recently they deserve a less-embarrassing facility. Perhaps. But it clearly has not affected recruiting. After all if you can make it to the second round of the post-season, you must be getting quality players who come in spite of the allegedly crummy stadium. And, of course, it costs a lot of money to build a new stadium. Anonymous Joe said that a new stadium, though, would bring in more revenue. But a...

Two stories about women coaching boys or men recently. One at Hillsborough High in Florida where Stephanie Crawford was recently appointed head coach of the boys' basketball team. Crawford was the girls' team coach at a nearby school but had always wanted to coach a boys' team. Hillsborough is coming off of a successful season and Crawford is looking forward to the opportunity to coach a premiere team. Crawford grew up playing with boys but played at the collegiate and professional levels with women. There is, of course, the double-edged sword present here. As great as the opportunity is, it is somewhat disconcerting that Crawford felt she had to be a head coach of boys' team in order to have legitimacy as a coach, perhaps as a female coach, perhaps as a female coach of color. Or maybe she just likes the challenge and likes challenging the system. Regardless, the hiring "sent shockwaves throughout the boys' basketball community." Shockwaves! I didn't ...

As I mentioned, softball made its bid this week for a (re)berth in the Olympics. But six other sports did the same: baseball, golf (Annika Sorenstam was part of that presentation), karate, roller sports, rugby, and squash. (Remember, women's boxing may be making its Olympic debut, but in 2012, because it is not considered a new sport because men's boxing already is in.) ESPN has a brief synopsis of each of the sports that made presentations to the IOC last week. PS According to Jessica Mendoza's Twitter page, the IOC was "wowed"--their words--by softball's presentation.

Luckily I am not a member of Red Sox Nation currently overflowing with schadenfraude nor am a disillusioned fan of baseball with hopes for some return to a state of purity in the sport. So the Manny Ramirez revelation (on top of the A-Rod thing and the Mitchell Report) was not really a surprise--except for the utter stupidity of it. But what I was surprised by was the lack of jokes around the whole thing. Everyone is treating it with such utter seriousness. The man was taking fertility drugs! Fertility drugs! No, "he's due after playoffs?" no "he's been trying for so long" type riffs. Not even stuff about the drug's off-label use to restimulate testosterone after a round of steroids. When women take steroids there is no shortage of commentary about manliness, man hands, growing balls, etc. Let's not forget the still on-going jokes about the female Olympians of the 70s and 80s who competed for Iron Curtain countries and were doused--without their know...

So it turns out I was not the only one who was a little concerned about Donna Lopiano's new position as head of the Women's Baseball Committee for the International Baseball Federation. She told me last night (well me and the rest of the audience at her talk) that Sue Enquist (former UCLA softball coach) and sports writer Christine Brennan had called her up, a little incredulous themselves. Their worries were slightly different: that Lopiano was going to be hurting softball's chances of getting back into the Olympics. But she's pretty confident that that's not likely to happen. There's no way women's baseball can grow quickly enough to be viable for the 2016 Olympics. Her acceptance of the position made sense, especially after I was reminded of her story of her Little League baseball experience: she was "drafted" first in tryouts as a pitcher and was told she could not play because Little League rules banned girls. So her goal is to bring baseball ...

The International Baseball Federation is just relentless! Realizing it could not get back into the Olympics on its own merits (or rather because of its many demerits), it cozied up to International Softball in an attempt for a joint bid . It wanted to ride the more clean (i.e., not steroid injected) coattails of its "sister" sport. But softball said no thanks. Baseball's plan b is to include a women's division. They plan to grow women's baseball. As I have said, "yes, let's grow women's baseball." But the timing, of course, is suspicious given that so much energy has been put into keeping women out of baseball. But now baseball needs women. And it apparently needs Donna Lopiano to convince everyone of its commitment to women's baseball. Lopiano has been named chair of the International Baseball Federation's Women's Baseball Committee. Well, they certainly cannot be accused of engaging in a half-hearted attempt. While I certainly do ...

When international baseball got rejected by softball in their attempt to sweeten their IOC bid for reinstatement into the summer games, they went back to the drawing board. Their latest plan: add women's baseball . My thought on their latest plan: get a new plan.* Women and girls have been dissuaded--by various means--from playing the game. (I haven't read Stolen Bases yet, but it's on my list.) And it appears that they are only encouraged when men's baseball is in some version of dire straits, a la WWII and now when they have been eliminated from the Olympics because of...well...a bad reputation, basically. But that's the tactic they are going with. More details are coming soon, apparently. But the head of international baseball says women's baseball is a growing sport with an estimated 300,000-500,000 women playing internationally. Not sure where the numbers come from, or how they compare to the numbers of female softball players. But remember that it seemed p...

Well actually it was a boy who said no (we can have a a discussion another time about the number of men in administration in women's softball). President of the International Softball Federation, Don Porter, has rejected baseball's proposal for a joint bid in the Olympic games. It was a pretty quick decision. The respective presidents met on Thursday (remember at baseball's urging), Porter said he would think about it and then issues a press release Friday morning saying, "no thanks." (Makes one think the ISF was never really into this plan.) ISF believes its best chance for reinstatement is to prove to the IOC that they are not baseball. When they were voted out in 2005, members of the IOC thought the two sports were basically the same and had the same governing body. Softball also wants to stay away from baseball's doping scandals, which have not waned (i.e. Alex Rodriguez) and which will likely keep baseball out of contention. In short, baseball was hoping ...

Softball and baseball both got voted off the Olympic roster at the same time and since that time both have been trying to get back in. Of course they need to overcome whatever (somewhat ambiguous depending on the account) issues the IOC had with them in the first place. They also need to compete with other sports vying to join an already packed list of summer sports. The two sports had been pursuing separate bids, trying to earn the only two spots available for the 2016 games. But now the baseball federation has called up the softball federation asking them to consider a joint bid . Hmmm...why do the boys need the girls all of a sudden? Baseball clearly thinks it will have a better chance of getting back in if it rides softball's coat tails back into the games. Must think it has an image problem. Wonder why. Softball seems a little wary. But it will be meeting with the baseball peeps to hear what they have to say. We'll have to wait to see what softball says back.

If you're sick of hearing or depressed about the economy and the myriad of effects--stop reading here. Because there has been a lot of talk about how the recession is affecting sports. I've already mentioned it here . But it seems sports and the economy are the hot topic so I thought I would run down what I have seen so far. Schools, of course, are going through budget cuts (though doesn't it seem that public schools are always in a budget crunch?) and some of the cuts are in athletics. Title IX Blog has a post about how parents are ensuring that female athletes do not receive the brunt of those cuts. USA Today has a piece about the problems non-major sports are having and includes: some concern over how the WPS will fare in this economy; news of Arena Football's suspension; and the loss of the Houston Comets. Of course not everyone is suffering. Men's professional soccer in North America is expanding. The National Lacrosse League had a soldout crowd at it's cha...

Yesterday, seven sports made their cases to an IOC committee about why they should be included in the 2016 Olympics. Softball and baseball, of course, were two of the seven, making separate arguments to the program commission which is comprised of 16 IOC members. Long day for the commission with each sport making a one-hour pitch. Also pleading for inclusion: golf (we know how I feel about that); karate (still surprised it isn't in already); rugby (I'm in support--far more supportive of it than baseball certainly); roller sports (not really sure what this would look like and am doubtful they have garnered enough support to get it over the other high-profile sports); and squash (ambivalent). In June the commission will issue its recommendations and the full 100-member IOC board will vote next year at a meeting in Coopenhagen.

I so enjoy sending a strongly worded note of concern over some egregious act perpetuated by some knowing persons. Letters to the editor, letters to journalists, letters to television execs, letters to administrators--things of that sort. Haven't done it in a while. Thankfully Pat Griffin over at the It Takes a Team blog has provided me and others like me a new opportunity. She had previously reported on the suspension of two volunteer coaches of youth baseball in Michigan City, IN after they not only condoned the use of anti-gay slurs against a 12-year old boy, but participated in the harassment and proceeded to defend their actions and those of the other harassers. They were suspended from coaching for one year. A slap on the wrist if ever there was one. Now, though, it's a slap in the face to the victim and his supporters: the recreation department has overturned the suspension of said coaches. Please read more of the story at It Takes a Team where there are also links to the...

I've said this before but I'm saying it now again in light of this story out of Canada about the International Softball Federation, when you're a women's sport and you attach yourself to a men's sport in an attempt to garner attention and support, you will frequently find yourself screwed. The most obvious example of this at the moment is international softball which has found itself out of the Olympics along with baseball which was not, many see it, a coincidence. Softball didn't have enough of its own reputation, its own presence to withstand the scandals in baseball. This theory has been around since the voting to eliminate the sports took place, but not the ISF is taking more formal steps to separate from baseball asking all its national bodies to become independent from baseball if they have not done so already. Now if we can only get the softball commentators to stop making so many baseball references! Both baseball and softball are applying for reinstate...

Since it seems to be okay to write about the Olympics now that they're over (note that the Paralympics are currently underway; Fat Louie at Women's Sports Blog is doing the best she can--given the dearth of coverage--to blog about them); or at least that's my rationale for writing more after the fact than during. Besides, this post is about the Olympics generally not specifically Beijing. There's been discussion all along, as I mentioned recently, about the eliminations of baseball and softball and the attempts to reinstate them--focused mostly on softball. But there's also been some discourse on which sports should be in the Olympics generally. This Canadian columnist shares his opinions on the matter. He advocates for the inclusion of rugby and cricket, which I wholeheartedly support, assuming both can get some of their historical problems with gender equity in order. I have written about cricket's campaign previously. I don't know anything about cricket b...