Beaten by a girl - in the New York Times

Just because you guys played doesn't mean you were any good.

 

I don't think anyone made the argument that simply playing = any good.

 

I certainly didn't. I never said I was anything to write home about as a wrestler ... I did it to keep in shape for baseball ... but I held my own.

 

I'll post my opinion on this as soon as my wife tells me what it is.

 

You were let in a looonnnngggg time ago. Like two or three versions of Junkie ago

And the only idiots on here has network after his name.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say he's the only one sc. Are you forgetting a particularly long-winded poster?

 

network?

 

Ohhhhh ...

 

We might let you in the club

 

I thought you were like those sporting video games. Every year, a new version. Junkie '08, and all that.

 

Just to chime in...

I currently cover three female wrestlers. Two get their asses handed to them, one holds her own. The girls are sometimes disrespected by opponents and more often disrespected by opponents' fathers.

Physically, I do see a difference. One girl, at 130 pounds, carries most of her weight in her hips/ass. She's athletic and fit, but can't help that she's got hips. She doesn't have the upper-body strength to get a handle on her opponent.

I was hanging out with them the other day, waiting for matches to start, and I asked them why they do it. For all the discouragement, for all the shit they take, why stay with it?

"Because it's awesome when you finally pin a boy."

---

Growing up, I was that "one girl" in the local Little League. I know baseball is not a contact sport, but comparisons can be made. Pitchers were either expected to strike me out or catch hell if they didn't. But most of my teammates were cool with having a girl on the team.

It was the fathers that were the problem. They couldn't wrap their tiny brains around the concept of a girl playing baseball. Or any sport, really, in my hometown.

One year their rallying cry was that they were protecting my future children by not allowing me to play. If I got hit in the breast with a ball, they said, I could never breastfeed a child. Suuuure.

If any of you wonder how my passion for equality in sports got started, there you have it.

I refused to give up until I could no longer hold my own on the court/field/etc. when playing alongside guys. When I couldn't keep up, it wasn't fair to them or to me. In baseball, that was high school. In basketball, that was after college. In soccer? Bring it!

 

My son has had girl teammates on his Little League teams. Never heard a word from the kids or parents about it, thank goodness. Maybe people are finally starting to pull their heads out of their asses about that.