 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2005
I've always liked that quote. Recently, I was asked what my take on women
in sports is. I had to give it long hard thought, mainly to avoid the risk of
sounding like a bigot. But here goes.
When it comes to strength and quickness, men are far superior to women. If
we aren’t, then why don’t we combine the men and women’s events at the
Olympics and see how many medals the women walk away with? Also, let’s
do away with women’s and men’s records and see how many women’s
records stand up. It wouldn’t be fair. So that’s why men compete against
men and women compete against women. In my book, there are only a few
acceptable exceptions.
I’m sure that the question was derived from Danica Patrick’s quick rise in the
Indy Racing League. Here’s the thing about that: THE CAR IS THE
MUSCLE. A woman can easily be as skilled of a driver as a man. Sure she
The other “sport” that I find acceptable is the Worlds Series of Poker. The
only muscles you use in Poker are your mind and your guts. I’ve been sent
Then there are the dominant females in the spelling arena. Let’s face it.
The Spelling Bee is not a sport no matter how hard ESPN sells it as one. I
know a kid passed out a few years ago, got back up and spelled out the
word 'alopecoie' correctly. But it's not like he was physically knocked out by
a linebacker or something. Is spelling really a sport? I think not.
Now here is where I start to have some trouble. Anika Sorenstam is a great
women’s golfer. She could beat me on the links every day of the week. But
she cannot win a men’s tournament. Men don’t get a chance to cross over
and play in the LPGA. Why should she play in a PGA tournament? By
playing in the 2003 Colonial, she took a spot away from a male PGA tour
member to get into the tournament and make the cut and win some money.
I’m not saying women’s sports are bad. But they have their own leagues for
a reason. I personally think watching the LPGA is about as interesting as
watching a guy cut his toenails. It’s just not my thing. But I understand that
some people do enjoy it. The women need their opportunity as well. The
WNBA is one of the most wretchedly painful things to watch for me. “We Got
Next” was about the worst marketing campaign in the history of sports, and
the games themselves were worse than watching mediocre high school
basketball. Some of the girls are really good. Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoops,
and Diana Taurasi are studs on the basketball court. But everyone else is
just lame. I’m sure someone watches it or they would end the WNBA for
monetary issues. But I don’t know of a single person in my life who has
watched more than 10 minutes of it at once.
Women’s soccer would probably garner a lot more interest from me if I liked
soccer. I never played it because I would have sucked at it, therefore I have
little interest. I’ll say that it is easier to watch the US women play than the US
men, for the simple fact that the women actually win. That and there’s
always the possibility that Brandy Chastain might rip her shirt off again.
I can name one women’s softball player. Jennie Finch. She’s good, I know.
So after saying all of this, I feel like I really haven’t spelled out how I actually
feel about women’s sports. Women DO have a place in sports. With the
exception of poker and racing, their place should not be anywhere in the
men’s arena. They can play the same sports against each other and do just
fine. Watching those events might not be for me, but I’m sure there’s some
aspiring teenage girl out there who wants to be just like some of the up-and-
coming female athletes. Don’t raise a fuss that they don’t get to compete
with the men. If you want, you can face having to compete physically with us
for the rest of your life and only have the satisfaction of beating a few of the
guys and never actually winning. If you complain about the amount of TV
time women’s sports gets, know that it’s all about the network and the money
they get off of it. I love women and believe they should get their equal shot
in their own league. If the people support it, good for them. If the people
don’t support it, then they should play at the club or recreation level and
make a living some other way.
Hope I cleared that up. Until next time, throw up a T for…..
T-BONE!
Josh 'T-Bone' Pigott
Contact Me
|
|
|
"There's No Crying in Baseball!"
The Bone Pile
We Got Next
Officially approved by the NBA Board
of Governors on April 24, 1996, the
creation of the WNBA was first
announced at a press conference
with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and
Sheryl Swoopes in attendance. While
not the first major women's
professional basketball league in the
United States (a distinction held by
the defunct WBL), the WNBA is the
only league to receive full backing of
the NBA, the world's most competitive
professional basketball league.
On the heels of a much-publicized
gold medal run by the USA Women's
Basketball team at the 1996 Summer
Olympic Games, the WNBA started its
first season in June 1997 to much
fanfare. The league started its first
season with eight teams; the first
WNBA game featured the New York
Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks
in Los Angeles. The game was
televised nationally in the United
States on the NBC television network.
At the start of the 1997 season, the
WNBA had television deals in place
with NBC, ESPN and the Lifetime
Television Network.
The WNBA centered its marketing
campaign, dubbed "We Got Next",
around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa
Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. However,
in the league's first season, Leslie's
team underperformed and Swoopes
sat out the season due to her
pregnancy. The league's true star
emerged in 1997 WNBA MVP
Cynthia Cooper, who led her Houston
Comets team to victory over the New
York Liberty in the first WNBA
Championship game.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is
a highly competitive annual spelling
bee run on a non-profit basis by the
E.W. Scripps Company, held at the
Grand Hyatt Washington hotel in
Washington, DC.
The National Spelling Bee was
formed in 1925 as a consolidation of
numerous local spelling bees. The
bee is held in June of each year, and
is open to students under sixteen
years of age who have not yet
completed the eighth grade nor won
a previous National Spelling Bee. Its
goal is educational: to encourage
children to perfect the art of spelling.
The winner of each year's bee is
awarded a cash prize including
$12,000 from the Scripps National
Spelling Bee and a cup. Other prices
include a $5,000 cash award from
Leapfrog, a $5,000 cash award from
Franklin Electronic Publishers, a
$5,000 scholarship from the Sigma
Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation,
a $1,000 savings bonds from Merriam
Webster along with a reference
library, and a set of the Enyclopaedia
Britannica, one set of the Great Books
of the Western World, and the 2005
Britannica CD.
didn’t win, but she got fourth. That’s pretty impressive
for her first Indianapolis 500. It’s so impressive to the
media, that I couldn’t tell you who even won because of
all of the attention she got for it. Of course, the fact
that I don’t like IRL may play something into that, but I’
ve still heard of Danica and her quick rise to fame. Will
it be 15 minutes of fame, or will she go down as a
legend after many years of racing? Time will tell.
packing from the poker table by women before. Am I
ashamed? No more than I am when I’m eliminated by a
guy. Annie Duke is one of the top poker players in the world
and I’d be honored to sit next to her at a poker table.
Why was this allowed? Because publicity
equals dollars. This event even brought
some heat on one of the world’s best
golfers, Vijay Singh, because he was the
only one with the balls to speak out against
it. Also by doing this, she was pissing on
the LPGA by saying the competition there
is not good enough for her to want to
compete against them that week.
But the reason I know of her is
because she’s hot. She was the ESPN
2004 Sports Babe of the Year. Anna
Kournikova sucked as a tennis player,
but held more endorsements than any
other player, just because she is hot. I’
m glad Maria Sharapova, representing
new hotness, is actually an excellent
women’s tennis player.
Juwanna Mann
(2002)
Juwanna Mann follows the story of
Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.),
the reigning 'bad boy' of basketball,
whose undisciplined on-court antics
land him out of the league and
without any prospects. Financially
strapped and untrained in anything
but basketball, Jamal comes up with a
plan so outrageous it just might work:
dress up like a woman and try out for
the woman's basketball league. To his
surprise, he makes it, but now the real
challenge begins - to cease being
Jamal and start new life as Juwanna.
Matters become even more
complicated when Juwanna realizes
that he is falling for his teammate
Michelle (Vivica A. Fox), who shows
him that there is more to women than
meets the eye.
