Hey, Ask the Right Questions

            The New York Times did a piece yesterday on the plight of professional softball players.  Things are about as grim as Clare told us.  But the story begs the asking of a few more questions.

Teams have a salary cap of $150,000, which says to me franchise costs are pretty manageable, or would be with the right investors.  In no particular order, I’d like to ask Oprah, Warren Buffett and Penny Marshall if they were interested in running a team, or two.

So far, the league has only attracted softball-related sponsors.  How odd.  Pick the beer of your choice and watch their commercials; young women everywhere.  Assuming they’re not present merely as eye-candy, couldn’t the demographic those women represent both drink a beverage and watch softball?  Couldn’t the NYT reporter have asked Coors and Miller?

The league also has to pay ESPN to show games.  Somehow, I get the feeling ESPN doesn’t put the same effort into hyping softball the way it does college football or pro baseball.  At the same time, ESPN and the MLB Network both utilize attractive young women as co-anchors on many of their programs.  Why?  If women’s sports aren’t worth the bother, why have women commenting on men’s sports? 

Apparently, the answers to these questions weren’t fit to print.