Losing My Perspicacity April 19, 2024

Oklahoma acts like a bunch of jerks about Nyla Rose, Japanese baseball still rules in the promotion department, Fanatics whiffs on Caitlin Clark’s jerseys, and Gregg Doyel (kind of) apologizes

Author

Julie DiCaro
April 18, 2024

Happy Free Friday! We made it through the first week of Losing My Perspicacity, and I’m truly grateful for every one of you. My goal this week to was get 100 subscribers, and we smashed through that target and got more than double that. So if you like what you read, please tell a friend. And if you want to read get LMP in your inbox every morning, you can upgrade to a paid subscription for the cost of buying me one substandard cocktail a month.

Beehiiv has apparently been working for a while on making its comments more robust, and while I’m looking forward to that, I would love to hear your thoughts on anything and everything in the comments below.

Today, Oklahoma acts like a bunch of jerks, Japanese baseball still rules in the promotion department, Fanatics whiffs on Caitlin Clark’s jerseys, and Gregg Doyel (kind of) apologizes. Here we go.

Oklahoma thinks America cares what it thinks

Those of you who have been following me for a while, or who listened back in my radio days, know that I’m somewhat of a wrestling mark, though not as much as I used to be. I still keep up with what’s happening at WWE and AEW, but I don’t watch anywhere nearly as regularly as I used to. I do, however, still follow all manner of wrestling accounts on social media, which is how I first found out about Oklahoma being a bunch of bigoted jerks to AEW transgender wrestler Nyla Rose.

Washington native Nyla Rose — who works for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) — was warned by the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission not to wrestle another woman, according to the minutes of the Commission’s Jan. 3 meeting. The minutes were first reported by the blog Real Rasslin’ on Tuesday.

All of this was over a Dec. 20 match in Oklahoma City that lasted 120 seconds bell to bell between Rose and Alejandra Lion. Rose won after landing a power bomb. After the match, she took a cowboy hat off the head of a fan in the crowd and put it on her head to big applause.

All of this, of course, falls under the supposed aegis of “caring about women’s sports,” so I’m sure that if we were to dig into the minutes of other meetings held by the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission, we would see lots of ongoing conversations about schools complying with Title IX and increasing funding for girls’ sports, right? Of course we wouldn’t. These transphobic buffoons only care about women’s sports to the extent they can use them to regulate and control who counts as a woman and who doesn’t. It’s not about protecting anything, it’s about controlling women’s bodies, nothing less.

Then there’s the fact that, while the athletic performances of pro wrestlers are very real, the outcomes and the moves are scripted, and we’ve heard nothing about any of the other women wrestlers having any problem with wrestling against Rose. Does the OSAC think pro wrestling is real? They seem like the kind of guys who would.

The most obnoxious part of this warning is how little it matters to, well, literally everyone else. Who cares what the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission says? I doubt very much that AEW gives a shit about what Oklahoma wants, even when they are IN Oklahoma, which, in hindsight, seems like an easy state to skip on the national tour. I love that the OSAC doesn’t even limit their warning to their own state, it’s just a general warning about how AEW does business across America. It’s funny that OSAC thinks their opinion factors into anything a $2 billion company does. Sort of like if I “warned” Mondelez to get those weak-ass Peeps-flavored Oreos out of Chicagoland. Get them out of Chicago or what?

Still, I was happy to see that AEW President Tony Khan is standing by Rose:

“I was really surprised by this. It was not something I was expecting, and of course I was disappointed by the commission’s position and by that warning.

I don’t think we did anything wrong. I am really, really shocked by it. I don’t think there should be discrimination against transgender wrestlers or transgender people at all. They have rights, and to that end, I absolutely stand by Nyla Rose. AEW stands by Nyla Rose and all transgender people who want to play sports. And this is wrestling. There was nothing wrong with it.

Nyla Rose is a great wrestler. She’s been a great world champion, and I love Nyla. I love working with Nyla. She’s been a great part of our history. She was the first transgender world champion ever. She’s a great part of the AEW Together program. She does a ton for the community. She’s a great person with a great heart, and very supportive of the other wrestlers.”

While researching Oklahoma’s ban on trans girls competing in girls’ sports, I found this article from The Oklahoman that pretty much sums up the entire situation. The young woman speaking directly behind Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is Levi Gladd, and she has thoughts about competing against trans women. “I believe all young women deserve the opportunity to excel at whatever sport they choose to be passionate about,” she said, “And I don’t think it should be taken away from them, especially for biological reasons that they can’t overcome.”

You might think that Gladd’s feelings on this issue are the result of experiences she’s had competing against trans women, or significant work and research in kinesiology or endocrinology or some other relevant science. But only if you don’t read the lede to the article, which kicks off this whole thing by saying, “Levi Gladd has never competed against a transgender athlete, but the University of Oklahoma track runner said the concept is widely discussed on campus.”

Oh.

Going to the capital to stand behind the governor while he signs legislation to prevent an imaginary problem with which you have zero experience is certainly a bold choice.

“All young women deserve the opportunity to excel at whatever sport they choose to be passionate about,” is exactly right, Levi, which is why trans girls should not be excluded from sports based on the gender they were assigned at birth. This is bigotry dressed up as feminism and wielded like a cudgel by men who don’t give a damn about women’s sports outside of being able to use them for political gain. Trans women are women. Trans girls are girls. No one’s desire to win a race or a medal is more important than acknowledging and accepting the humanity of another person.

Good thing we’ve solved every other problem in this nation so that our state officials have time to worry about things like banning books, policing women’s bodies, and making sure trans women don’t wrestle against other women. God Bless America.

Japanese Baseball Remains Undefeated

My youngest interned for the Joliet Slammers minor league baseball team last summer, and he spent a good amount of time dressed up as a hotdog or a beer keg while trying to wrangle small children for on-the-field activities between innings.

But Japanese baseball has much better ideas on how to bring people out to the ol’ ballpark.

The Savanah Bananas could never.

Fanatics whiff on Caitlin Clark jerseys

Word came down today that Caitlin Clark is closing in on an eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike, which almost certainly means she’s getting her own shoe. Clark also got offers from Under Armour and Adidas, per The Athletic. This deal is surprising no one, because anyone who has paid attention to women’s college basketball in the past two seasons knew that Clark was going to be a wildly popular pro athlete.

Everyone that is, except Fanatics who, perhaps still reeling from universal condemnation over this season’s MLB uniforms, seem to have wildly underestimated the number of people who wanted to own Clark’s Indiana Fever jersey. Clark became Fantatics’ top-selling draft pick ever, and if you didn’t get in on the first batch of jerseys, you’re going to be waiting…well, a while.

Fanatics has the next batch of Nike’s jerseys for the Indiana Fever star on pre-order now, with a disclaimer they will not be shipping until August — and they don’t ship from Dick’s Sporting Goods’ until October.

“We are currently sold out of our initial batch of this jersey – if you choose to place a pre-order today, our restock will be available to ship in August due to Nike’s manufacturing times,” a disclaimer on Fanatics’ site says.

Keep in mind that the last possible date for the WNBA Finals to take place is October 20th. This means many, many customers are going to go through the entire WNBA season without getting their Caitlin Clark jersey. It’s a first world problem, but one that was avoidable simply by reading the room.

Remember back when Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, and Hasbro excluded Rey from the line of action figures, even though she’s the protagonist and main character, mostly because Rey is a girl and girls don’t watch Star Wars? That’s kind of what this feels like. Anyone with a brain knew that there was going to be a huge demand for Clark’s jersey, and underestimating that demand is a huge failure, and one that has at least the appearance of being rooted in sexism.

Just another reason why Fanatics’ monopoly over the sports merchandise market is bad for America.

Gregg Doyel apologizes — kind of

Next week, I anticipate this newsletter will be far less Caitlin Clark-centric, but given that the WNBA draft took place on Monday night, she’s the lynchpin to a surprising number of stories this week. And the Indianapolis Star’s Gregg Doyel certainly didn’t help matters.

Here’s part of what I wrote about Doyel’s tweeted mini-apology yesterday:

Doyel, as men are wont do after revealing a little too much of themselves in the direction of young women, predictably issued an apology, and of course, he relied on the “herp derp, I’m so socially awkward” trope, which is par for the course when it comes to these kinds of exchanges.

…

Of course, Doyel can’t say, “I was trying to be flirty and cute with a woman several decades younger than me in a professional setting. I thought I was being sexy and witty, I didn’t realize other people would think I was creepy.” This is the lead sports columnist for one of America’s great newspapers and that was his question. Holding up heart hands. Oustanding journalism, Gregg.

I should have put money on Doyel’s apology, as he took exactly the route I knew he would. “I wasn’t inappropriate! I’m awkward with everyone! I make men feel the same way!”

Here’s part of Doyel’s apology column:

I’m devastated to realize I’m part of the problem. I screwed up Wednesday during my first interaction with No. 1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.

What happened was the most me thing ever, in one way. I’m sort of known locally, sigh, for having awkward conversations with people before asking brashly conversational questions. I’ve done this for years with Colts coaches Chuck Pagano, Frank Reich and Shane Steichen. I’ve done it with Purdue players Carsen Edwards and Zach Edey. I did it with IU’s Romeo Langford, talking to them as people, not athletes.

…

On the one hand, yes absolutely, male and female athletes should be treated the same. I’m talking about coverage, respect, compensation, terminology, you name it. Stories have been written about idiots who say or act otherwise. 

And then, along comes a story about another insensitive man, which goes viral on social media, and I decided to write about that idiot. 

Me.

I’m not sure, “I’m an equal opportunity offender” is the route Doyel wanted to go here. Women don’t necessarily want to be treated like men, we want to be treated with the same respect as men get. And the more I watch Doyel’s interaction with Clark, the more it feels weirdly possessive. Like “I’m the guy who’s going to be covering you for the biggest paper in the city you play in, I get to take liberties with you that others don’t.” The whole thing is creepy and bizarre and I’d love to say I’m surprised the Star hasn’t announced some kind of discipline of Doyel, but I’ve been in this business more than 60 seconds, and men rarely get in trouble for being creeps around young women. There is, however, a Change.Org petition calling for Doyel’s dismissal. Heh.

The worst part of this entire thing is that this is what much of the media has spent the last two days talking about, when we should be talking about what a great night the WNBA had on Monday, what this draft class might do for the WNBA’s fandom, etc. Instead, we’re talking about a male reporter borderline sexually harassing a young female athlete. The more things change…

On a personal note, I’m finally seeing “Civil War” tonight, and I am very excited to be titillated by an idea that once seemed the stuff of dystopian fiction, but increasingly looks like what could happen next week, depending how things go.

Have a great weekend. See you all on Monday.

Reply

or to participate.