The NHL has
announced that, as part of its All-Star weekend festivities next weekend, there
will be a three-on-three game featuring players from the U.S. women’s national
team going up against their Canadian counterparts. This is the latest in a series of moves by
the league to treat female hockey players as a possible talent pool in the
not-too-distant future. The national
pastime prefers to go in a different direction.
There are women
who play baseball, but you won’t see them doing anything on the field during
All-Star festivities. No women will take
part in the homerun derby, no female teams will play one another a day before
the guys do. Nor will baseball invite any
of the best female softball players to participate. Instead, if past is prologue, at least one
very good female athlete—and one who would be on the shortlist of best-ever
softball player—will be made to look like she’s having fun while a bunch of
ex-baseball players and celebrities clown around during a slow-pitch softball
game.
I
wonder what goes through Jennie Finch’s mind as she participates. No real contest pitting the best of the
softball world against baseball’s best, past or present. Just hijinks and laughs.
You gotta love
baseball. Or not.
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