Mike Schmidt’s Casual Sexism
Phillies reliever Luis Garcia got into a pickle in the top of the eighth inning. He loaded the bases on a walk to Kevin Plawecki, a Dilson Herrera single to center field, and another walk to Ruben Tejada. Garcia was having trouble throwing strikes as usual, but his poor control may have also had something to do with slipping while delivering a pitch during the Plawecki at-bat. Garcia managed to get out of the inning when pinch-hitter Johnny Monell tapped a grounder back to Garcia, who threw to catcher Carlos Ruiz for one out. Ruiz then fired the ball to first base to complete the 1-2-3 double play and end the inning.
Upon return from a commerical break, the broadcast highlighted Garcia’s play to end the inning. Matt Stairs noted that Garcia’s throw home wasn’t great, which made the play closer than it should have been. Schmidt was going to say something but Stairs had to finish the segment first. Once that was done, Tom McCarthy prompted Schmidt to talk, which was a bad idea. Here’s what Schmidt said:
McCarthy: What were you going to say, Mike? That the throw was a bar of soap that Garcia threw to home plate?
Schmidt: Well, he did kind of throw it a little… I don’t know… are you allowed to say, a little bit…
Stairs: No.
Schmidt: …girlish, so to speak?
(Uncomfortable laughter)
Schmidt: Watch out.
McCarthy: He didn’t have a whole lot on it.
Schmidt: Yeah, uh…
McCarthy: Not a whole lot on it.
Schmidt: Kind of a bar of soap. Did someone just say that, Matt?Mets @ Phillies on May 9, 2015
(Ballcap tip to @james_in_to for grabbing the above clip.)
This is sexist for a very obvious reason, one which was apparent to all three members of the broadcast booth once the words left Schmidt’s mouth. In fact, Stairs seemed to know what Schmidt was going to say when he interjected “no” before Schmidt said “a little girlish”. You could cut the awkwardness in the booth with a knife.
Calling a weak throw “girlish” implies that femininity is weak. I need not list examples of strong women because women are allowed to be weak as well as strong. Weakness is not specific to any gender. This works in the opposite direction as well: when an athlete does something that exhibits strength, we’ll laud it as manly, as if strength is something only people who identify as men can display.
The comment coming from Schmidt isn’t surprising, as baseball — as with all professional sports — has deeply entrenched misogyny. Players who choose not to play through injuries are often chided by teammates, coaches, and pundits, often in terms referencing femininity in some fashion. (Think of a p-word that doubles as a name for a cat.) Women are often doubted about their dedication to their rooting interests simply by being women, referred to as “cleat chasers” (a form of slut-shaming) or challenged to prove their knowledge as if not knowing particular information invalidates their right to be a fan.
Schmidt’s comment wasn’t a mistake. He had plenty of time to select different words and still chose to use “girlish” because he has been saturated in misogyny his entire life. The implication of femininity as weak was never pointed out as wrong for him (likely until very recently) because when you play baseball in middle and high school, that’s part of the culture. And it stays as part of the culture through high school and the minor leagues, and continues into the major leagues. With no women around, it was never thought of to be challenged. Schmidt has never existed in a culture that has been anything but extremely male-dominated. Athletes’ casual misogyny is picked up from peers and authority figures the same way children pick up speech and behavioral mannerisms from their parents.
Frat-ish “bro” culture may fly in the isolated world of professional athletics when the cameras aren’t rolling and the microphones aren’t on, but it won’t fly in the broadcast booth. Hopefully sooner rather than later, it won’t fly in professional athletics anymore, either.
The Logic User
May 09, 2015 10:57 PM
Why do we love looking for things to get offended by? Seriously, are we going to start writing 5 paragraph essays analyzing the words of a grandfather who’s offering his spontaneous thoughts on a baseball play? For Christ’s sake, let’s start realizing that some battles aren’t worth the effort.
msjib
May 09, 2015 11:10 PM
Have to agree. A non story. In other news, holy moly is Bryce Harper killing the ball. Like the slugger he was billed to be as a rookie
Gus
May 10, 2015 01:58 AM
“Why do we love looking for things to get offended by?”
I don’t know. Why did you comment on this post if you could’ve just said nothing? Seems like you’re getting offended over the idea of calling Schmidt on his bull.
Louis
May 10, 2015 10:22 AM
Your comment is a perfect example of the culture that Bill is talking about. Just because you don’t find something offensive (and I’m hoping you’re a woman, because otherwise you really have no right to say that feminism in sports is not a battle worth fighting) it does not mean that it is not a problem. If you don’t care about the issue, ignore the post, but it was fantastic of Bill to point this out.
JD
May 09, 2015 11:10 PM
When you’re a leftist everything is offensive. Especially when said by White Men.
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 09, 2015 11:16 PM
I agree that white men are offensive.
CB
May 10, 2015 01:11 AM
Hey Bill aren’t you *also* a White Man?
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 10, 2015 01:14 AM
Yes. I acknowledge that I benefit from my privilege as a man and as a white person and harm others in the process. I include myself in my statement.
Keith
May 10, 2015 07:39 AM
You Bill are exhibiting what is known as reverse racism where a person of one race “hates on” a member of their own race. White privilege is something that is made up in people’s minds to try to make up what some of our ancestors did during the slave trade.
To imply that just bc I’m a white make means that I think I’m better than everybody else is the most offensive thing in the world, that’s where racism stems (people who think they’re better than others just bc of race or some other class). I worked my rear end off to get where I am. I was never given any privilege just bc I’m white. My dad had to ride a bike back and forth to work everyday 45 min each way to provide for my family while my mom had to bus her way to work overnight shift as a waitress for 16 years. There are people of every race that think they are better than someone else just bc they are of that race. That’s racism, or in effect sexism. To say that somebody is better than someone at a specific task isn’t racism or sexism. I dislike anyone who’s given something without working for it, whether you’re white black Asian American Indian or any other race. I was never handed anything just bc I’m a white male.
Bip
May 10, 2015 01:21 PM
“I was never given any privilege just bc I’m white.”
You have no way of knowing that, and a great incentive not to believe it if the opposite were the case.
msjib
May 09, 2015 11:24 PM
Sexism is a major problem in today’s world and should be treated seriously. Has nothing to do it being white men. However something this trivial isn’t worth even mentioning. People need to be outraged by something though…
Bip
May 10, 2015 01:24 PM
The point isn’t that this comment is so terrible on its own. It indicates the underlying presence of sexist attitudes that actually are harmful. It wouldn’t have occurred to Schmidt to say this if he hadn’t absorbed the views that men are strong and women are weak, and those views do actually hurt people.
Dan
May 09, 2015 11:25 PM
How did this pass the moderator? What a ridiculous comment…
anonymous
May 09, 2015 11:19 PM
Ever think Stairs was worried he was going to say something worse? Like something that rhymes with bussy?
Phill fan
May 09, 2015 11:22 PM
It is borderline offensive. But studies suggest that girls often don’t throw as well as boys. Certainly doesn’t warrant an article. Are you allowed to say ‘throws like an old man’ or is that ageist ?
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 09, 2015 11:26 PM
Can you cite these studies, please? Links or other references to scholarly works only, not links to men’s rights blogs.
If a majority of girls don’t throw as well as boys, it’s because of societal pressure on girls to engage in typically feminine activities. If we encouraged girls to play baseball (and other sports) from a young age well into adulthood, we would see the gap in athletic prowess close.
msjib
May 09, 2015 11:34 PM
Tldr; girls don’t throw as hard as boys bc of society. There are no girls ever that play softball/baseball and try to improve arm strength. Nice.
Phill fan
May 09, 2015 11:40 PM
Google it –lots of scholarly articles. No denying there is a gap. Lots of theories on why . Here’s one. Article: Sex differences in motor performance and motor learning in children and adolescents: an increasing male advantage in motor learning and consolidation phase gains.
Shoshi Dorfberger, Esther Adi-Japha, Avi Karni
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 09, 2015 11:42 PM
“Google it” is not a reference to a scholarly article.
You said girls don’t throw baseballs as well as boys. Where’s the study about that specifically? You didn’t mention nor did I ask about a general concept such as motor function.
What you — and everyone else who cites this kind of stuff — are doing is hiding behind science in order to avoid dealing with your own misogyny. That’s cowardly.
Maestrobe
May 10, 2015 12:03 AM
No one is hiding behind anything, Bill. Go ahead– propose a clinical study to a university that involves trying to prove that women have the same athletic ability as men. You’d be laughed out of the room. It’s an established scientific fact that men have more muscle mass and have bodies better designed for athletics. Look at your local 5K results. It’s not women’s fault, but that’s the way it is. Would it be sexist to say that I (a man) can’t give birth to a baby?
Maestrobe
May 10, 2015 12:10 AM
I should clarify that I mean comparing the sexes generally– I don’t mean on an individual basis. There are many women who are better athletes than many men. But that doesn’t diminish the athletic advantages that men have generally./
msjib
May 10, 2015 12:16 AM
Look at this sexist pig (Maestrobe)! Using logic and what not…
Stephen Lawrence
May 10, 2015 08:29 AM
During communist rule, East German girls routinely received steroids just like the men, but never equalled men’s performances. Your comment about women being equal to men in strength flies in the face of everything known about sex and hormone differences there Bill. You cannot SJW yourself out of basic scientific facts, but maybe, just maybe, you can get a gig like the equally clueless Bob Ford or other idiotic philly.com writers. Does not matter what the truth is, but how you feel! Feeling offended yet?
Bip
May 10, 2015 01:26 PM
It’s completely irrelevant whether girls actually don’t throw as well as boys, or why. What matters is that it’s helpful to no one to use a feminine descriptor as a synonym for weak or incompetent.
Dan
May 09, 2015 11:23 PM
The conclusion isn’t fair. Don Darling, for example, played in that same era. He never says anything like that. It’s a thing sexists say, not something a person who grows up in that baseball culture of that time period says. Some people grow up.
Phill fan
May 09, 2015 11:53 PM
Read up
van den Tillaar, Roland, and Gertjan Ettema. 2004. “Effect of body size and gender in overarm throwing performance.” European Journal of Applied Physiology 91(4): 413-418. doi:10.1007/s00421-003-1019-8
Dorfberger, Shoshi, Esther Adi-Japha, and Avi Karni. Forthcoming. “Sex differences in motor performance and motor learning in children and adolescents: An increasing male advantage in motor learning and consolidation phase gains.” Behavioural Brain Research. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2008.10.033.
Roberton, Mary Ann, and Jürgen Konczak. 2001. “Predicting Children’s Overarm Throw Ball Velocities from Their Developmental Levels in Throwing.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 72(2): 91-103.
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 09, 2015 11:58 PM
You probably didn’t think I’d check those out.
From van den Tillaar, Roland, and Gertjan Ettema. 2004. “Effect of body size and gender in overarm throwing performance.” European Journal of Applied Physiology 91(4): 413-418. doi:10.1007/s00421-003-1019-8
From Roberton, Mary Ann, and Jürgen Konczak. 2001. “Predicting Children’s Overarm Throw Ball Velocities from Their Developmental Levels in Throwing.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 72(2): 91-103.
As for Dorfberger et. al., I didn’t ask about motor performance.
Phill fan
May 10, 2015 12:15 AM
I never offered opinion on nature vs nurture. I just said it has been studied for decades and a gap exists. By the way, overhand throwing is a motor task.
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 10, 2015 12:16 AM
Yeah, so is coloring in the lines. But we haven’t developed language around women’s inferior ability to use crayons, have we?
larry
May 10, 2015 11:22 AM
www.jssm.org/vol9/n2/8/v9n2-8text.php
WOMEN AND MEN IN SPORT PERFORMANCE: THE GENDER GAP HAS NOT EVOLVED SINCE 1983
this is Olympic sports so take it as you will
KEY POINTS
Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records.
A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983, at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events.
The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 36.8% (weight lifting).
The top ten performers’ analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%
Results suggest that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men.
anonymous
May 10, 2015 12:35 AM
I have excellent penmanship. Often, when people see it and they say something very ridiculous like “I thought a girl wrote that not you.” Or “you write so neatly for a guy.”
I have voiced my displeasure with such sexist statements to which I’m typically told it can only be sexist if it is putting down a woman and that this should be seen as a compliment.
The irony is if Schmidt says Garcia threw that ball too lightly, no one is offended… However, it’s just as offensive because Garcia effectively did what was expected and his only faux pas was he didn’t meet Schmidt’s expectation in throwing the runner out quickly enough.
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 10, 2015 12:36 AM
Why the comment about your handwriting wasn’t sexist and why men cannot be victims of sexism in the US: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_structure
anonymous
May 10, 2015 01:11 AM
Sexism can be stereotyping merely based on gender. You’re giving more meaning to the word than it has.
Are you saying someone who works in the mail room at a company can’t be racist or sexist simply because they have no power? That’s ridiculous.
Stephen Lawrence
May 10, 2015 10:02 AM
Gee whiz Billyboy! Why would the term “throws like a girl” ever develop? Put your thinking cap on there Bill… Could it have to do with something anatomical? Girls generally evolved not to throw across their bodies because something got in the way? You know Bill, those things that make women look wonderful in bathing suits, those beautiful anatomical accessories that give sustenance to infants? Those glands that the women who are attracted to low end beta male SJW types like yourself seldom possess? Don’t sink your pinkie toe in the science of sex differences there Bill. Women cannot be as strong as men because, well, for one week a month they have blood loss and all the cool things that happen with the menstrual cycle. Ever hear of someone loading up on female hormones to get stronger? Me neither. It’s evolution Bill! The white patriarchy gave themselves more anabolic steroids than they did to women! Speaking of evolution there Bill, why do something like 99 of the top 100 fastest 100 meter dash times belong to black males of west African descent? White boys don’t run as children? How does the SJW world explain that? Stick to baseball, otherwise the only people reading your site will be fellow travelers.
Bip
May 10, 2015 01:29 PM
Bruh, are you arguing that women don’t throw as well as men… cause of boobies?
sibs
May 10, 2015 12:48 AM
Who cares? It’s true. I can throw harder than probably 99% of the girls in the world and if I trained I would be able to throw harder than 100% of them. It’s genetics.
edwin
May 10, 2015 04:26 AM
Well if Mone Davis threw the ball then I would suspect he would be right.
Phil Ease
May 10, 2015 09:20 AM
@ Keith
You are wasting your breath. Bill doesn’t believe that hatred and discrimination against members of other races based solely on their racial differences is racism unless the perpetrator is white. Logic isn’t important.
James
May 10, 2015 10:58 AM
So two wrongs make a right?
Perhaps as a society we are overly sensitive, but how about let’s just not be jerks? No one, especially a baseball commentator should say anything that might discourage a kid from playing baseball just because they are a girl. If they’re not as good, so be it, but don’t ever discourage anyone from trying.
Fair enough?
Phil Ease
May 10, 2015 11:02 AM
When did I defend Schmidt’s statement? I didn’t.
James
May 10, 2015 11:09 AM
True, I was responding to the thread as a whole. I didn’t mean to single anyone out. Sorry about that.
The Logic User
May 10, 2015 11:22 AM
Dude, you are overanalyzing this. That’s my point. What young girl will hear Schmidt go “that was a girly throw” and genuinely use that as her reason why she won’t play baseball or softball? He’s not discouraging anyone; he’s describing a soft-ass throw to home plate from 10 feet away by a grown man.
Corinne Landrey
May 10, 2015 11:35 AM
This is not a comment in isolation. It is one example of the constant reference to femininity as inferior that girls and women face daily. That’s why it matters.
(But I paraphrase Bill, since this is exactly the point he made in the well-written article above.)
James
May 10, 2015 01:46 PM
I have two neices who are both starting sports. If you encourage them they will participate in sports, even if they suck. If they think that they might not be doing great they mostly just stop wanting to play. Kids are very impressionable. Don’t underestimate that we all have an effect on them.
Griffin
May 10, 2015 10:56 AM
Schmidt may have said something mildly offensive, but I don’t think it warrants a lecture on how horribly sexist he is. I think what he said was really more awkward than anything else. It would have been better for him not to say what he did, but no one would have been truly offended unless they were looking for something to be offended by. Also, why do we need scientific studies to say whether or not women or men can throw harder? Women are on average quite a bit smaller and have less muscle mass than men. Just look at the size, strength, and speed differences in male and female basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, or any Olympic sport. Physiological differences are not caused by sexism.
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 10, 2015 11:03 AM
Wonder how many people in the comments here would be willing to print out their comments and show them to their mothers and/or wives/girlfriends?
The Logic User
May 10, 2015 11:23 AM
Are you gonna print yours out about how only white people can be racist and how men can’t be discriminated against, then show them to your mother with a beaming smile on your face as she sticks them on the refrigerator?
Bill Baer
@CrashburnAlley
May 10, 2015 11:34 AM
Yes. She reads my articles and the comments.
Maestrobe
May 10, 2015 02:37 PM
I just showed my girlfriend my comments. Her view is that your paternalistic attitude is sexist and that your refusal to admit that men have more athletic advantages then women diminishes the athletic accomplishments of women. Are women supposed to feel inferior because they can’t make the MLB as a pitcher?
dan
May 10, 2015 11:36 AM
long time reader, first time commenter. as a father of a 4 year old girl who watches baseball, I’d prefer if she didn’t have to hear things like that. I know there’s nuance since men are generally physically stronger, but I doubt my 4 year old would be able to pick up on that nuance, she’d likely take it to mean girls are inferior. before having a girl I probably would have thought that this debate is overblown, but now that I see all the messages sent my daughter’s way everyday, I’m a little more aware. just figured I’d share my perspective. Thanks
Romus
May 10, 2015 01:19 PM
Hey….if I remember correctly, my ex had a pretty decent overarm throw!
Bip
May 10, 2015 01:36 PM
A lot of people here are denying the ideas of male privilege and white privilege. I’m certainly not going to explain exactly what those are, how we know they exist, and that they are not in the least rebutted by “but I’m a white male and my life is hard.” That has been done better than I possibly could elsewhere.
What I will point out is that most people seem to be address this issue as if the consequences of Schmidt’s statement is limited to the offense it causes. This itself is a huge indicator of privilege. If someone says or does something racist or sexist, and people complain about it, and you think the only issue at hand is that those people were ‘offended’, then it’s pretty safe to say you’ve never been the victim of sexism or racism. Those things do have serious consequences. If you’re a woman who has experiences the way that women’s athletics are not taken seriously, and how you were discouraged from playing sports because it’s “unfeminine”, I imagine you’ll see Schmidt’s comment differently that most of the commenters here.
Maestrobe
May 10, 2015 04:19 PM
The problem is that Bill went beyond the points you make by taking an absurd position re: the athletic equality of men and women, absent societal influence. He undercut his own arguments with respect to whether MS’s comment was appropriate. You can’t call everyone who disagrees with an extreme, nonsensical position sexist just because the position is shrouded in good intentions.