It has been forever since I've put anything on this blog. But today I have something on my mind. I don't normally use this blog to rant but today I am!
First off, on Tuesday Jessica Mendoza became the first woman to a MLB post season game! Big, big congrats to her! I couldn't be more happy for her! She has worked incredibly hard and she totally deserved this opportunity. I watched the game and thought she did a great job. I look forward to listening to her call many more games and listening to all the other women in the future that she paved the way for!
Now to my rant lol. The next day I read an article about a man named Mike Bell(no relation to me thank God!). He is a radio broadcaster in Atlanta and he was suspended from his job because of some disgusting tweets he posted about Jessica Mendoza. I'll include a link to his comments if you haven't read them and wish to. But basically he said being a softball player didn't qualify her to call a professional baseball game and called her "Tits McGee". He has since (of course) issued an apology but I couldn't help but feel it was more of sorry this bit me the butt apology but that's just my opinion. My first thought upon reading his original remarks was "I hope he doesn't have any daughters". I can't imagine what it would feel like to see or hear your father bad mouth a another woman just for being a woman. But even if he doesn't, he does say something in his tweets about his wife. He had to have a mother and other women in his life. I think he owes them all an apology.
As days have gone by and this has continued to bother me, I started to wonder why. The first obvious reason is I'm a woman! I've been surrounded my entire life by women. I love lots of really strong women and I resent the notion that women can't call baseball games or foot ball games or any sport simply because they are women. I'm also a softball fan and I have great respect for the women who play and who have played the game. I am also a Jessica Mendoza fan. I've followed her career almost as long as I've followed softball. She was an incredible outfielder and one of the most gifted hitters to play the game. But I think the most upsetting thing for me is that this guy was blessed with a platform that he could've used for something positive like lifting up and supporting women but Tuesday night he made a choice to instead use his platform for something negative and tore not just Jessica Mendoza down but women and softball. Not everyone has that opportunity and I can't fathom using that opportunity in such a negative and disgusting way!
He said Jessica is not qualified to call that game but I wonder if he spent any time at all looking at her background. She is the daughter of a baseball coach. She grew up watching and playing baseball like many softball players. She looked up to baseball players. But she eventually ,for one reason or another, made the move from baseball to softball. She played at Stanford, for the national team, and in the NPF for USSSA Florida Pride. She's an All-American and an Olympic Gold and Silver medalist. I know people like Mr.Bell like to pretend baseball is much different more complicated sport than softball and a woman couldn't possibly understand it the way a man can but they are wrong. There are differences but the basics are the same. You don't have to listen to her long before you realize she knows baseball and for Mr. Bell to assume she doesn't because she has breasts and played softball is ridiculous. But more than knowing baseball, she knows what it's like to play a sport at the highest level because she's done it! She's worked hard, she's sacrificed so much, and their is no good reason for to not get to call that game.
The only thing Mr. Bell showed on Twitter that night was he knew nothing about Jessica Mendoza, or softball, or female athletes. It was a big reminder to me that while softball and women have made huge strides there is still a long long way to go. I think as much anger as I felt about Mr.Bell's comments I felt so much more sadness because he is just the one whose comments were seen because of his job and there is still so much ignorance and sexism out there. I hope to one day have a daughter and I can only hope and pray if I do I bring her into a world that has much less sexism than our world today.
If I could ask one thing of Mr.Bell it would be to put away his sexist ego, shut his mouth, and go take in an NPF game and spend sometime with those ladies. I think it would do him a world of good and make him feel like a real moron...at least I hope it would.
This is an article with all of Mike Bell's tweets:
http://thebiglead.com/2015/10/07/mike-bell-jessica-mendoza-twitter-suspended/
This is an article with Jessica Mendoza's classy response:
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/interviews/a47579/jessica-mendoza-female-analyst-mlb/
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