Women's Sports Blog

More Holiday Tales

Joe Posnanski is the Mechelle Voepel of men's sports journalism, probably the highest accolade I can bestow (and oddly both of them cover Kansas City).  In this post, he uses the release of the new Strat-o-Matic Negro Leagues set as the background to a meditation on history and memory. 

102 Wins

Is Penn State volleyball the greatest Div I women's sports team ever?  

For further discussion, an American winter league team signed a 17-year-old Japanese woman to pitch for them.  Is this a gimmick or the start of something big?

I am at a work function for the next few days so posting may be sporadic.  

It Sucked, And Then I Cried

The downside to the deep emotional investment that true fans put into their teams is the soul-crushing despair that can ensue when things go wrong.  In a second, you go from living for the team to not wanting to live anymore.*  I apologize in advance for the triggering effect this will have on readers' own unhappy sports memories.  The interesting thing is how many of the first ones that came to my mind involve men's teams, which I ostensibly care less about.  I haven't followed the Pacers for years, and the Mets have pretty well run their organization into the ground. 

7. The four point play by the Knicks against the Pacers in the 1999 conference finals.  My mother had just asked me 'is there any way they can come back?' and I told her there was almost no chance because they'd have to hit a three and get fouled. Thereafter followed the most bullshit continuation call in the history of basketball.

6. Kenny Rogers walks in the winning run in the '99 NLCS against the Most Hateful Team In the World, the Braves (bigots and wife-beaters welcome!).  Later Rogers turned out to be a totally unpleasant human being as well, so I don't feel bad for threatening to choke him whenever I hear his name mentioned. 

5. The pre-instant-replay, last-second touchdown thrown by Jim Harbaugh in the 1995 AFC championship game against the Steelers.  With review, I believe we would have been awarded the points and gone to the Superbowl.

4. Erika Valek misses open, game-tying layup in waning seconds of March Madness game '03 vs. Georgia.  This would have ranked higher, but I had left the room already because I couldn't bear to watch the final possession. 

3. The goddamn Steelers win the 2005 AFC championship after Peyton Manning fails to get the team close enough for a gimme field goal and Vanderjagt misses the one farther out.  Made ten times worse by the fact that I was watching the game with a good friend who is a huge Steelers fan, and we were both too polite to make it enjoyable.  I vow not to watch another Colts game until they make the Superbowl. 

2. 2009 soccer championship tying goal disallowed on offside, compounded by being forced to endure the obsequiousness sweepstakes that is media coverage of that creep Anson Dorrance and his insufferable, Yankees-like program.  Cat Whitehill inexplicably kissed enough UCLA butt that I knew to keep the sound off when she was actually commentating on her own team.  

1. 2001 NCAA basketball title game final shot.  Enough said about that. 

*This is excluding those frustrations that occur over time, such as the fact that the Patriots owe the Colts three AFC playoff rematches in which they are not allowed to cheat.

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.