There’s no doubt that women’s sports are continuing to grow.
One positive example of this: the Women’s Sports Network (“WSNTV”) was launched earlier this month to focus on “offering 24/7 streaming of original programming, competitions, documentaries and a daily studio show “Game On.”
The new network already has partnerships with the Women’s NBA, Ladies Pro Golf, U.S. Ski and Snowboard and others… with the launch beginning next month (Jan. 2023), we’ll see if fastpitch softball gets added into the programming heading into this upcoming spring.
That’s great and there are positive signs all-around for the future, but did you see the jaw-dropping not-so-positive story that came out of Nevada over the weekend? Oh boy….
At the Las Vegas Invitational women’s college basketball tournament, No. 6 ranked Indiana played Auburn on a court in a ballroom at the Mirage Hotel and Casino that was sorely lacking in some of the basic needs you’d expect and/or demand.
And, you have to believe, that if it were two men’s hoop teams competing, the situation would be much different.
Want proof?
Here’s a tweet from the Hoosiers’ Sports Media Assistant Director and play-by-play broadcaster, Austin Render, showing the set-up which didn’t even allow the space for fans to be in attendance:
It’s time for basketball in Vegas! No. 6/5 Indiana (5-0) takes on Auburn (3-1).
Tip will be later than scheduled. Likely sometime between 6:15-6:30. Check us out on @WHCC105 and https://t.co/PNIlo97ABn. And oh yeah, the stream is free! #iuwbb pic.twitter.com/viqbnAZMAn
— Austin Render (@AustinRender) November 26, 2022
In an ESPN story, the event’s site coordinator did apologize to everyone about the tournament conditions but Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren made some dead-on points when she said:
“What was disappointing was the aesthetics,” Moren told ESPN. “It’s not a fan-friendly environment. As women’s basketball coaches, we’re trying to move our game forward. It felt like because [this] got so many ticks on social, that we had taken a couple steps backward. We have an obligation to grow our game, and we completely missed on this opportunity because you have a lot of really good teams that are here. I see all these other tournaments going on and footage of that, but this was a major miss.”
Major miss, yes, and not just because it was in a ballroom… it’s also that the lights and the court weren’t up to par and neither was the staffing. Case in point: when Auburn player Kharyssa Richardson was injured after diving for a ball, it took 40 minutes for paramedics to show up. Let that sink in: 40 minutes.
I shudder to think of the disastrous outcome that could have happened with no medical care on hand be it on the court or around it.
Maybe this was a one-time thing and, hopefully, not the norm in women’s and girls’ sports when it comes to facilities, but it did remind me of a piece that Boston CBS affiliate WBZ-TV did earlier this summer.
“I’m afraid to hit grounders on this field”
The clip showed how a youth baseball field and a softball field in Milton, Mass., right next to each other, were so, so different in upkeep and sent a not so subtle message to the young softball players that they weren’t equal to their baseball-playing counterparts:
And it’s not just that the boys’ field was better taken care of while the girls’ looked like a cow pasture, it was that the state’s Department of Conservation & Recreation (“DCR”) wouldn’t even allow the softball coaches and parents nor the City of Milton to work on the field on their own to get it to be even close to the level of the baseball field.
Shaun Collins, the head coach and father of three girls on the Orioles team comprised of eight- and nine-year-olds, commented:
“When the girls start asking questions about why the boys’ baseball field is in such good condition and their field is, essentially, abandoned and unplayable, I don’t really have a good answer for it.”
The field is on state land and the state is responsible for maintaining it, but the infield dirt was apparently dumped in the parking lot and not spread over the infield that, as of earlier in the year, was dotted with clover and other weeds.
Again… isolated incident? You have to hope so, but it makes you wonder if the mentality is still there that there is intended preferential treatment.
Some of the comments beneath the Milton YouTube clip are revealing:
One viewer, “Lindsey” posted:
“I started playing softball when I was 5, I’m 23 now. The amount of times we had to play in fields that looked like this, or had to show up hours early to the game so we could groom the field ourselves is more than I can count. I remember being a freshman in high school and having our team running around trying to “groom” the field, pull out the giant weeds, get rid of the random rocks, anything to make the field at least playable so we could practice, meanwhile at the same exact time the baseball field a few hundred feet away had a crew of adults and professional equipment and machinery taking care of the baseball field making it look really good, perfectly laid dirt, groomed and cut grass, perfect chalk lines, clean usable dugouts… the baseball fields were always in pristine condition and us softball players were lucky if we even had bases to use…”
And then this gem proving that, with at least some (many?) people, the inequality between boys and girls is perfectly appropriate in their minds:
“Omg maybe if there (“their) coach put in the work they could have a nice field. And plus there (“they’re”) on a softball Field, come on
I pray this last person isn’t in a position to influence people, especially kids, like being a teacher or coach!
Seriously, are there really discrepancies in thought and action that still allow for girls to receive second-hand treatment (including facilities) like these two incidents above? Or are they very rare, but still happening, as these both have occurred in 2022?
Either way—as a fan of the women’s sports with three daughters and two step-daughters of my own—this is not acceptable, in my opinion.
But what are your thoughts? Have you ever experienced baseball/softball discrepancies like these? Would love to get your thoughts… pro and con. Email me at brentt.eads@extrainningsoftball.com if you’d like to share your insights.
Thanks… and let’s do our best to make sure these are—literally—equal playing fields!
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
