Your personal view on Women in sports/baseball

[ohms_law]

Between the option to have women enter pro baseball in Mogul, and the recent thread about the subject in real life, it got me thinking. I'd really like to hear you're personal opinion on the subject of either women playing high school, college, semi-, or pro sports with men, or especially playing baseball. If you could control whether or not women (who we'll assume, for the sake of argument, are at least of average ability) should or shouldn't be allowed to play on "men's" teams.

No polls, just state your opinion. I'll withhold my own until later in a feeble attempt at maintaining some neutrality, since I'm starting the thread.
Put on your flame retardant suits and just peak your mind!

[HoustonGM]

I think that if a women is capable of playing at the same level, she should be allowed to play with men. She should also expect to be treated just as if she were any other player - ie. no preferential treatment during games because she's female. I don't think women should be barred from a sport for the sole reason that she is a female. If she's capable of competing at the same athletic level, she should be allowed to play.

[Keppinger]

Anyone who has the ability to compete should be allowed to.

[dickay]

Interesting, i'll add a twist.

First off, I have no problem with woman playing with men if they can compete with them. And I don't mean be amongst the best in the sport, just be able to sit at the table. For example, I have NO problem with Michelle Wie or Anikka Sorenstam playing with the men. First off, they are good enough to be there, maybe not make the cut, but good enough to be there. Secondly, they help grow the game. Wie (at the time of her exemptions to play with the men) was much better for the game of golf than the last man in the field. If a woman basketball player can play at the pro level, more power to her. I'd root for her. Same in baseball.

Now hoops, baseball, football are different than golf. Being good enough to sit at the table in those major sports is alot harder than being good enough to make the last spot in a PGA golf tourney. The 25th spot on a MLB roster can't be a publicity stunt like Wie was in the golf tourney. I think she has to 'deserve and have earned' the spot.

Now to my twist....although I like to think i'm not sexist and have no problem with woman playing in pro sports, I have learned that I LOATHE woman radio sports talk show hosts. Even on TV, my mind just tunes them out. Diana Jacobson is probably one of the few I can tolerate. I could probably watch womans college hoops if it weren't for the woman commentators. I have to mute the **** TV! I read book on tape alot, and female readers just don't work for me there either. And I don't really care for the Katie Couric on CBS evening news but can tolerate. Sports however, especially on the radio....no thanks.

[dickay]

I just read one of the other threads that may have sparked this one. The single father raising two girls wondering if he should help her get into the boys high school baseball team. There are different circumstances for everything.....and this one is much more involved than whether or not it should be allowable for girls to play on boys high school teams.

My last post was referring to the professional level, after they've played their way up through the womans rank, crossing over the mens professional game. To crossover and push that envelope as a teenager, especially in the situation mentioned above is dangerous IMO. I think there's more to that story than just baseball.

[SirKodiak]

Through the high school, I'm all for females competing against males in sports, with a few exceptions.

• I do not believe females should be wrestling against males in high school and below, due to the immaturity of the individuals in such intimate contact.
• I do not believe that females should be playing football against males with the possible exception of kicker and punter. Again, this is due to the immaturity of the individuals involved and the intimate contact in piles after a tackle. A lot of nasty things happen in those piles, and I assume that it would be worse for a female football player.

After high school, I do not see a reason to segregate the sexes.

I do have questions about allowing males to participate in female sports, like high school softball & volleyball (in places where they do not have male volleyball). Should it go both ways?

The golf thing I did not like because of how it was done. Exempting them in instead of making them go through the same process everyone else has to, plus I feel they should be in either the LPGA or the PGA, not move back and forth as some circus show.

[dickay]

The golf thing I did not like because of how it was done. Exempting them in instead of making them go through the same process everyone else has to, plus I feel they should be in either the LPGA or the PGA, not move back and forth as some circus show.

There are always sponsorship exemptions though. If they didn't get it, someone else would have. It's not as if they made a special exemption for them.

[TheNamelessPoet]

No... i honestly do not have a justifiable reason. Just no.

I do feel that women are equal but they shoudl be treated as equal. A woman firefighter in CT would have to carry say 40 LBS for 100 yards where a make would have to cary 60 or 70. (I dont remember the #'s but its something like that)

I feel that if women are capable of standing up to the same standards of men then by all means let them. Pay them the same if they do the same job, give them the same opertunities , just NOT in sprots.

Call me sexist I dont care... Women are different then men. I am not saying better or worse just different. Same as a midget is no less of a person then a normal height person but they are still not the same.

[HoustonGM]

I feel that if women are capable of standing up to the same standards of men then by all means let them. Pay them the same if they do the same job, give them the same opertunities , just NOT in sprots.

Isn't that just a wee-bit hypocritical? What makes sports different then the rest of life?

[TheNamelessPoet]

Then lets have all bathrooms be unisex. Same with all dressing rooms in stores.

[HoustonGM]

Then lets have all bathrooms be unisex. Same with all dressing rooms in stores.

That's an entirely different situation...

This statement:

I feel that if women are capable of standing up to the same standards of men then by all means let them

directly contradicts your stated belief that women shouldn't be allowed to play "men" sports.

[beerchaser]

At the risk of getting sucked into a debate, which I have no intention of doing on a beautiful day in which I am drinking beer and enjoying life, I will say this much. This will no doubt brand me as sexist by some folks, but so be it. I prefer to think of it as being honest.

If you want girls to compete in men's sports, fine. Go ahead. If Danica Patrick can hang with the boys, fine. She also looks great in a bikini, BTW. But if you do that, then you also have to consider doing away with things like Title IX, which basically amounts to reverse discrimination. Why do we need a separate womens basketball program at Division I basketball schools, if the men are clearly better basketball players? Why should a school have to do away with a men's sport that people want to see, such as my own beloved NC State had to do years ago with lacrosse, in order to spend that money on a women's sport that draws far less people?

If the women are "just as good", then let them compete for a spot on the men's team. I've heard it said that the women are "just as good", but "in their own way". That's BS. Either they are or they aren't. Sure, Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam have competed in men's tournaments, but how well have they done? etothep mentioned in the other thread that "women don't seem conditioned to throw overhand in baseball". My nephew's Little League has a girl on another team playing 1st base. She has good velocity on a throw when she lets go of it, but her delivery is godawful. It takes her what seems like a half hour to get set to make a throw, even a simple one from 1st to home plate. She can't hit worth a ****, either.

If what we're really after is the best in all sports, then let's see the best, period, regardless of sex. Far more often than not, that's going to be the male. That's not to say it's always the case, frankly I'd much rather watch women's tennis and gymnastics than male, to be honest.

Does that seem "fair"? If sports are only open to the cream of the crop of either sex, is that better or worse than making certain sports available to players from BOTH sexes?

[gRYFYN1]

Ok honestly, I think if Women can compete on the same field let them. Once they cross that border they aren't "women" in that respect, they are players like the rest, the just happen to be female.

But you can't do away with title IX and the like, for the simple reason that women aren't equal to men on a physical level. No to be mean or sexist, its just a simple fact that they can't.

[Alloutwar]

Hey, if they can compete, I say let them, in all sports where it makes sense (ie, not wrestling/football as previously mentioned). Just no exploitation, like the midget baseball player, or using good-looking girls in tight, skimpy outfits to attract people or gain fan interest.

Just honest athleticism making the determination, I see no problem with. If girls can never throw overhand, then they'll never make it to the mlb; but I see no point in writing them off ahead of time or never giving them the opportunity.

[TheNamelessPoet]

directly contradicts your stated belief that women shouldn't be allowed to play "men" sports.

My point is they cant stand up the same to men. It would turn the wport into a circus.