As a former softball player and a pretty strong-willed woman, I was more than a little irritated by The Baltimore Sun Sports Section's Mr. Flip today. His "Last Word: Rants and raves from an anonymous analyst" is a snarky page that's often pretty humorous. But his "Tube Tips" in today's paper really bothered me.
In promoting Game 1 of the Women's College World Series finals (the only place other than the standard television listing where the series was mentioned), he wrote: "Mr. Flip doesn't understand why nobody is wearing caps instead of those visors. You women want to look like ballplayers or what?"
Yeah, they do want to look like ballplayers - softball players. I've been around the game for a good 11 or 12 years (and I'm a young'un, so that's a good chunk of my life) and the women I've seen playing softball - in college, professionally, and in the Olympics - usually wear visors. It's softball, not baseball and we're women, not men - two different sports with different players. Why should women be expected to play, look, and act the same as men in a different (albeit similar) sport?
And why do commentators, usually men, so often restrict their comments to how female athletes look? Snide comments like Mr. Flip's are simply unnecessary digs that subtly undermine what really matters: performance. (And it's not just sports; female newscasters and political candidates, for example, face scrutiny and criticism of their physical appearances that their male counterparts rarely encounter.)
Female athletes will never have the same respect and stature given to male athletes if spectators like Mr. Flip can't see past the superficial differences to appreciate the home runs, double plays and record strikeouts.
Bethany Dempsey
Esti Ginzburg
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Women softball players wear visors instead of caps because they don't need to cover up any male-pattern baldness.
no name at all
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But, don't they wear batting helmets when they're at the plate?? Most of the time when I watch, that's the case.
DC Sports Nut: Nats,…
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Well said.
Its not just athletes though. Its all women.
KPKahder -
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tell mr flip that they want to look like women ballplayers
Lydia Lipshitz
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Keeper: After A&M lost last night, now I'm not sure. I thought (surprisingly) that AZ State looked a lot better, but the series history shows that a Game 1 loss means nothing. Megan Gibson could come back tonight and dominate, like she did over the weekend after one tough outing.
SHHH: Awesome explanation of the visor phenomenon. Hilarious.
Sports in Stilettos
Havre De Grace, MD
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