Just as you’re getting ready to make up your mind about something, once and for all, something else happens that causes you to waver and reconsider your position.
It has happened to me again. This time, it’s women’s sports that are the focal point.
I’ve been building up an intense dislike for women’s sports. To start with, I’ve been watching the WNBA and find it a lost cause for basketball fans. Basketball is a game that is played high, fast and rough. The way they play it, the game is short, slow and tender. It’s no wonder that literally dozens of fans go to the games and that the television ratings equate to those of a test pattern or early warning system test.
I’ve watched some of the women’s tennis from Wimbledon as one Russian I’ve never heard of bats it back and forth with another Russian I’ve never heard of until one of them grunts loud enough to win the point.
I’ve even watched golfer Michelle Wie, who has developed a hand wave second only to the Queen of England. Watch her. No matter what kind of shot she hits, her right arm makes a right angle, she cups her right hand and smiles and mouths the word "Thanks" as she flutters a little wave.
Boring.
And then it all changed in about a minute of competition. I got hit between the eyes and discovered, again, all that is glorious and wonderful about female athletes.
It happened during the 18-hole playoff between Annika Sorenstam and Pat Hurst for the U. S. Women’s Open golf championship.
The two were tied after regulation and they played a playoff round Monday. Sorenstam was in charge all the way and coming up the 18th hole she had locked it up. Sorenstam was about 25 yards in front of Hurst as they approached the green and the applause began to rise for the champion.
Sorenstam stopped about 15 yards short of the green, turned, and gave a little wave to Hurst. She waited until Hurst reached her and put her arm around her opponent as they both walked onto the green and into the applause, together.
It was clear that Sorenstam was saying "We both made it into the playoff and we both deserve this applause." The smile on Hurst’s face was not one of a defeated player, but of an equal on the field of battle.
I thought, as I watched it, that hell would freeze over before you’d ever see men act this way.
For 25 years, Jim Schuemann has been the girl’s soccer coach at Wauwatosa East High School. He is one of the most successful coaches in the country and has some strong opinions about why women athletes behave the way they do.
"It’s not that they aren’t competitive," Schuemann said this week when I asked him about it. "They are fierce competitors, but when it’s not time to compete, when it’s over or there’s a break, women react differently.
"It comes, I think, from how they are nurtured. You know, when girls are little, their mothers tell them to make sure to include all their friends in their play. For women, it’s about inclusion. Not so for men. It’s in the genes."
He’s right. Men stand over their vanquished and beat their chests, howling at the moon and waiting for the applause and congratulations. Watch basketball or football and you are bound to see the endless in-your-face celebrations and hear announcers who talk about "a dagger in the heart." Listen to the pregame hype where they talk about "tearing them apart."
And the Sorenstam-Hurst moment got me thinking about the difference between male and female athletes.
To male athletes, sports are war.
To female athletes, sports are ... well ... sports.
Think how much happier we’d all be if women ran the world.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
