I was there: Gold Cup Final

My apologies for taking two plus weeks to get around to posting these pictures – it wouldn’t be too much hyperbole to tell you that it took me that long to recover!

Let’s preface all of this by saying that if you are at all a fan of US Soccer, you should be a member of your local American Outlaws chapter. The Outlaws are a supporters group with chapters in more than 90 cities around the country.

We’re members of the AO group here in Milwaukee and mostly that means we hang out at a local soccer bar together watching games and talking US Soccer. But occasionally it means we get on a bus together and head to Chicago for things like the Gold Cup Final.
Membership is a paltry $20 a year. You get discounts for some soccer websites and travel sites as well as opportunities for advanced purchase of tickets to pretty much all USMNT and USWNT games. We’re so glad to have joined. Our local group has FB and Twitter pages and we love joining the discussion and meeting fellow soccer fans. It’s a great group and I’d advocate everyone joins.

So we bought our Gold Cup Final tickets the day they went on sale. We hedged our bets on the USMNT being there. We know that big international games only come near us (usually Chicago) every could of years. We decided that even if the USMNT didn’t make it, it would be a good time, so we were in no matter what. Using the AO advanced sale, we got our tickets first thing and had 10th row. We were stoked and then just had to sit back and enjoy the ride of the US through the qualifying stages.

We also knew this would be an easy trip for us – we wanted to get WCQ tickets in Columbus or Kansas City, but we also want to go to Europe next year, so we sort of settled on this Gold Cup final instead. In the end, I don’t feel like I settled, though. I’m sure US/Mexico will be bonkers, but I’m glad we did this. It was a good intro into the world of AO and supporters section mania.

So the morning of the game we gathered with other local AO members at our soccer bar and boarded a bus. The price of bus admission included beer, drinks and snacks. Someone did the math – there were 9.5 beers on board for each person. (Let me just say that as much as I love AO, I would have loved AO so much more when I was about 10 years younger!)

The bus trip alone was an experience. The “America playlist” was as varied as you’d imagine and somehow the song that had the most crowd participation was Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” – there’s nothing like grown men shushing each other in anticipation of “the breakdown” and then playing the drums on the roof of the bus. It was a moment.

Chicago traffic was true to form, despite it being Sunday morning/early afternoon. The Chicago AO chapter as well as any others in town had met at a bar. The plan was to march to Soldier Field past the US Soccer Federation House, where President Sunil Gulati would address us. Thanks to traffic, we missed the bar part and had our bus driver take us straight to the Soccer House. We stood there and listened to the rest of the group march to us, which was awesome. Having got there first means that the Milwaukee chapter is featured prominently in the video of Gulati addressing the crowd (notice the cheesehead and AO Milwaukee scarves).

My pictures seem to have uploaded in all kinds of order and if you’re familiar with WordPress, you know why I’m not going to try to fix that. Sorry. It should be clear which pictures are the march to the stadium and which pictures are of the game and inside the stadium.

ESPN’s 9 for IX films about women by women

There are many negatives to say about the WWL, but one of the things they’ve consistently done well are their 30 for 30 films/documentaries. They’ve run the gamut from well-known topics to hidden gems and they’re always so well done. Even the most well-known of stories have been covered in a way that you didn’t feel like the topic was being re-hashed.

So when ESPN announced the 9 for IX series of films about women by women, I was pretty excited. They are touting it as from the producers of 30 for 30 and executive produced by Robin Roberts and Jane Rosenthal.

The first one debuted this week – called “Venus vs.” it was ostensibly about the fight for women’s singles players to earn an equal payout at Wimbeldon.

And I was thoroughly disappointed.

I do not follow tennis. I exist in this world, so I know who Venus Williams is and am aware of her career accomplishments. And so I was bored by this film. It was mostly a re-hash of each of her accomplishments, centered around Wimbeldon. Every so often, a screen would appear to show me that with those Wimbeldon wins, she earned less than the men’s winner. There was a few minutes about a meeting and a letter to the editor that were influential in changing the All England Club’s standards. But really, it was mostly about 45 minutes of Venus highlights. It felt like there was more talk about her hair beads than equal pay.

Again, I don’t follow tennis at all and I learned little to nothing new. And I just felt so sad that this was the intro to this film series. It left me bewildered and beyond concerned about the rest of the series.

Where I was once super-excited about the 1999 Women’s World Cup winning soccer team one, set to air August 20, I can only imagine I could probably write it word for word. And I’m afraid what kind of rhetoric about bras and abs it will include.

Maybe I’m jumping the gun and the films will redeem themselves – but you’d think they’d put one of the strongest ones at the front, to come out of the gate galloping. And if that’s the case, despite the fact that I set my DVR to record all 9 films, I’m imaging my finger will be reaching for the delete button early on.

The films were made in part to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX, but man do they really fail to live up to that legacy. It seems like maybe the idea and the goal was one thing, but the execution and final product was something else altogether. I can’t help but wonder if in the interim, ESPN and it’s executives pulled back on the reins. Because I felt no excitement or empowerment from “Venus vs.”

Did anyone else watch? What was your take?

What I’m reading this week

So I know there are apps and other ways to handle “clipping” things from Twitter and your mobile phone, but when I am scrolling through and see a link that intrigues me, I just email myself the tweet. There’s no need to remember to check another app or anything like that – I’m in my inbox a hundred times a day. It’s a little old-school and probably a little silly, but it’s my comfort zone and I’m owning it.

Anyway, I realized this week I’d sent myself quite a few links, so I thought I’d pass along some of the stuff I found interesting recently:

This ESPN piece trying to understand Italian soccer, hooligans and racism is just beautifully written. The subject matter is baffling, but this is a read that’s totally worth your time. Long form journalism at it’s finest.

Carlos Gomez is having a heck of a year and he’s played enough places that I think you’ll find this interesting: if you hit a ball to center field in Miller Park, the odds are not in your favor that you’ll actually get a hit. According to ESPN.com, of 35 balls hit to straightaway CF, just one of them resulted in a hit. Carlos Gomez has caught 97% of those balls. The major league average is 78%.

But you already knew Gomez was a plus (plus) defender. This year (and the end of last season) he has also figured out how to hit for power. Turns out, his coaches just didn’t know how to harness all his skills before and were pigeonholing him as a ground-ball hitting speedster. 

Did you watch the USWNT play Canada two weeks ago? I have re-watched this Alex Morgan goal a ton of times and I’m still in awe of her first touch. Also, the first few “not touches” if you know what I mean

If you didn’t read this amazing profile of Britney Griner, you should. Great insight into a ground-breaking woman. I don’t watch basketball, but she will always get a hearty “you go girl” from me .

Deadspin ran this excerpt which tells the tale of meeting and hanging out with Muhammed Ali, which on it’s own is just stupendously cool. But then it led to commentors telling stories of randomly meeting with Ali and then I had many warm fuzzies.

That was my first intro to The Stacks at Deadspin. Talk about a rabbit hole. Do yourself a favor and go for a scroll. So much good reading.
Former Badger Hockey player Hilary Knight is probably my all-time favorite. Hard to explain, but I’m still heart-broken she never won the Patty Kaz, especially because her taking time off to play for the US in the 2010 Olympics likely had something to do with that. In those same Olympics it was said she likely has the best shot in the game – she was a Junior in college at the time. Anyway, she plays in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and won their inaugural season MVP. Here’s an interview with her.

In the only vaguely sports related department:

There’s a gorgeous old hotel in Downtown Milwaukee that most visiting sports teams stay at. It’s supposedly haunted. The stories are apparently varied and widespread enough that ESPN the Mag did a story about it. Read all about the Pfister.

I’m a Twitter fiend. I’ll admit it. Yet there is only one account I check in on multiple times daily to make sure I haven’t missed anything – @DUPorterhouse.
Porterhouse is the live bulldog mascot of Drake University in Iowa. He’s a rescued bulldog, winner of the Most Beautiful Bulldog Contest at Drake and very, very photogenic. He’s also an advocate to help end puppy mills bc his native state of Iowa has so many of them.
His mom started him a Twitter account and well, she’s just really good at it. There are tons of adorable pictures and cuteness and Porterhouse consistently makes my day better. He goes to their basketball games and leads them onto the court by chasing the ball. He’s just great.
Seriously, though – here’s a pic of him in Shrek Underoos. Tell me that doesn’t make the whole world better.

From the “not at all about sports” filesL

If you’re a Mad Men watcher and haven’t watched Sunday’s episode, this piece contains spoilers, so be warned. But even if you don’t watch Mad Men, this is a spectacular piece from Tom and Lorenzo that gives a very detailed and interesting cultural look at what it was to be a gay man in 1968.

How the Brewers alienated their female fans and regressed to 1958 or so…

I thought I posted this last night, so my apologies for being late to get this to you all, but if you follow me on Twitter, you’d have seen me ranting the past two days about an even the Brewers are putting on called Brewed for Her. That event, in and of itself, doesn’t thrill me, but to each her own. Unfortunately for the Brewers, it’s not as simple as that and it made me ranty to the tune of about 3300 words.

Won’t you please come over and check it out?

Brewers Brewed for Her Event: Sexist, Offensive and Just Really Bad Marketing

I had planned to post my diatribe here, but was lucky enough to be able to post out to BrewCrewBall, the SBN Brewers blog I contribute to. While I know I’ve got my target audience of upset female sports fans here, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try to enlighten a new group of folks. Nor could I pass up the chance that someone in the Brewers Org would see it.

I have been overwhelmed by the support (and lack of negativity) and kind words I’ve received from many corners of the internet since publishing this piece over there yesterday afternoon. I’d love to here from you ladyfolk that put up with this sort of thing on a regular basis, though.

Supporting women’s athletics, not just paying lip service (Go Badger Women’s Hockey!)

I’m absolutely loving this column Val Ackerman is doing over at ESPNW where she is speaking to prominent male sports executives about the future of women’s sports. It’s at once fascinating, heartening and upsetting. Her most recent is with recent Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. Burke is probably best known around these parts for his no bigotry stance – he’s one of the few high-level executives out there consistently saying all the right things about why skin color, sexual orientation and really anything other than your athletic ability shouldn’t matter on the playing field.

Ackerman talks to Burke about the rapid growth of women’s hockey. I’m a huge women’s hockey fan and supporter and this was the first I’d heard that Burke was, as well, so I’m always happy to hear that high level men’s execs are also behind the women. I started wanting to break down some of the things Burke says, but ultimately, this quote of his is really what it comes down to for me:

“Don’t just say you support Title IX, don’t just say you support women’s athletics; buy a ticket, bring your family. Buy a sponsorship on a team, put some money behind this thing, help it grow. If you really believe in women’s sports, there’s an opportunity to show it in a very direct way. Fans vote with their feet. Show up at a game.

”— Brian Burke

I can’t stress enough how important this is and I’m going to go ahead and call each and every one of your out. When was the last time you went to a women’s college or professional game? Do you donate to your local college’s scholarship programs? Buy season tickets? Go to a game? Even at the high school level? Do you support fund raisers or pay admission?

If you do, do you drag your friends along? Do you extol the virtues of your favorite game or team? Do you introduce your friends and family to a sport or team they’re not familiar with and get them as excited about it as you are? Do you take your sister or niece or grandkid to as many different sports as you can and foster their love in a way that we didn’t get when we were little?

Because I didn’t used to do that and this year I made a concerted effort to change that. I’ve always been a hugely vocal supporter of Wisconsin women’s hockey, but I’d never put my money where my mouth was before now.

Follow the jump for more on Badger women’s hockey, Team USA and $5 world class talent

Highs and lows on talking about women’s fandom

You may have already heard about the piece the Rangers posted on their fan site this morning called “A Girl’s Guide to Watching the Rangers.” The piece was so awful and ill-received, they pulled it within about an hour. You can still read the full text here.

We’ve seen this sort of mysogynistic crap on the internet before, but never before has it been Tweeted out by a professional team. My guess is that the fan site did this and the parent company knew nothing about it, but that’s not really an excuse. Clearly they’re going to have some content review policies put in place.

This BuzzFeed reaction piece is pretty great, if only for the tweets they include that show some pretty darn smart (and snarky) Rangers fans reacting to this drivel.

I was all set to spend my lunch hour penning my own reaction when MaggieSox sent me the link to this piece over at Stanley Cup of Chowder that ties together all kinds of lady fandom issues into one really well-written package. Forget whatever crap I’d have given you – read this instead.

Really, I was going to past a few of the better parts here for you, but I ended up copying most of the text, which ain’t right, so just do yourself a favor and go read it.

I commented over there and I’ll re-post it here:

I’d like to say that there’s no reason you couldn’t substitute any sport’s fandom into this piece and not still get the point across. Female baseball, football, soccer … fans go through the same “prove yourself” mentality.

Texy has it right in saying that we have to stop hating on each other – how can we ask guys not to judge us when we’re judging the hell out of each other?

And I’ll admit this was a hard thing for me to come to terms with, especially when it comes to the pink hat crowd – I always felt like I was justified in my anger because they were making it harder for me, a “real fan.” But we all started out somewhere – I know I’m hardcore, but I certainly didn’t come out of the womb spouting about crappy PP or WAR. So now I try to be open-armed to all the ladies who want to watch and I’ll do my best to make them feel welcome and help explain anything I can.

 

Maggiesox is the one that’s always telling me I can’t judge on the pink hatters and I’ve spent a long time defending my right to find them problematic, but really she’s right and I need to learn to be accepting of all female fans. They’re not giving me a bad name and there’s nothing wrong with the way the find their way to fandom.

I’m still annoyed at all the folks that won’t just wear their team’s colors (I’m looking at you, orange Yankee hat-wearing dude), but ultimately if they want to spend $40 on that hat, that’s their prerogative, right?

Sometimes being a pushy broad pays off

The other Ladies… and I had a Google+ hangout the other night and I realized I’d never told this story for you folks. Forgive me for being lazy, but I wrote it up for Uni-Watch a few years ago, so I’m going to just post that test. I was using the Uni angle there, so I included quite a few pictures of the gear I received.

This content was originally posted on uni-watch.com in 2008. Link here.

I went to college in New Orleans, which was the site of Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. A few months prior to the game, I learned that they were hiring security personnel to work during the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, with a chance to work at events on gameday and possibly even at the game itself. I don’t exactly project the kind of imposing presence that security people usually have (I’m 5’4″ on a good day), but it sounded cool, so I applied and ended up getting hired.

Follow the jump for the rest of the story

On objectification and hypocrisy

This image is apparently on the front of a Lululemon store – a store where many women go to find workout clothes – in response to the end of the NHL lockout.

Lululemon is a purveyor of women’s workout clothes. They sell men’s clothes, too, but they’ve enjoyed tremendous growth recently and seem to be the go-to spot for women runners and those who practice yoga and need $98 yoga pants.

A quick Google search will bring you all kinds of questions about the company and its former CEO (who’s now chairman), which I didn’t even know when I thought to write this post.

I did want to ruminate about whether the above window display was appropriate. Apparently “hockey butt” is a thing (researching this post was all kinds of educational) and athletic women will use it themselves to describe their physique, which can be hard to clothe and fit.

Regardless, I was just thinking that if a store known for dressing men had said this about women athletes, we’d all be pretty upset.

And I’m aware that this blog spends plenty of time ogling male athletes, so I don’t really have a leg to stand on. And as a whole, I’d say we Ladies… try hard not to force controversy, stir the pot or otherwise look for problems where their aren’t any. But I still thought it was an interesting discussion point to have.

On the completely superficial/semantics side, while hockey player’s behind might like nice in their jeans  – on the ice, in their breezers, I’m pretty sure we’re not getting a good view of that. So whether or not the NHL has games is really irrelevant to my ability to check out pretty glutes, right? If fact, when they were locked out, they likely spent more time in street clothes…. you see where I’m going.

I just think that if I take a hypothetical that has female tennis players locking out and then returning to the job and Athlete’s Foot had a window display celebrating the return of tennis that mentions the short, tight skirts or tight, tennis hiney, a large to-go would ensue.

In the interest of not being hypocritical, I feel like we need to at least talk about whether or not this is a problematic display, right?

So what do you think? Am I stirring up issues that don’t exist? Or should be we be at least a little upset with this public display of objectification?

 

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 23: All the Staals

Since we’re all missing the NHL and I’m running a little late with this post, Christmas Eve seems like a good day to give you Ginger dreams.

Mama Staal done us right by producing not one, but four adorable hockey hotties to make your spirits bright.

One again, SquareHippies.com gets the credit for most of the below images.

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 19: Carlos Bocanegra

So I’ve given you a bit of Boca in the past, so I won’t even lie that this post didn’t just start out as an excuse to post these spectacular pics from this year’s ESPN Body Issue…

But the I realized there’s so much more to share with you!

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 5: Tom Daley

Ok, so he’s just barely 18 and has a tendency towards tans/bronzer/fake and baking that is questionable – but those are about the only bad things I can tell you about British diver Tom Daley.

Look, I realize this makes me a bit of a creeper and not every pic of Tom does it for me, but you really can’t argue with this:

The above pic is from the cover of a British magazine and is also in The Official Tom Daley 2013 Calendar (currently sold out on Amazon).

Plus, he’s got a British accent. And you know how I feel about an accent!

Follow the jump to be mesmorized by a gif and join me in my boy-crush

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 2

Listen, I don’t know what a Square Hippie is, but we have to thank them and my friend Anna for suggesting today’s hottie. I know less than nothing about Rugby, but English captain Chris Robshaw sure makes me want to know more.

Maybe it’s a perspective thing, but his biceps appear to be bigger around than his head. That would make me cheer, too.

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 1

I’m starting us off on a bad foot by starting a day late, but hopefully the first two hotties are so hot that you’ll forgive me. (Also, you’ll understand that I bought a house and did a lot of packing and moving today.)

We Ladies… are long-time fans of U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, but his title as hottest summer Olympian was seriously in jeopardy this summer when we got a load of Nathan Adrian.

He’s got the killer body and ups the ante with an amazing smile – there are like five total pictures on Google where he’s not grinning from ear to ear. He graduated with honors from  Berkeley. And did we mention those abs.

Where Lochte is gimmicky and a bit blase, Adrian was fresh-faced and looked to be enjoying every minute. I found just one picture of him in a suit and there are few pics of him not in the pool. He seems goofy and fun and genuine. Here’s hoping we have a few more summers of hoping we can one day have a beer or two with Nathan Adrian.

“I’m the first entry in the Ladies… Advent Calendar of Hotness? YES!”

Yunel Escobar, homophobia and hazing

My apologies on what is likely to become a rather rambling post.

My idea for this post came upon reading this bit by Jeff Passan saying that covering the Yunel Escobar story is focusing too much on the negative and that instead we should have covered the Chris Kluwe/Brendon Ayanbadejo more. And I’ll get to that.

Then Cee Angi wrote this about hazing and homophobia in sports, and I feel like that ties in to what I wanted to say here, too.

Lastly, any talk about hazing in sports is going to raise this sorority girl’s hackles.

So we’ll get to all of that and I guess I just sign-posted for you like it’s a school speech, but I feel like there’s a lot to say on a group of topics that are all related and I might get a little shouty and I wanted you all to be on board.

Damn you, Bud Selig! (or why I’m mostly bitter but still a little excited abut the second Wild Card)

While I can’t deny that the advent of the second wild card has by far lengthened my interest in the baseball season, I can’t help but wonder if all this hullaballoo is worth it.

Sure, my Brewers are streaking and they might end up backing into the playoffs despite having given up on the season and trading away Zack Greinke two months ago. But once they get there, there’s a high likelihood of them being one-and-done. And even if they get through that first test, they’re not likely to go any further than that.

So then I have to wonder, is it all worth it?

Follow the jump for more Selig rants

Beach Volleyball bikinis – Yay or Nay?

It’s no secret that women’s beach volleyball players wear some incredibly skimpy outfits when they compete.

What I guess I didn’t realize is how many pigs are out there only watching them for the T&A. I’ve been pretty appalled by the number of people in my Twitter timeline making sexist remarks about how they shouldn’t even be playing if they can’t do it almost naked. These are friends and other sports writers who I normally agree with and respect.

Here’s the thing – I don’t begrudge these ladies their bikinis. Beach volleyball is a fringe sport that I’m certain struggles to get money and attention. Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are household names and that just wouldn’t be the case if they didn’t do what they do in bikinis. It helps that they’re incredibly talented at it and have won many, many medals and competitions. But people started noticing them because they weren’t wearing many clothes.

And so I say, more power to you, fringe athletes. You do what you need to do to get noticed and get sponsorships and get viewers. You sell your non-profitting selves any which way you can.

Which I suppose isn’t a very feminist point of view. I should be railing against the misogyny that leads to women athletes feeling like they have to use sex appeal to sell themselves and their sport. And while that’s true, it’s a fight we’ve been having for decades and it’s not changing any time soon, so in the meantime, if i looked like these ladies do, I’d be shaking what my mama gave me if it meant TV time and sponsorship money.

So does that make me a hypocrite for getting mad at all the folks who are treating these ladies like pieces of meat instead of world-class athletes?

Follow the jump for Twitter samples and butts. Lots of butts

My new favorite Tumblr

Listen folks, here at Ladies… we’re nothing if not equal opportunity oglers. Everyone has their quirks – heck, if it weren’t for this blog I’d have never come to appreciate the detail of a fine forearms – so I wanted to draw your attention to the folks over at Bald Baseball Players.

Not only do they have photos of each of the gentlemen they’re highlighting, but they also have quotes from each one.

Here’s Jose Lima

“Sometimes you feel like they’re not talking to you because you’re [bald]. You don’t want to use the word [bald]ist, but you want to have somebody in the game who knows our culture and can relate to us, and then we don’t feel left out.”

And Brandon Phillips

“That’s what separates the [bald] men from the boys, what you do when the crunch time is on.”

Mike Fiers (pronounced Fires) because I love his “quote”

“He’s been unbelievable. One of the few [bald] spots in a dark and ugly season to this point.” -Ryan Braun

And Kameron Loe

“I got a few pitches up, and I don’t think I was as aggressive as I usually am. I tried hitting spots too much instead of just trusting my [baldness] and letting it work for me. I don’t know, it was just one of those nights.”

I include Loe because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t know the greatness that is Bald Baseball Players – they tweeted at him that he’s the best 6’8″ baseball player out there and he RT’d it. I love that they’re reaching out to the players and that the players are responding.

There are all kinds of things on the interwebs, so I’m always impressed when someone finds a niche, does it well and reaches out and makes their mark, which I think BBP has done.

Plus, you know, there are some hotties out there with no hair…

Ladies…Annual All-Star Game Live Blog

We’ll be there about 30 mins before first pitch. Come by, drink wine, check out some butts and forearms and watch would should be a pretty good starting pitching matchup.

Join us here: http://gsnap.com/ladiesdotdotdot/4353

I was there: US Cellular Field

Due to the wonders of Interleague (and my boyfriend’s aunt that lives in Chicago) we were able to knock another stadium off our list the weekend after we were in Minneapolis when we saw the Brewers play the White Sox on Chicago’s South Side.

Can we just go ahead and accept that I’m always going to call this stadium Comiskey? “The Cell” is a stupid nickname and US Cellular Field is too long. Plus, corporate naming is dumb (Et tu, Barclay’s Brooklyn?)

(Additionally, we have a US Cellular Arena here in Milwaukee which is called The Cell, leading to too much lame confusion)

Comiskey is super-accessible via the El, both the red and green lines are within a few blocks. The aunt had planned on us taking the red line, but we entered a station downtown that the red didn’t run through. Luckily, a nice man told me we didn’t have to go to another station, but could just hop on the green line.

Follow the jump for pics galore

I was there: Target Field

I think I’ve mentioned before that we try to visit one out-of-town MLB Ballpark every summer. Since I’m spoiled and got to spend a week in Italy, this summer’s trip had to be a bit closer to home. A weekend jaunt to Minneapolis to see some of the bf’s college friends while simultaneously checking out the Brewers and Twins during Interleague seemed like a great excuse.

It’s about a six hour drive from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, so we headed up Friday morning and drove home Sunday afternoon, since I have class on Monday

follow the jump for pics galore

Happy Birthday, Miss Minda!

In what needs to become a Ladies… tradition, I’m going to go ahead an honor Miss Minda with some of her favorite hotties.

And also to congratulate her as her photography continues to take her to bigger and better places. If you don’t already read her blog or follow her on Twitter, you should. MiLB.com is using some of her pictures. She took the player card pics for the AAA Omaha Storm Chasers. Her pics of the field crashers at the College World Series made the blog rounds. She’ll be press-passing it up at the ASG and HR Derby with ESPN writer Amanda Rykoff.

In that vein, let’s be a little selfish first and start with the pic she posted early this am to celebrate her birthday – as she calls it: Butttttsssss!

But beyond that, let’s let Alex Gordon’s forearms tell her to have a great day

Ryan Succop, both shirtless and appearing to issue an invitation…

Lastly, we’ll go for the awwww with injured Brandon Flowers visits children in the hospital

Sorry this is an end of the day wish, dear Minda, but we Ladies.. hope you had a spectacular birthday!

On momentos and memorabilia

The uproar two weeks ago about whether or not an adult has to give away a baseball that enters the stands to a child had me thinking about collecting memorabilia.

We have a (wo)man room –  man room sounds better, but honestly, most of the stuff in there is mine…

We don’t have anything that we spent a lot of money on – I think we paid for maybe one signature in the bunch – but we do like to display some of the various things we’ve picked up at games. Aside from stadium giveaways, we have a few banners with logos on them, since I’m a major uni-nerd and we’ve framed programs and ticket stubs from some of the cooler games we’ve attended.

So this got me wondering about whether sports fans inherently become collectors of “stuff” or memorabilia merely by being fans who attend many games. Seems like every sports fan I know has at least one thing that they’re proud to own and show off.

So what are the coolest pieces that we Ladies… own?

Follow the jump to find out

Standing Ovation for Maggiesox

It takes an amazing person to get loud and stand up against something that is not only wrong, but personally upsetting to them.There’s a lot of douchebaggery in the world and most of us just roll our eyes and look the other way. We’re often quick to dismiss people as stupid or uninformed and think that there’s nothing we can do about it. That sort of ambivalence adds to the status quo.

Today, our very own Maggiesox got very loud and very adamant when a Philadelphia sports blog posted a screen grab of a woman’s underwear that she accidentally showed while crossing her legs during a panning shot of the Phillies game Tuesday night.

She rightfully pointed out that this was akin to taking a picture up a woman’s skirt without her knowledge. But Kyle Scott of Crossing Broad (don’t go there, the pic is down and they don’t deserve the page views) took it one step further by posting said picture on the internet.

Scott then defended the posting of the picture with a multitude of lame excuses, including that it was ok because it had been on TV and that it was ok because you couldn’t see the woman’s face.

Maggiesox, and many of her wonderful Twitter followers, spoke up loudly on Twitter today, pointing out this is invasive and creepy and rapey and had Scott taken the picture himself and not as a screencap, could have been punishable by jail time. She went to local radio and television stations and asked them to stop talking about the story and to stop sponsoring and endorsing CB. She also emailed MLB, pointing out that CB was breaking MLB’s copyright laws.

The story even reached to Jezebel, who covered the gist of the background, linked to Maggiesox’s twitter and bought the story to a much larger audience.

And when folks started backlashing at her and trying to justify the whole thing, she stood her ground and took the incredibly brave step of sharing her own story of a man taking an upskirt photo of her and how it has affected her life. That man received three months of jail time.

Both Scott and many of his readers/Twitter followers defended the posting of the picture, including pointing out that other sites, including Deadspin, have similar pictures posted online. As though the fact that other people are doing despicable things somehow justifies Scott doing so.

They also made plentiful personal attacks at Maggiesox, going as far as accusing her of being jealous that it was this unidentified woman and not Maggie’s ladybits being splashed about the internet.

Even if we give Scott the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t think far enough to realize that posting the picture was wrong and invasive, as soon as multiple people pointed out to him what was wrong with it, he should have taken it down. Instead, he continued to defend the act.

Just writing about this tonight has made me ragey and stabby like I was this afternoon, and there’s probably not much more to say.

Instead of focusing on the problem, let’s focus on the woman that worked towards being the solution: A big, mighty  YOU GO, GIRL! to Maggiesox for not being afraid to stand up and yell about how wrong this whole thing was.

Baseballs in the stands? To keep or give away

A lot has been made of the scene Wednesday night in Arlington where a couple caught a ball tossed into the stands by Mitch Moreland, seemingly stealing it from a little boy, who ended up in tears.

The couple has gone to the press to say that they didn’t see the little boy. Someone from the Rangers dugout saw the crying kid and tossed him a ball, which seems to mean that everyone left happy, but it does bring up an interesting question:

Is there etiquette for baseballs that enter the stands?

It seems to be a general consensus that there’s a difference between a ball tossed into the stands by a player and foul balls. Players usually target children when they soft-toss into the stands, meaning no adult should ever steal that away. Foul balls, however, are fair game.

But there are some that are saying any adult that catches any baseball in the stands should be handing it off to a child near them.

And frankly, that makes me a little angry.

I’ve never caught or been tossed a baseball and dammit, if I do, I’m keeping that sucker. Don’t boo me, don’t judge me – that ball means as much to me as it would to that kid. I’d put it in a place of honor in our (wo)man room. My parents didn’t introduce me to baseball as a kid – I never got the opportunity to get a ball as a child. I’d be frickin’ ecstatic over that ball and I’m not sure why I should have to give that up. Of course, that only accounts for the first ball. I’m not greedy. If I were ever lucky enough to get a second or third ball, those would, of course, go to kids around me.

Certainly I don’t mean taking a ball from a child, or pushing, shoving or trampling anyone in order to get said ball. But if I’m lucky enough to catch one of those suckers, I shouldn’t be shamed into giving it up.

The scene in Arlington is especially interesting because the child kind of had a tantrum both before and after he didn’t receive the ball. There’s an argument to be made that the kid shouldn’t have gotten a ball just because he was crying – that’s certainly not the type of behavior I’d want to reinforce in my children.

Is there also an argument to be made that at three years old, he’d never remember the incident and wouldn’t be interested in the ball in a few weeks, whereas the couple was clearly thrilled and catching the ball was a highlight for them – they immediately started taking pictures with the ball?

So clearly I’m a selfish, no-kid having bastard, but what do you all think?

It’s Opening Day!

Ok, so here in Milwaukee isn’t til tomorrow and MLB wants me to believe that the season opened in Japan a week ago, but I’m telling you its not the same til I’ve got a brat in one hand, a mimosa in another and I’m talking about the Brewers rotation with friends.

But as I write this, I’m watching Verlander and Lester duke it out in Detroit and I’m getting ready to head up to Appleton for Opening Day of the Brewers Single-A affiliate, The Wisconsin TimberRattlers.

Tonight will be the first of three games I’m attending in the next four days because OMGBASEBALLZ!

Why can’t I just be a girl who likes sports?

So I’m flipping through the ads in my Sunday paper last weekend and this dropped into my lap:

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 24

I’m a bad lady… and I forgot to post today before I headed off for family festivities, so you’re getting a late night/early Christmas morning double-dose of hotties. I assume you all won’t complain.

The Christmas Eve hottie is Taylor Pratt of the Phoenix Coyotes. Look at that jawline and those gorgeous baby blues and the scruff. Om nom nom….

Follow the jump for some more of the manly Coyote

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 21

Unfortunately for me, there is a bit of a dearth of yumminess on the Brewers. Its such a shame, really. But one of the completely underrated cuties is backup catcher George Kottaras.

Honestly, the absolute best thing about Kottaras is his accent. He’s Canadian and while he’s been playing in the MLB and minors for awhile, every once in awhile the Canada comes out it and its great. You can hear some of it when he answers the second question in this video

He’s also of Greek descent and is fluent in Greek – so there’s always that chance he’ll whisper sweet nothings in your ear and take you for fabulous vacations on Crete.

And if that doesn’t do it for you, Kottaras hit one of just two cycles in Major League Baseball this season.

Follow the jump to peak in on this Canadian cutie

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 20

I’m the farthest thing from an NBA fan, but we realized we’ve neglected those of you in our fanbase that find their hotties with big biceps and long shorts.

And since he’s been in the news so much lately, today’s hottie is recently named Los Angeles Clipper Chris Paul.

I don’t want to break any Hornets fans hearts, so I tried to steer away from the shots of him in New Orleans gear. I hope that hopes a little.

Turns out Paul wears a mean suit and isn’t afraid to flash the pearly whites. Follow the jump for some long overdue basketball love.

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 18

I took a straw poll on Twitter looking for new and exotic hotties to bring to our readers for their viewing pleasure. I’ve been stuck in the soccer rut and the football suggestions we haven’t covered in recent years make me sad.

Thankfully, a friend pointed me in the direction of NASCAR where I found the cutest little button in Kasey Kahne. Who knew such an adorable dude was hiding under all that flame-retardant gear?

I mean, he’s got all the CuteSports prerequisites: eye-crinkles, gorgeous eyes, rosy cheeks and looking yummy in scruff. A girl cannot go wrong.

The worst thing I can say is there is a serious dearth of nekky pictures of NASCAR drivers. You know you’re hurting to see some skin when you save a picture of a guy getting miked up, showing a couple of inches of abs. How are the many lady NASCAR fans not in demand of pictures of these guys shirtless?

Enough with the chatter, bring on the hottie:

No really. Those eyes. Should never been hidden inside a helmet.

Follow the jump to see more where Kasey looks into your soul….