Clare called yesterday
to complain about how badly the underdog Pirates played against the Cardinals
in their NLDS opener; Pittsburgh lost, 9-1.
This got me to thinking about the role of women in professional sports. It’s a pretty/ugly story.
If it’s men’s sports,
you can count on hearing (as in seeing) the good-looking sideline reporter a la
Erin Andrews; if it’s women’s sports, nobody cares. Locally, women report on and anchor Chicago
sports all the time but don’t say much of anything. Then again, neither does Mike Adamle. Oh, and they look pretty on MLB Network.
The highest-profile job
in pro sports is probably play-by-play.
No women call men’s games. The knee-jerk
reason for this seems to be, “They can’t call what they never played.” In other words, Harry Caray got to announce
basketball and football because he picked up a baseball at the age of six. Right.
I admit
to having the above prejudice when it comes to football. What does Erin Andrews know about the blitz
or cover-two defense? Chauvinism aside, I'll
take Pam Ward and Beth Mowins over Brent Musburger any day to call a college
game. Ward and Mowins do a nice job on
college softball, so I’m comfortable with them.
Which leads us back to baseball.
There are a ton of former
softball players out there, many of whom have gone into sports’
journalism. Do you mean to tell me they’d
know less about baseball than, say, Jack Brickhouse or Chip Caray? And from what I hear, Yankees’ radio
announcer John Sterling can’t even tell the difference between a home run and a
routine fly ball.
So, leave football to
the guys, at least for now. But, ladies,
it’s time to storm baseball’s broadcast booth.
Do you hear me, Clare?
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