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

Celebrate and remember Pat Burrell, a pillar of this site

Pat Burrell is retiring, which means this site now has to exist in a world without him. Ladies… without Burrell is like Seinfeld without Jerry, like a flower without petals, like Grady Sizemore without that one coffee cup. Just…totally naked, but in like a really sad way.

According to Google, the Ladies… have written about Pat Burrell 118 times. By no means is that the most we’ve ever covered a hottie of sport (paging Tom Brady, Ryan Lochte, etc.), but he is a part of the very fiber of our collective heart nonetheless.

In most of the rest of this post, we'll forget he has a face, too.

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 13

Continuing on my second year football men trend, I accidentally stumbled on this adorable gem in my photo research for yesterday’s ACoH Ryan Mathews.  I have to be honest – I’m not really a Broncos fan, so I sadly missed wide receiver Mr. Eric Decker up until now.  If you’re familiar, you will certainly enjoy the abundance of photos I have collected.  If you aren’t familiar yet, just thank me later ;)

It’s almost here!

The rosters have been set. The teams have played their friendlies before making the trek to South Africa. Heck, we’ve even made it through Eurovision. (Congratulations, Germany.)

A week from now? It’s finally time. The group stage of the World Cup kicks off, and even America cares about soccer for at least five minutes. Me? I’ll be eating, sleeping and breathing international soccer until the very last second runs down.

Yes, I love soccer, but there’s just something about International play (and the World Cup in particular) that elevates the game. It turns the already rabid soccer fanbase into a bunch of flag-and-bunting-bedecked lunatics. I challenge anyone who doesn’t like or understand soccer to start watching the World Cup from the beginning. Trust me, you’ll come out at the other end swearing at the Abruzzi for being a bunch of diving whiners or being amazed at just how fast Portugal can move (Damn you, Ronaldo. Damn you to hell.) or harboring a secret love for the Orange.

And you know what else is great about the World Cup? International Eye candy. Above? Spain’s Fernando Torres.

More hotness after the jump.

The 2009 NBA Draft of Hotness

I am not a fan of the NBA. I have probably watched a total of 5 games in my entire life, but I absolutely love college basketball. It is much more competitive and entertaining. Also, there are a lot of hot guys to be found. (I am only 23 so I can still say that without being a total perv!) Last night was the NBA Draft. So that means that many players said goodbye to their college days and joined the pros. This also means that I will no longer know or care what is going on with them. (That’s a lie. There are quite a few players that I really like who were drafted last night. Next season might  be the first year I genuinely care what’s going on in the NBA.)

OK, enough about college basketball being far superior to the NBA. Let’s move onto those hot guys. Having talent is really important and goes a long way in the actual draft, but it doesn’t get you far here. Blake Griffin may have been the number one pick last night (and rightfully so…boy is talented!), but he doesn’t make the cut in the Ladies… draft.

Now let the fun begin with the first pick…

All-Star Posts, All-Star Posts, Come And Get Yer All-Star Posts

Good morning. How can you just walk on by without one tear in your eye?

(Incidentally, that song reminds me of this, which I swear only makes me cry because I’m listening to that damn song. Insert “unhealthy obsession” comment here.)

(Yes, I know that you’re getting this post after the afternoon post. It’s still morning in California.)

The current All-MLB RAR leader.

The rest of the All-Star awesomesauce is after the jump, but first: SPOILER ALERT! NO RED SOX OR YANKEES! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!.

American League vs. National League

By now interleague play is in full swing. A lot of people seem to have beef with it. I personally don’t mind interleague play. It gives fans a chance to see players/teams they don’t normally have a chance to. Also, it’s pretty entertaining to see some of those AL pitchers with a “deer-in-headlights” look on their face while at-bat.

Interleague is a chance to see how the AL and NL match up against one another; starting pitching, bullpen, hitting, defense, etc. Sure all that’s important, but we here at Ladies… want to focus on a more important issue: Which league has the hotter players?

Now to be fair I choose a player from each division. Let’s see how the leagues’ hotness match up in starting pitching, bullpen, infielders, and outfielders. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas or other applicable happy day

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, don’t sweat it. You can still enjoy this post. If you do celebrate Christmas, have a merry one!

Earlier this year, our little site celebrated its 1000th post by highlighting each of our favorite hotties. Now, in the spirit of the holidays, it’s time for our hotties to give back. Do your eyeballs a favor and enjoy the Ladies…’ stocking stuffers after the jump.

Guess the Hottie: Torso Edition

[This week the Ladies… are rolling out several new features. You already got a glimpse of “Ask the Ladies…”, well this is another new series-style post.]

Do you love to ogle athlete man-flesh? Do you spend hours on Google Images hunting down pics of your fave athletes in various states of undress? Could you pick your man’s abs out of a lineup? Well let’s put that knowledge to the test shall we? It’s time to play GUESS THAT HOTTIE! The Torso Edition.

Choose Your Own Adventure

From the insane amount of “Riley Skinner” searches over the past couple of days, it’s obvious what you want: uncensored naked pictures of the Skinner flute. Unfortunately, we can’t find them, despite spending approximately seven hours googling him (not a euphemism).

But because we love you the mostestest, we’re offering you the next best thing: the chance to make your own with our official Ladies… Build-A-Skinner.

Print out the template after the jump and draw your own, um, little Deacon. Or big Deacon. Or an “I promise, this hasn’t ever happened before. I guess he’s just shy.” Deacon. Your call.

That Escalated Quickly

So maybe you’ve seen the nekkid pics of Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner that have been racing around the internets. If not, you can probably find it…oh…maybe…here.

Now that you’ve seen them, I would like to apologize. I didn’t mean to for this to happen. See, I was at Riley’s playing Scattergories and watching The Dog Whisperer when he asked if I’d like to see his collection of camouflage hats. We went to his bedroom, one thing led to another, and we ended up checking each other for ticks. Innocent enough, right? But before he could say “does this rash look like a bullseye?”, I’d accidentally taken a picture. And then, like, my Sidekick was hacked or something. But, since that one shot is already out there, I guess you should see the other ones I took too.

Why is yours bigger than mine?

Congratulations to San Antonio Spurs on their elevenity-billionth NBA Title and your new Mega-Dynasty, (or so ESPN and Dan Patrick say), and to Tony Parker winning the MVP.

How To Make Love To A ______ Fan: The Boston Red Sox

Wrapping up (for now) our joint series on bangin’ the baller fans in your lives…it’s been a hell of a ride, y’all. We’d like to thank the incomparable Orson Swindle of Every Day Should Be Saturday for heading up this little operation; it’s been a filthy privilege, sir. Finally, inevitably, we give you Texas Gal at EDSBS with How To Make Love To A Texas Longhorns Fan, and below, we’re proud to present the Ladies… closer: J-Money in the house, lighting the way to the naughty bits of the Boston faithful.

How To Make Love To A ______ Fan: The St. Louis Cardinals

We are, respectively, pleased as punch and moderately alarmed to present the third and fourth installments in our How To Make Love To A ______ Fan series. Today we give you St. Louis Cardinals darling Lady Andrea while Rocky Top sweetheart Holly files her dispatch at EDSBS. This continuing malarkey brought to you by the Ladies… in partnership with the mad genius of Every Day Should Be Saturday. Take it away, LA…

How To Make Love To A ______ Fan: The New York Mets

The Ladies…, in congress (tee hee!) with Every Day Should Be Saturday, are inappropriately excited to present a six-part roundtable series: How To Make Love To A _______ Fan, excruciatingly detailed guides to how to win the heart and panties of the sports fan of your choice. Today, chez Swindle, we have How To Make Love To A Florida Fan, to be followed tomorrow and Thursday by How To Make Love To A Texas fan by our own Texas Gal, and How To Make Love To A Tennessee Fan courtesy of Holly. For our part, we’re sticking to our boys of summer. Later in the week you’ll be treated to wooing secrets of the St. Louis Cardinals, via Lady Andrea, and the Boston Red Sox by J-Money. For today, without further ado, we present Metschick, with How To Make Love To A Mets Fan.

Kisses,
The Ladies…