Women's Sports Blog

Photo of the Week: And You Thought Tennis Skirts Were Uncomfortable

Baseball game. Madison, New Jersey c. 1910. Via the Library of Congress.

Championship Women's Baseball Comes To Indiana

Despite being a Hoosier, I had to get out the map to find the location of this stadium.  The title of the post should have a 'technically' at the end, because even though Google Maps wouldn't show anything so prosaic as state borders, Huntingburg is right down there next to Kentucky-land.  Granted that everyone in my state calls anything even remotely to the south of them something-tucky, but we're talking as close to Owensboro as it is to Evansville.  At any rate, according to its website, the American Women's Baseball Federation is playing its national championship there (and in Jasper) beginning on October 8th.  If you live in Indiana, or Louisville or Western Ohio or even St. Louis, you have a chance to get a unique sports viewing experience.  There will even be a home run derby.  Wish I could be there. 

That Girl Has Quite An Arm

And an awesome dad.

Reyes Wins LLWS Game

Katie Reyes of Canada became the first girl to drive in the winning runs in a Little League World Series game as she singled to score two runs and give her team a 14-13 victory against Germany.  She had three hits in the game overall.  We're probably the last in the women's sports blogsphere to write about this, but it's worth mentioning again. 

Softball v. Golf: Another Perspective

One compelling argument for the inclusion of a sport like softball and the exclusion of a sport like golf from the Olympics is that the Olympics is the premier tournament for softball, and its major chance to be broadcast on the world stage, whereas golf has plenty of exposure.  Cat Osterman makes this point via a NY Times opinion piece by George Vescey, although how she could be ignorant of the fact that women play rugby is a mystery to me.  She also makes it via her Tweetstream, in a good example of the differences among multiple communication platforms:

So disappointed in IOC's vote. An individual sport that doesn't need more platforms to play on & rugby? Heartbreaker

@[Redacted] sorry just don't & wont agree golf should be included. they have enough events. Its on every weekend..

Now that I got lectured about how great golf is... I'm going back to bed.

We feel your pain, Cat. 

Softball Out, Boxing In For 2012

Apparently the softball people failed to make their case that the American-dominated sport with occasional showers of Japanese success has an international groundswell of support.  Meanwhile, pacifist me continues to be hypocritically ecstatic that women's boxing will earn a berth.  Only the human race could come up with the term 'sweet science' to describe two people pummeling each other into oblivion. 

After Atalanta's quest to see golf eliminated from Olympic contention may have failed, as the sport has moved another step further toward gaining inclusion in 2016.  I don't have a horse in this race but think there's probably no harm in trying golf.  The arguments at AA about tennis' indifferent success as an Olympic event are duly noted, but they don't necessarily carry over.  Golf is not as physically demanding which means there's no real reason to skip the Olympics just to prepare for majors. Most of its top players already choose to compete in nation v. nation competitions if they can, as opposed to the continual ducking of Davis and Fed Cup among some tennis stars.  The spectacle would probably be a little weird, but no weirder than race-walking. 

U.S. To Face Australia In World Cup Championship

Such are the vagaries of round-robin play in softball.  The team invoked the mercy rule to beat the Matildas only yesterday, but the resilient Aussies defeated Italy (?) to make the gold medal game, which will take place tonight.  Thus far the U.S. has outscored its opponents 48-3, and is not making a compelling case for the return of softball to the Olympics in 2016. 

Overlook the Pac-10 At Your Peril

The basketball ranking committee has long understood that a good record in the Pac-10 is not indicative of postseason success for a team.  The softball committee, by contrast, shouldn't even bother seeding a team from another conference first.  Below: The Washington Huskies celebrate their national title over top-seeded Florida in an AP photo. 

You Do Searches

For awhile there no one was using the internet except to look for pictures of Katie nee Feenstra, but many seekers seem to have lost interest now that she's married.  Oddly enough she has been replaced, at least on this blog, by a large number of  searches that involve the terms 'women's sports' and 'oops.'  Now, I wrote a post a few days ago with the title 'oops' because I was making fun of a prominent typo I'd made in a previous post.  But I'm guessing that's not interesting enough to be the subject of searches from Australia to Japan.  Is there some sexual connotation I'm missing or is everyone suddenly looking for women's sports bloopers? 

There have also been some folks searching for coverage of the apparent dust-up between John Kruk and Jessica Mendoza during ESPN's coverage of the WCWS on Saturday night.  Speaking only from what I heard after the fact, he was incensed that college softball batteries don't call their own pitches.  He's right; it's absolutely disgraceful.  Funny though, I seem to remember other people doing the same thing.  Perhaps it will come to me...oh yes, college baseball players.  I do hope he happened to mention that, being a pro baseball commentator and all. 

Lawrie's Bionic Arm Revealed

"We wanted to keep it a secret through the finals," remarked Washington Deputy Athletic Director Irma Jones, "And when no one inquired about the 251-pitch second game of the double header against UMass we thought we were in the clear.  But when we didn't pull her after she gave up eight runs in today's first Georgia game  we knew would have to change the plans."  Husky engineers who travel with the team tweaked the tech between the second and third games for more hitting power, and Lawrie responded with a grand slam in the first inning, as well as a five-hit pitching performance.