2011年10月22日星期六

See, it's another non-secret that Portland reached out

See, it's another non-secret that Portland reached out to the Florida Marlins about moving the franchise to Portland so the city can realize the city's dream of having its own MLB franchise.NIKE FREE RUN, nike free run +2, Sorry, wrestling.There is nothing new about the controversy surrounding the statute and how federally funded K-12 schools and colleges mangle things in an apparent effort to comply with the 1972 statute. But men's baseball was reinstated after a 25-year hiatus. It was a great day and Chaussures Timberland Femme it was nice to see some of the guys that I hadn't seen since Jackie and I made a presentation about our baseball book project, more than two years ago. And it was simply one poke out of millions at the perceived negative impact of Title IX on men's college athletics.It is no secret to those keeping score that wrestling has taken a pounding since President Nixon signed Title IX into law in June 1972 - interestingly, this was the same month that the Supreme Court shot down Curt Flood's battle for free agency AND thugs from Nixon's reelection campaign combed through documents at Watergate.All told, 452 collegiate wrestling programs have been cut since that fateful month, though a handful have been reinstated. But, first, it's important to take a look at the decades before 1972.My mother and Jackie's mother were teachers. And that is for the small percentage encouraged to attend college. Last weekend, I was a guest of my business partner's to a Society for American Baseball Research meeting. Or political pressure."It became very, very clear that we needed to make some changes," Oregon's athletic director Pat Kilkenny said in a July press conference. And a powerful sentiment. It was simply one slide out of a few dozen about the trip to Omaha to see Oregon State ultimately win its second back-to-back College World Series. And you thought athletic directors weren't creative? All of this hoopla because of Title IX? Come on.I want to take a look at other things that happened in the last 35 years "because of" Title IX. Not entirely scientific, but a weighty perception.I recall telling him that I was too old to have reaped the benefits of overhauled athletic departments - I played on a boy's soccer team in 3rd grade and a hastily assembled women's college team, years later. It picks on girls, too! Feel better?But all this focus on sports gets us away from the topic at hand: Title IX. It's title? It Takes More than Balls. Like them, college-bound women in the 1940s and 1950s were steered into education and nursing. Slippery Rock University cut women's field hockey, water polo and lacrosse. The list goes on.Title IX doesn't discriminate. Did you ever wonder how Nike rift ninja womanthings changed? Did you think it was because of all the bra burning? Close. And one sports-minded male friend told me the other day that he thought that women who participated in team sports worked better as part of a team when they got to the workforce. But what I did benefit from was a liberal college experience. Specifically, medical schools and law schools have embraced Title IX. Also half of the medical degrees and law degrees are awarded to women, compared with the 1977 figures of 9% and 7%, respectively. Or an unwillingness. All of the attendees are welcoming, kind and interesting. Sure, some women pushed the established boundaries and became doctors, scientists and electricians, but millions more lacked the desire, energy or courage to fight the status quo. Incidentally, women's programs are hacked, too. Instead of pointing fingers at Title IX and feminists, in general, maybe fans of a doomed sport should be asking what other options the school considered.And maybe the boosters will find out that it was all about money. Missouri State discontinued women's tennis. Why not just get one on the local university campus at less expense and less red tape. (Competitive cheer and its 3.5 scholarships isn't an NCAA-certified sport). Beth Bollinger (the "other woman" present, aside from the two of us) came over from Spokane and read from her book, Until the End of the Ninth.It was the first slide of the first presentation that compelled me to go home and read back through articles filed away during the past couple years. So, when it comes to cutting sports, it's less likely that you can blame those who drew up the 1972 law and more likely that you can thank the repressed financial creativity of athletic directors. You can thank Title IX for all that, too.Or maybe that gives you more reason to hate Title IX. Oregon's was the tenth program lost in the state (California leads the pack w/ a total of 81 wrestling programs canned).However, as tempting as it is to tie everything into how compliance with the statute led to a program's demise, the real question is why schools opt to discontinue programs instead of redirect funds and reassess budgets. That's a bummer. One way or the other, if you're not completely satisfied after reading our book, my partner, Jackie, will buy you a picket sign. But I was free. Athletics was only one of ten educational areas that the law was intended to cover. They'll need to find about another $350 million but it's a start. They clearly spend a good deal of time preparing for their presentations, one of which was the road trip two of them took to the College World Series in Omaha, NE. You know, get smart. Sure, wrestling was cut at Oregon. So I considered law school. While bras brought attention to a mounting societal problem, you can thank Title IX for forcing the issue.In 1977, 25 percent of all doctoral degrees went to women; now, about half do. Guys, when your wives have the option of choosing a female gynecologist or when you can hire a female divorce attorney to show the female judge you're really a cool, enlightened guy, you can thank Title IX.And these figures don't touch on the fact that participation in athletics contributes to women's health, overall. Nor did I ever become an intellectual. No doubt the Oregon athletic department looked down the highway to see their Beaver buddies in Corvallis counting the cash from a highly successful baseball program - one that is paying for upgrades to the baseball grandstand and who knows what else? Right now, the Oregon baseball team doesn't even have a stadium to call its own. It's just that such a move rarely warrants pickets or, more pointedly, headlines. Studies show that there is are lower incidents of teenage pregnancies among high school girls that participate in sports than those who do not play sports. Now, some decry the 1972 law as a "quota" system. Cutting programs is sometimes sound budgeting but it often the laziest solution and one regularly applied. To thing big. It was years later that I married a progressive guy and was supported when I went into business with my friend and wrote a baseball book. The slide said something along the lines of "How the University of Oregon Lost the Wrestling Program and Gained a Competitive Cheering Program." That may not be verbatim, but pretty close to the spirit. The Legislature in 2003 passed a $150 million measure for a stadium. And likely ask you to hit me over the head with it.Deidre Silva is a Seattle-area baseball author who just finished her first book, "It Takes More Than Balls," due in April 2008 by Skyhorse Publishing. I was encouraged by professors to be an intellectual. Fortunately, I had a mentor thinking really big and gently directed me to reconsider. Others use the hyped-up buzz phrase "affirmative action," which is silly, silly, silly. Emotions run high when men's programs are cancelled under the auspices of fulfilling the mandate of Title IX. The statue granted both genders equal access to all "programs and activities" at schools accepting federal funds. The bloodshed at James Madison University was worse. The city wants baseball! No need to wait for MLB (because it'll be a loooooong wait). deidre@SavvyGirlsofSummer.com.





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