That is just so typically me

I get that people make mistakes. God knows I make them. But, sheez, if you're going to make such a big deal out of it, do a little checking, no?

I’m not exactly an imposing figure.  The character in “The Breakfast Club” that I most identified with was Ally Sheedy before Molly Ringwald girlied her all up.  I’m naturally shy (unless I know you in which case I’m a bit of a chatterbox) and I usually go out of my way to avoid confrontations.  But something has happened over the years.  The older I get the more determined I am to not let people walk over me (a bit of a problem for me in my early 20s).  This sometimes shows itself at times when I refuse to not point out an injustice or just something that I believe to be flat-out offensive or wrong.  In recent years, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation as someone who won’t be silenced if she thinks she’s right even if the opinion is unpopular and of that I’m quite proud.  Unfortunately, it also causes some people to have a difficult time dealing with my insistence to express myself.

Today is one of those days when those people should probably just click off the blog and find something else to read.  🙂

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, so I’ll just send you to the Metsgrrl and OMG MN Twins blogs, both which discuss the recent partnership of MLB and Victoria’s Secret much more rationally and articulately than I could.  For those of you who haven’t heard about this yet, dig:

This new product line is the latest effort by Major League Baseball to provide its extensive female fan base with new and fashionable ways to support their favorite team.

According to ESPN Sports Poll, Major League Baseball has had the largest percentage of female fans (45% of its total fan base in ’09) among the major sports leagues since 2006. This collaboration marks the first professional sports relationship for VS PINK

45% of the total fanbase and they think they need to sell MLB clothes through Victoria’s Secret in order to gain/keep women fans?  I don’t want sparkles, I don’t want short-shorts, I don’t want pinks or pastels.  Make the same damn clothes you make for men cut for women and I’ll be happy.  Stop reinforcing the stereotype that the only reason women would go to a game is to show off their cute clothes.

Caryn over at Metsgrrl is an entertaining and powerful voice in sports blogging in general but I hold her in especially high esteem when it comes to issues regarding women and their fandom.  (You might remember Metsgrrl wrote about the condescending post regarding the young baseball fan who happens to be a girl and Evan Longoria.)  Over at Caryn’s blog today (and head over there and read the entry and comment on it because MLB is aware of it and it’s a good place to get your voice heard) she had a few people jump into the comments section to leave comments that boiled down to “you’re jealous/stupid and don’t know what you’re talking about because women like that stuff”.  She seems to attract angry comments from people so ready to jump on her opinions that they get into WEEI commenter territory sometimes.  So you see,  I feel a bit simpatico with her on many levels.  (Caryn has deleted offensive comments.  Not dissenting comments, mind you, just offensive ones.  If you don’t agree with her she’s open to that just as long as you keep it civil.)

Going in a different direction,  a lot of members of the sports media have blogged or tweeted some variation of “it’s spring training for writers too!” over the past few weeks which is, of course, ridiculous.  These people write about the sport they cover all year long.   I took the photo accompanying this entry in the event that Boston.com decided to take it down or edit it again.  Today’s 1pm game lasted two hours and five minutes (meaning it got over at 3:05pm).  Peter Abraham wrote that entry (according to the time stamp) at 5:23pm.  Even if he didn’t follow the game (which is odd for the “Globe Red Sox Reporter”) he had over two hours to read a box score and find out that not only did the Astros NOT the Red Sox  pick up Michael Garciaparra but that he played against the Red Sox in today’s game.   Are things so crazy at spring training that you can’t read the box score of a game you should be covering?  It’s way too early for the writers to start annoying me this way.

I had planned on possibly live blogging the St Patrick’s Day game (against the Mets at 1:05pm ET on NESN or WEEI!) but the best laid plans and all.  We’ll have plenty of time this season for the live blogs.

And, finally, regarding the most important news of the day, Ryan Westmoreland is out of surgery and, from reports coming in, all went well with the surgery.  Even successful brain surgery is still brain surgery, though, and it will be a while before they have any kind of real idea as to how Ryan will respond.  Still sending pvs Ryan’s way for a thorough recovery.