Can't Believe What I Heard... | The Lowdown

I was covering the NHL draft this weekend for a local radio station. Prior to things really getting underway, I was standing in the middle of "media row" talking to a friend of mine named Whitney Wright.

Now Whitney is a very pretty woman: blonde, well-proportioned. Athletes hit on her and she politely turns them down because she wants to be a reporter, not a groupie. I'm no Miss Wright, but I had on my best outfit and had done up my hair.

Apparently, that made us look like girls who couldn't tell you how many teams are in the Big 12, because a reporter from a New York media outlet came up to us, introduced himself, and said, "So do you actually know anything about hockey?"

Whitney stood there in stunned silence. I gave a forced smile and--with as much composure as I could possibly muster--told the gentleman that I had helped cover the Columbus Blue Jackets since the team's inception. Although, I felt like pointing out that he never would have made this remark to two male reporters, I decided that disgression would be the better part of valor and walked away.

Eventually, Whitney, our new friend, and I went down to conduct interviews of the latest crop of draftees. I asked James van Riemsdyk about his favorite player (Rick Nash), inquired of Chicago GM Dale Tallon how exciting it was to have an expected 3,500 fans at the Blackhawks draft party, and went through the history of Halifax players who have made it big with Anaheim (like JS Giguerre) with the latest player to take that route: Logan MacMillan.

Then and only then did our new friend figure out that we did indeed know a little bit about hockey.

As I sit here, I'm very glad that Whitney and I don't face a challenge as great as that Jackie Robinson confronted when breaking baseball's color barrier. But there are lessons to be learned from Robinson's experience.

Female sports journalists not only need a few more Jackie Robinsons, individuals willing to work twice as hard as the competition for half the recognition; we also need a few more Branch Rickeys, management types who realize that hiring someone who is underqualified will hurt more than just their team.

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June 24, 2007 01:30 PM ET

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Good for you. I'm a guy, but it's plain bigotry to believe that women can't cover sports, or are just talking heads being filled in by producers on radio or talk shows.

A good read is "Sometimes You See It Coming", by Kevin Baker. It's mainly about a fictional baseball player, but there is a character in there who is a female sports writer that faces harrassment from co-workers. It's a good story overall, anyways.