Stand back men, it’s time for the women to play

Stand+back+men%2C+it%E2%80%99s+time+for+the+women+to+play

As Women’s History Month comes to an end, there has been recent reflection upon the strides made by women in the realm of sports. Specifically how Title IX allowed female athletes a spot of equality in not only in playing sports, but in facilities and opportunities.

This has been quite the amazing push for greater equality between the sexes. The only problem is that once college is over that equality pretty much falls apart.

There is the WNBA for basketball, but there are no real similar leagues for other major sports. Sure women can play football, but it’s usually part of minor leagues or the degrading televised lingerie bowl.

Let’s be clear, there is no legitimate or logical reason why women don’t get to play those sports at a major level. It’s sexism, clear and simple.

Men believe women are weaker and therefore can’t compete in more physical sports. The cavemen who still have that mentality have clearly never watched women’s sports.

Women on the Cosumnes River College soccer, softball and basketball teams frequently make it into the postseason and are contenders for division and state titles.

Just sitting at a softball game you can see how athletic and strong the women are, the games are just as entertaining and gripping as watching the men play baseball. The same can be said for other sports.

There is no reason there cannot be a WNFL or WMLB or whatever, though really putting a W in front of all things is just a terrible way to keep segregating the sexes.

Here in Sacramento, our WNBA team, the Monarchs, was disbanded because of claims that no one was going to the games.

Unlike their male counterparts, the Monarchs won a championship while the Kings have been pretty much a disappointment since the early 2000’s.

Yet millions upon millions were spent to keep the Kings in Sacramento and to build them a new stadium. All of this is taking place while the team that actually won a championship doesn’t exist anymore.

Men in charge claim that women are weaker and can’t play at the level of men, that is bullshit.

There is no difference between the ball used and the size of the playing field when it comes to men’s and women’s soccer at CRC. The genders are on an equal playing field.

While in other sports there are minor differences, the players are still performing the same plays.

While baseball and softballs are made from different materials, women are not only throwing and hitting a ball that is bigger and heavier than the one the men use, in many cases they are hitting and throwing it with pretty much the same amount of force as the men. Sometimes even more.

Anything there sound weaker?

In fact, while the men play a nine inning game regularly for baseball and women play a seven inning game, most softball teams like CRC’s often participate in doubleheaders, meaning they play 14 or more innings in one day at times.

Hell, most of the women could play the nine innings easy, yet softball caps it at seven.

Men are threatened by women encroaching on something they feel is theirs, plain and simple. There is no reason why there can’t be more major league female sports.

There is an audience for anything if you put the effort and time into building it, and I guarantee they could easily find a way to market women playing football or softball on a major stage. In fact, there is already a professional softball league called the National Pro Fastpitch League, formerly the Women’s Pro Softball League.

They only have five teams and play from May to August, but they have a deal with CBS Sports Network to air their draft, regular season games and championship games. It’s a step in the right direction.

The next step should be to expand that league and make it at the same level as the MLB, or to create another one that is at the same level as the MLB.

I personally would watch and root for a local major league female softball team just as much as I root for the Giants, whom I love. In fact I would say get rid of softball and just let women play baseball as it’s clear from my observations that they could easily match up or even surpass men in some cases.

If these women can muster up enough power and force to knock a heavier and bigger ball out of the park, imagine what they could do with that same power and a much lighter ball.

It’s far past time to break up the old boy’s club and let the girls have a shot at the big time. If we claim that we’re a country of equal opportunity, it’s time to make that a reality.