Women vs. Men continued ...
An interesting piece today by Marcia Smith at the Orange County Register (reprinted here on the San Jose Mercury News Website) about women competing in men's competitions - "Sports world seems to only care about women when they face men" - and she touches on what I'm particulary interested in - why can't women's professional sports "make it?"
My personal belief is this: I have no problem accepting women as athletes. But I don't watch high school basketball when it's on TV, ditto for minor league baseball and the NBA D-League. Why would I spend some of my limited time watching an inferior product? I'm not talking about tennis and golf, but sports like basketball and soccer. The main reason I watch those games is to see elite athletes doing things I can only dream of (dunking, bicycle kicks, etc.) As a former athlete myself, I like to be dazzled. When women compete with men on an equal playing field, that dazzles me, I am impressed. When a few women dominate their respective fields (Sorenstam for example) I am hardly interested, because I know she is doing it against sub par competition. I have enormous respect for people like Michelle Wie who want to succeed against the best. That is the true goal of sport.
Posted by: BidiSmoker | March 09, 2007 at 12:01 PM