EVERY-THING SPORTS
Jermaine Every on women in sports: Times are changing
Jul 24, 2018, 8:01 am
Serena Williams has helped change the way women are viewed in sports. Clive Mason/Getty Images
Women are a critical part of life. Understatement of the millennium, I know. Without them, life as we know it doesn’t exist. Men can’t get pregnant, and we can’t pro-create with one another. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
However, in society, we have been slow to give them the respect they deserve. They were not given the right to vote nationally until 1920. To this day, women still fight for equal pay and fair treatment. The whole #MeToo Movement was sparked by a rash of sexual assault and abuse, starting with higher profile cases being brought to the public’s attention.
In the sports world, women have been marginalized as well. Little attention is paid to women’s athletics. Most of the time when men pay attention to them, it’s more for the eye candy aspect instead of an appreciation for their athletic ability. Sure, the women aren’t as athletically gifted as men in any given sport in which both genders compete, but they can be just as (in some cases more so) competitive and hungry as the men.
The intensity at which they compete hasn’t translated into respect and better pay or conditions. Recently, WNBA players have been more vocal about equal pay. NBA players get roughly a 50/50 split, while their WNBA counterparts get a 20/80 split. That is where their beef should lie. Venus and Serena Williams have always spoken out about better pay for ladies’ tennis players. The USWNT (national soccer team for those that don’t know) easily won their fight for better pay. But why is there a discrepancy in the first place?
To look deeper into the issue, we have to look follow the paper trail. Men’s sports typically generate higher and more diverse revenue streams. For example: you’ll see jerseys, shirts, purses, etc. geared for women consumers from men’s pro sports leagues, but you’ll find a unicorn before you find a men’s jersey from a women’s league. It’s as simple as a Google search to find out where to buy them, but I can find a guy wearing a basketball jersey from the 1980’s at an NFL game before I find a guy wearing a jersey from a women’s league at a women’s game.
Perhaps the biggest source of income for men’s sports is television contracts. The NBA has $2.6 billion dollars worth of television contracts annually, compared to the minute $12 million dollars the WNBA brings in annually from its television deal. Longevity of the leagues is apparent with the NBA existing 50 years before the WNBA was brought into existence.
Tennis was one of the sports in which women achieved pay parity with the men. Looking at the majors, here’s when they achieved that status: U.S. Open (1973), Australian Open (2001, although there was a period in which the women were paid more in the 1980s), French Open (2006), and Wimbledon (2007). Tennis is the one sport in which the women are sometimes more exciting to watch. Pay parity can be attributed to the Williams sisters rise in the rankings and popularity, as well as their outspokenness on the subject.
To be clear, I’m no feminist. However, I’ve always had an appreciation for women’s sports. Women’s tennis, in particular, held my attention at an early age because it was the one sport in which their storylines - Steffi Graf’s Grand Slam in 1988 - were more exciting. Graf’s dominance and looking to see if anyone could unseat her was akin to fans nowadays wondering if anyone can knock off the Golden State Warriors.
The idea for this article came from the WWE announcing the first all-women’s pay per view. Wrestling is sports entertainment, not a sport. But they clearly have their hand on the pulse of what their fans want. They’ve created a buzz for women’s wrestling by promoting their product. Women’s tennis has done a great job of this as well. Women’s soccer in this country took off the same time Brandi Chastain took off her jersey after they won the 1999 World Cup at the Rose Bowl.
Ladies are continuing their fight for equality in the sports world. Even sports journalists and reporters are fighting for their place as well. Am I looking to see equal pay and television time? No. I simply want to draw attention to what women are doing on the athletic front, and behind the cameras and mics. Give them a chance. You never know. You might end up liking it.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.