Rob Dibble, Shut Up.

I haven’t blogged at all this season because honestly there’s not much to blog about besides Zambrano’s tantrum (vented on Twitter and LJ about that) and consistent failure.

This, however, I felt the need to blog about. I’ve been watching baseball for my entire life, and I’ve never been told that girls know nothing about baseball. On the contrary, my father, brother, grandfathers, and male friends support and appreciate my love of the game and always made me feel more than welcome to offer analysis and opinions on baseball. Imagine my surprise when I came across this garbage from Rob Dibble, then, who should know better. Even if you still subscribe to the antiquated notion that women at baseball games are just there to ogle and yap about “woman things,” you are a sportscaster. You do not say those things on air. Unfortunately, my experience is not universal, and many women that I care about have faced discrimination because of their gender and love for the game. It’s people like Dibble who keep these archaic and utterly disgusting stereotypes going.

And if you do believe those things? I pity you. Women have been going to, enjoying, and understanding baseball games for longer than Dibble’s been alive. My own future mother-in-law used to sit in the Astrodome with a pad of paper, writing down every possible statistic, because she loved the game. That’s beside the point, however – even if the ladies in front were talking about “Desperate Housewives” or whatever other stereotypically feminine thing that Dibble created in his own mind, does it really matter? We here of the xx chromosome do tend to have varied interests. Why, we might even discuss them at baseball games! And you know what really freaking bothers me? NOT EVERY MAN AT THE GAME IS DISCUSSING THE INTRICACIES OF BASEBALL FOR THE ENTIRE GAME, YOU JERK. But no, let’s rail on the women at the game… for what, exactly?

Women are forty-five percent of the MLB fanbase. Forty-five percent! None of us are exactly the same, but we are united by a love of baseball and an understanding of how it works. We all feel the ups and downs, the excitement and the frustration, just as the male fanbase does. Why would Rob Dibble choose to alienate all of those people? His apology was just as infuriating as his original comments, and basically amounted to “I’M JUST GOING TO SAY THIS RIGHT HERE AND IF YOU GET OFFENDED IT’S YOUR OWN FAULT. OH, SORRY.” He took no responsibility whatsoever for remarks that were incredibly offensive to a large chunk of MLB fans, and it’s disappointing. I don’t think he knows the gravity of what he said; I doubt he cares. I have to wonder, does he have a daughter? Would he be upset if some man made some misogynistic comments that made her feel like human garbage simply for being a woman?

Over the past couple of seasons, I have grown to adore a group of dynamic female bloggers I met via Twitter. Each of them has her own strengths, her own convictions, her own team, but they all know baseball inside and out and are absolute joys to converse with. I dare Rob Dibble to even try to talk ball with them in a condescending manner – he would be destroyed in a matter of seconds. They have all posted responses to Dibble that are far more coherent than mine, and with permission, I’d like to link them.

The incomparable Julie DiCaro, from A League of Her Own: here
The wonderful Amanda, the OCD Chick: here
The amazing Dana from Edge of Brooklyn: here
and last, but certainly not least, the fantastic Caryn from metsgrrl.com lets it rip: here