PARTING SHOT: In Case You Weren’t Watching, Some of Us Play Like Girls

When Hamilton Porter, the tubby, red-headed catcher from The Sandlot, entered into an insult competition with Phillips, captain of the crosstown rival team, some of the best verbal abuse in the history of sports movies ensued. The argument culminated with the ultimate low blow from Ham: “You play ball like a girl.” Ouch.

It’s common knowledge that men’s sports have been around longer than women’s sports, and in general, more people watch men’s sports compared to women’s. Not only are men’s teams attracting more fans, but they are also acquiring more money. Today, the average major league baseball player makes $3 million each year. A professional softball player is lucky to make $5,000 for a summer’s worth of work. Obviously, the markets for each sport are drastically different, but the better question is, why are audiences so much more captivated by men than women?

On Feb. 5, 2010, the Harvard men’s basketball team took on Princeton in front of a sold-out crowd, many of whom were students who had to lottery to get a ticket to the game. This happened several more times throughout the season, thanks to a group of students who marketed the games to the student body. The women’s basketball program never had students fighting to get tickets to its games. Furthermore, women’s basketball has won at least a share of 11 Ivy League championships in its history, including a devastating upset of No. 1 seed Stanford in the 1998 NCAA tournament. Men’s basketball has yet to win even one title. Not to mention that women’s basketball only became a varsity sport at Harvard 20 years after the men. So where’s the love for the women?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m guilty of watching male sports more often than female sports too. Every March Madness, I find myself completing the men’s bracket while just acknowledging the front-runners of the women’s pool. But as a graduating female athlete at Harvard, I look back on my four years and am dumbfounded as to why this phenomenon occurs on both a professional and collegiate level.

Even in The Crimson, the newspaper for which I write, we oftentimes see more focus put on men’s sports than women’s. I doubt this is ever on purpose. Simply put, the average person will think of men playing sports before women. In fact, at our beat draft two years ago (the time when each sportswriter can pick a sport they want to follow for the entire year), softball was the last sport picked, while baseball was secured in the first round.

I can’t help but wonder why there is such a difference in the wide world of sports fans. In 2007, the Harvard softball team struggled to get fans out to our games. It took the hosting of the first Ivy League Championship Series to really see some outside interest. The following year, the league decided to rework the softball and baseball schedules so both teams would play at home at the same time. This greatly benefited the softball team, as we were able to lure Harvard baseball fans—there seemed to always be an abundance of them—to glance over at our field and watch a few innings. That year, baseball had its worst record in program history, starting 2-22, while we would go on to our second straight appearance in the Ivy League Championship. Yet they still had more fans.

As they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game. I don’t hate men’s sports, but I do hate the game of gender appeal differences in sports. We’ve tried dozens of initiatives to change this point of view. Title IX. Establishing the WNBA. Putting the Women’s College World Series on ESPN. Still, the stigma lives on. Most people I have talked to have told me they had no idea what a fast-paced and exciting sport softball was until they saw a college game.

This makes me think that the real problem is a lack of awareness. Even though women’s sports are still catching up to the men’s, there is no mistaking the amount of talent and competition on the fields and courts. It’s something we should all take into consideration. So next time you are thinking about going to a Boston Red Sox game, maybe think about watching the Harvard softball team. It’s cheaper, guaranteed excitement, and you’ll leave wishing you “played ball like a girl.”

—Staff writer Melissa L. Schellberg can be reached at melissa.schellberg@post.harvard.edu.