Is Softball Sexist?

[riseball]

PLEASE, stay on topic...if you want bash "The Liberal Media" or the NYT, and see this as one more sign that the US is headed for the toilet, please take it somewhere else...

Whether I personally agree with this or not (I do not, by the way), I think people in the softball community need to be aware that this is floating around.

As an FYI, sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex or gender. So, "sexist" is something that prejudices or discriminates against a person based on that person's gender.

We'll since you gave your opinion, and then told others to stay on the topic. Then you just used a Liberal move to push your agenda. So you as a monitor of the site need to take your own advice and take it somewhere else. As far as the US is headed for the toilet. I personally think it is ( by the way ).

I may be incorrect but I took sluggers comment to mean that he did not agree with the article not as an opinion on the state of the nation. Maybe a clarification is in order.

 

[Lozza]

I'm coming at this from a different perspective. I've grown up playing softball and men's softball is quite strong here. Yet at schools the boys never had the same oppurtunities that the girls did in softball. If they wanted to represent at state level they had to play baseball. S yes both genders get it with our sports.

I'm also watching Baseball Australia do a big push to get women's baseball up and succeeding. And this saddens me because I'm watching very talented girls leave a sport I love.

I've never thought they were the same sport. While there are a lot of similarities softball is a much quicker sport and pitching, to me, is a much greater skill in softball than baseball. (At the elite levels I'm in complete agreeable that baseball pitchers are incredibly skilled and not an easy job) If you're playing a bog standard game, even up to rep levels, in baseball anyone can step in and throw strikes or close to it. No one can do that in softball. Softball pitching is a much greater skill from the young levels up.

 

[BretMan]

Why the heck is the article entitled, "Is Softball Sexist"?

All it gives are examples of baseball not allowing girls or barring women. Shouldn't it be called, "Is Baseball Sexist"?

 

[SCDad]

The best 16-year-old softball player I know personally is my niece. She broke some sort of home-run record her freshman year last year in HS ball. She started playing baseball first at a young age. Then, when the boys started getting better than her, she switched to softball and is one of the best in Idaho for her age.

This is the answer. My DD played baseball through Major 12. She had full support of everyone involved, and if anything was elevated above some of the boys because she was good enough, and every male coach is usually married to a woman.

Our experience was just the opposite. NO sexism. However, once the testosterone kicks in for the boys, and the bases get longer, the boys get better ... fast. It is not sexism in baseball. Young men eventually just get better at sport than young women. It is biology. It is testosterone.

Unless you are a knuckle ball female pitcher from Florida. Saw this story a year or so ago. Have not heard much about it since. Even with her specific training, I would be surprised if she made it against the boys. Grown young men are just better. It is reality, it is biology. Anything else is just fluff, or someone has an ax to grind.

So mine switched to softball. It was a great ride.

As to the real point of the article. The male sports are watched by the American culture. It makes money. The female sports are not watched. It does not make money. Call it sexism if you want. It is not, just American reality. Thank you for Title 9.

 

[NVfishing]

We can bash the liberal media? Awesome!

I like baseball. I love softball. Does that make me sexist?

 

[nanotech14]

OILF, you nailed it in one post. I couldn't agree more with you.

 

[JJsqueeze]

It's a stupid article. If the author spent a day at a field they would write an equally stupid story about how it is unfair to treat girls like boys. Sexism exists, racism exists lots of isms exist, but when people use those brushes to paint everything as sexist or racist then they just make it harder to identify the real instances that are truly damaging to people. More and more the racism/sexism I see reported on is BS. And i am a dyed in the wool 3rd gen CA liberal.

 

[chinamigarden]

I love the Article. It's an example of free speech and freedom of the press Both are very good things. I love the fact that articles I disagree with are printed every day. It makes me think about my opinions. Which either changes them with new information. Or strengthens them with trial.

Title IX does not guarantee equal sports it provides for equal opportunity. Which is why there are volleyball teams instead of girls football. Title IX gives our DDs opportunities that my generation and older did not have. This article may come across as nutty to us, but at one time the idea of equal opportunities for girls in sports was considered not just nutty but un-American.

 

[BrianMonk]

There's no reason to subject the girls to the boring sport of baseball (T-ball excluded). The girls/women have it better and there's no reason to change or want change.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

There's no reason to subject the girls to the boring sport of baseball (T-ball excluded). The girls/women have it better and there's no reason to change or want change.

Playing baseball was always exciting to me, now that I'm just a spectator it's really really s-l-o-w. Besides watching family, if I go to a game I find myself getting there to see the last few innings. If I'm watching on tv ( excluding the WS ), same last few innings because they will always replay the "highs" of the game anyway.