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Time to man up and admit it, it’s the year of the woman
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Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - I was certain Danica Patrick was going to win the Indianapolis 500 Sunday. Just positive. After all, this 2008 is a year, when, surely, women have been more prominent in sports than ever before — and in every way: good, bad and sad.
Danica herself, of course, had already become the first woman to win an open wheel race, which must have astonished the fatuous Bernie Ecklestone, the head of Formula One racing, who had declared earlier that “women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”
Justine Henine and Annika Sorenstam made headlines for retiring prematurely, but there are big headline names still playing in their sports. Lorena Ochoa — not Tiger — is the most dominant force in golf in 2008. As the French Open moves along, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have not only risen again to the top, but they’re both glamorous global celebrities who make the mainstream columns — Maria for her elegant beauty, Serena for her, uh, exotic attire. OMG, OMG –– what’s that she’s wearing today!!??
Of course, a lot of women in sport are upset about that sort of thing, that too much attention is still paid to the way women athletes look and dress, but the reality — fair or not — is that culture pays more attention to female appearance. To pretend to avoid that fact in sport is ridiculous. As Danica Patrick told me about posing sexily for a man’s magazine: “It didn’t change my talent. It didn’t make me any less of a driver.”
It did make her more famous.
Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks scored 34 points in her debut in the WNBA. When was the last time an NBA rookie started off like that? And hey, what’s become the meanest rivalry in sport? Red Sox-Yankees? Fuhgetabboutit. It’s in women’s basketball — Pat Summitt of Tennessee and Geno Auriemma of Connecticut. OK, Geno is a man. Technicality. He’s a women’s coach. Summitt already has called off their regular season series, so if UT and UConn face each other in the NCAA championship next year, that would be a real grudge match and the biggest women’s game in history, any sport — and a lot more interesting than anything the men could put up in their Final Four.
It was the death of the filly Eight Belles — not the colt Barbaro — that has really provoked the most searching look at the way horse racing is conducted. And I think that the imprisonment of Marion Jones is as tragic as any in the sports realm of oh-how-the-mighty-have-fallen. Somehow, her disgrace is more poignant than the sagas of Shoeless Joe or Pete Rose or Mike Tyson. There was something so classically, sadly representative of all those feminine dramas of lore: the beautiful and talented and ambitious woman who picks all the wrong men . . . or, has all the wrong men pick her.
And then, back to Danica, because after the positively cataclysmic results of last week, she didn’t have to be the standard-bearer for womanhood and beat the men at Indy, because on “Dancing With The Stars,” Kristi Yamaguchi was a rare female winner, upsetting the top male athlete, that handsome NFL hunk, Jason Taylor.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it: how did Hillary lose in 2008?
Frank Deford can be reached at flamegarden@aol.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
10:21 AM MST on Thu., Jul. 24, 2008 re: "Presidential game plan: Obama’s bid rooted to the rise of the black athlete"
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2:48 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 15, 2008
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8:01 AM MST on Fri., Oct. 5, 2007
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6:05 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 17, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
Dude, come into the 21st century and leave your old white guy racist beliefs behind. Are you friggin' serious? Nah, you gotta be kidding. Some old fart like you? Geez!
5 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
your chauvanistic gilman background shows. what about hoff she is from baltimore too. you seem to dismiss the williams as unamerican---perhaps because they are women also
4 agree | 5 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is quite possibly the stupidest article I've read in a while. Frank, was press time five minutes away when you coined this piece?
11 agree | 10 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Great article; agree with it entirely. The Olympics have lost their prestige, and this year in Beijing, the IOC will recognize this reality when it sees the declining interest from worldwide audiences. And indeed, let's ask the athletes to skip the opening ceremonies and demand that President Bush boycott the games altogether; it's his job to speak diplomatically with action.
9 agree | 11 disagree
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Brian O'Rourke said:
Alas, poor Billick...we knew him well!
130 agree | 133 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
this so called legal system will destroy a thousand white men to destroy one black man. if they want him bad enough. and they do. racism is more clandestine and senister in this country than anywhere else in the world. we black men are considered a threat and always have been. but the table is taking a slow turn. but don't worry we'll show you some love. obviously something you know nothing about.
151 agree | 168 disagree
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avid reader said:
Angelos would not listen to anyone who made sense about making baseball interesting again in Baltimore.
191 agree | 168 disagree
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Michael said:
Football was named after the length of the ball, one foot. It has nothing to do with using your feet. And no one cares about soccer anyway. You could change its name to kickball. Oh, and basketball will be bounceball. And change tennis to racketball, racketball to wallball, and golf to metalstickball. Hey, volleyball. Theres one you can keep. Some people will search high and low to find something to complain about. Isn't there real sports news in D.C. that you can write about.
313 agree | 295 disagree
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Ron Redmerski said:
No way was this supposed to happen. Not like this, anyway. Four years ago when the ACC decided to expand, the prevailing thought on Tobacco Road was that the SEC had some competition. Finally. A 12 team super conference that included two Florida schools and, arguably, New England’s top athletic program. The talent-rich, fertile Newport Beach/Hampton recruiting areas were going to help the ACC yield top five football programs like Pez dispensers spit out candy. Well, if yesterday was any indication of how far the ACC has come, we won’t be eating Elvis Pez any time soon. Losing to an underrated East Carolina team is one thing (not to mention struggling with UAB, a program beaten by Michigan State 55-12 the week prior), but getting run over, completely throttled, by LSU and Oklahoma is quite another. The aforementioned powers made quick and decisive work of Virginia Tech and Miami (and that’s saying it nicely), respectively, the two programs that had John Swofford and the ACC bras
317 agree | 337 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Frank Deford's editorial on tall tales: Best athletes seem to rise Growth hormones does wonders ask my 16 year old son who is on them for medical reasons due to cancer treatment as a baby! If an adult or even a child is using them and they shouldn't be who knows what problems they may have down the road.
384 agree | 347 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Reminds me of the old line about horseracing as the sport of kings. But you never saw any kings @the $2 window.
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