The nice version of this post was Girl At The Game‘s inaugural piece: “What It’s Like Being A Female Fan.”
It’s no cakewalk doing what I love to do, let me tell you. Being constantly questioned, underestimated, and forced to prove myself simply because of the anatomy of my body and the way I look is ludicrous. Quite frankly, I am over it. I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself. And maybe David Ortiz.
But I digress, because this isn’t about me. This is about “Sunday Night Baseball” announcer Matt Vasgersian and men like him in sports.
In case you missed it, last night, during the Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field, Vasgersian mocked a bachelorette party, live on air, saying he hates seeing them at MLB ballparks:
“Is there anything more obnoxious than the bachelorette party at the ballpark?”
Yes, Matt, there is.
You.
For starters, it’s 2018. Women are sick of your bullshit. Your cohost, Jessica Mendoza, definitely wasn’t having it. I’m not having it. The women of Twitter (and a lot of men) aren’t having it.
What do you have against women celebrating anything at a ballpark if it doesn’t directly affect you? Women choosing to come to the ballpark and spend money on overpriced stuff and fill the seats is a good thing for everyone. Considering MLB is desperately trying to make baseball more popular, they’re probably inclined to agree with me.
Of course – and unfortunately – Matt Vasgersian isn’t the only announcer to insult female attendees. In 2015, MLB announcers mocked a sorority who attended a Diamondbacks game. But this isn’t the first time Vasgersian has experienced backlash for comments about women. Back in 2001, Vince McMahon personally demoted him after his first game, when he said a shot of the XFL cheerleaders made him “feel uncomfortable.”
Ironically, Vasgersian was recently on The Darren Smith show on San Diego’s Mighty 1090 talking about how to make baseball more compelling. A good start would be to not alienate and insult the gender that makes up more than 35% of MLB’s fan base, Matt. An even better idea: clean house of guys like Matt Vasgersian and hire women like me who are passionate, intelligent, and not needlessly rude.
There are plenty of great male sports fans out there, so don’t mistake this for me attacking male sports fans as a whole. There are millions of men who love their teams and just want to enjoy games. As it should be. But we’re just past the point where it’s okay for on-air presences to make rude comments about anyone besides the players in the game they’re covering.
Photo: YouTube
And how about his recent remark to Jessica, when she was discussing the great crop of young shortstops in the American League? He asked her if she’d like to have a poster of them with their shirts off. I wrote to ESPN to complain. She was talking BASEBALL. She was being analytical. How sexist! I’ve been a baseball fan for 62-plus years. No one will ever take the baseball out of me, not even a jerk like Matt.
Ok, for one thing, Matty V might be the ONLY person on MLB Network who I can tolerate – I watch daily but I love Hot Stove with him and Harold Reynolds, I’ve never heard him say a had word about women – but that isn’t saying it isn’t wrong and that is certainly NOT saying that I like don’t believe you!
(actually your piece was well written and enjoyable about a crappy subject – I actually wrote a piece on Mendoza for either FanSided or FanRag sports (http://bbstmlb.com/2015/10/07/jessica-mendoza/) and just about every man in the entire world was a total prick the first time she was hosting and was she a hell of a lot better than Curt Schilling – I apologize I know you are a Red Sox fan and we all remember watching the bloody sock game which is kinda bad a** but that guy IS A MAJOR CRAZY PERSON – LIKE HE’S GOT NO MIND AT ALL – to post a video on Twitter on how HE ALONE WAS ABLE TO DISPROVE EVOLUTION is just plain SICK! I don’t even have a clue what to say about that – and he was a sexist pig) but to single out one person that is way is a little harsh)
Regardless, you are probably right he probably is just another asshole but he actually is an A’s fan … and like no one famous – oh except Tom Hanks, GEazy and Billy Joe from Green Day are big A’s fan – but my goodness am I rambling today or what? LOL! Great blog! You don’t have to read it but mine is bbstmlb.com
I haven’t been keeping up with it much this year though – bit too much work stuff going on! 🙂