“Men know sports better than women do.” Men were “born into sports.” These are nothing short of ignorant comments. There are plenty of men out there who don’t know a first down from a touchdown and it would probably be safe to say those individuals choose not to pursue a career in sports broadcasting. Likewise I doubt they read SI or spend much time watching ESPN.

While I find it surprising that you say, “Women don’t like sports.” Ironically, you profess that you “live and die by NY sports and [are] the first to admit [you] can be wildly irrational in defense of [your] teams.” I must admit, it sounds to me as though you like sports and you’re a woman and apparently a hypocrite.

Women can be very successful in sports broadcasting. I agree with some of your points regarding the subordinate roles many female sports broadcasters play and the way they come across the public. The problem is that you have been brainwashed into thinking you are getting everything you want from your sports broadcast.

Men’s and women’s brains operate in different ways. Women process information much more than men do, considering all possible connections or implications a piece of information could bear on. I appreciate that your brain might work as simply as a man’s does. However, the problem is that the men who control sports broadcasting haven’t so much as given a thought to how to get women more interested in sports.

The answer certainly is not to put moderately attractive to borderline unattractive women on the sidelines with a microphone trying to reach Yao Ming’s mouth as they stand on their tippy toes while their camera man is trying to get them both in the shot and cursing the idiot that hired this 5′2″ woman to interview basketball players. The problem is either (1) that the men who hired them didn’t connect the dots and realize this set-up was idiotic or, more likely, (2) they want women in sports to fail because they’d like to keep their jobs.

The things women are interested in are different than those men are to some extent when it comes to sports. A successful woman in this business must attract both men and women which will truly broaden the audience. This would bring increased advertising revenue to sports networks, increase mutually enjoyable activities couples can engage in, and promote harmony in the marital home. The answer is that women want different information than men. If women in sports broadcasting continue to solicit the information the men want, it is likely that few women will be inclined to begin following sports. If, however, women broadcasters were actually allowed to ask questions about what women wanted to hear about, it would be a whole different ballgame.

And speaking of baseball, Vin, congrats on the Phillies. Too bad about the Eagles yet again. I kind of wanted McNabb to get a ring.

You know, I have no idea what Sofia Coppola is doing. I do know she was working on that period drama Marie Antoinette for years and finally finishing it may have taken a ton out of her. She was going crazy on details when it came to set design. I never saw the movie, personally. The funny thing is she was having such trouble writing “Marie Antoinette” that she started working on “Lost in Translation” just to let out some stress. Lost in Translation was a huge success and the other movie… not so much. Strange how that works out.

2) Lost in Translation is a fantastic movie that I’ve seen several times. It is possibly the only good acting Scarlett Johannsen has ever done and clearly the best work Bill Murray has ever done. The cinemetography IS fantastic (see matt, I can sound smart!) and the direction was so good, it made you forget about the Virgin Suicides. Where exactly is Sofia Coppola these days? (I’m also a bit of a film geek.)

3) I need to watch Taxi Driver again. Matt, when you say Schrader was losing his bird, do you mean bird in the british sense or did you just invent a new euphemism for losing his mind? And the election campaign hottie was a young Cybil Sheppard. You know who else was really hot in her day? Mia Farrow.

4) I liked Vanilla Sky too. It wasn’t nearly the abortion everyone said it was. I could’ve done without Tom Cruise but Penelope Cruz is perfect in it and Cameron Diaz does a great job playing an insane blond. Or she might have just been being herself.

5) How many days till pitchers and catchers report?

And I’m not saying women should shave their heads! Im just saying I think they should do something for the sake of doing it. The girl in Just One of the Guys wanted to write so she did. It sucked she couldnt do it as a female, but it was more important to her to write, not for everyone to know she was a girl.

ps THANKS FOR RUINING THE ENDING OF TAXI DRIVER!

j/k I probably never would have watched it anyway. Not while there’s movies like “my bloody valentine” to enlist in the war on my brain cells.

Thanks for reading and commenting! 19 more days til pitchers and catchers..

Anyway, I have a beef, because Taxi Driver is awesome. You know what the funny thing is about Taxi Driver? People really overcomplicate a bizarrely simple story. Paul Schrader, the guy who wrote the movie, was losing his bird while working on the script. Everything about the movie that people try to interpret, from whether the ending was a dream and on and on, is really a waste. It was all real. Bickle killed all those people. He saved the little girl. She went on to have a happy life. He somehow didn’t go to jail. The knockout from the election office later rode in his cab on a random night after he inexplicably became a hero. And I think we were supposed to gather that she felt regret for missing the boat on such a great guy like Travis. Sick, sick shit, I know, but Martin S. has said himself that the ending is what it is, not a fantasy or whatever. Taxi Driver is a work of impressive lunacy. Yes, Travis is “supposed” to be seen as the ultimate good guy by the end of the movie. Schrader was probably pissed off at society and wanted to create a character to act out his anger against phony politicians, scum bag pimps, and the like. The only reason I’m going on this spiel is basically to say Taxi Driver isn’t like those other two movies. There isn’t any more complexity to Taxi Driver than what people manufacture themselves. Vanilla Sky and Lost in Translation were designed to be dense. I actually think Vanilla Sky was really, really good.

By the way this:

“This celebration/dismissal of preconceived prejudices is the same dialectic framing women sportscasters.”

I liked. Nice writing. Did you shave your head before writing that sentence?

“Here’s the problem with female sports reporters: it’s not the fact that they’re bad. It’s the fact that they’re always relegated to roles that are useless.”

That should have been:

Here’s the problem with female sports reporters: it’s not the fact that they’re bad. It’s the fact that they’re not all Erin Andrews.

So it’s not that I hate Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya (although I do), it’s that they are sideline reporters. The most useless position in all of broadcast journalism outside of whatever position Stephen A Smith is in. Look, it’s not just the women, it’s Armen Ketayan (sp), it’s Craig Sager, it’s ____. (Especially useless is Tony Siragusa but I’m not sure if he’s a sideline reporter or a clown.)

I was watching something meaningless on ESPN and there was a female color guy. It wasn’t so bad. Although it might have been something like Div II basketball. If they had the chops, I wouldn’t mind a woman in the booth. Hell, the men in there are usually terrible anyway. I find that CBS has the worst announcers in football. I feel bad for you AFC fans.