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AmethystOrator OP t1_ixeyn8b wrote

TL;DR

> When Brown University's baseball season starts in February, one of the players taking the field will make history. Olivia Pichardo, a first-year student from Queens, N.Y., will be first woman on the roster of a Division I college baseball team in the U.S.

> Pichardo walked on to Brown's team following tryouts and a grueling assessment process – during which she immediately impressed the head coach, demonstrating her abilities as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher.

> "It's a workout common for baseball and allows us to evaluate athleticism and arm strength, as well as both offensive and defensive skills," said Brown baseball head coach Grant Achilles. "Olivia put together the most complete walk-on tryout I have seen from a player since becoming a head coach."

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goldenrepoman t1_ixi7ofl wrote

That's amazing. I fully support any women who can play professional sports with men. Obviously a very talented individual.

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stansfield123 t1_ixh9hzy wrote

Hey, I'm not sure what you guys mean by "excessive negativity", in the rules. Could you clarify if mentioning a baseball player's batting average is permitted, or against the rules?

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BeanOfTheGods t1_ixhv4vn wrote

That just seems like a fact, not a mod but going on definition just don't get caught up in how bad they are

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stansfield123 t1_ixi06la wrote

>That just seems like a fact

It doesn't just seem like a fact, a batting average IS a fact.

Still, when I tried posting facts in this sub before, they got removed. Got me curious if facts are allowed at all, and if so, which ones.

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BeanOfTheGods t1_ixi3931 wrote

Lmao not the ones the mods dont like, looks like its time to jump to a new thread

(When I say seems I mean is as it is)

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powersv2 t1_ixhu4an wrote

Swing for the fences .

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the_cardfather t1_ixiqdmq wrote

Any idea what position she'll be playing?

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vineyardmike t1_ixf5i6f wrote

The same crowd that thinks affirmative action is bad is going to hate this.

Based on the article it sounds like she earned a walk on spot.

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Rosenbenphnalphne t1_ixg3fy7 wrote

Why? Earning a spot is the way it should be.

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a_peanut t1_ixgjaez wrote

Because it's usually not affirmative action they're truly angry about. It's an excuse for more racism and sexism.

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vineyardmike t1_ixh6uye wrote

There going to freak out that a woman's on the men's team.

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badscott4 t1_ixhsysb wrote

Nah, we’re cool with it as long as she was evaluated the same as the guys

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codelapiz t1_ixh2sc4 wrote

I hate affermative action and simular programs like the one that gives less qualified men the spots of better qualified woman on norwegian psycology studies.

And i thinkthis is great. I am a bit concerned that she apperantly was so great, cause that kinda implies there migth have been other woman who were good enougth but not incredably great like her that were denied a spot.

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vineyardmike t1_ixh6kva wrote

Of course there have been other women who have been denied a spot in the past.

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TruthOf42 t1_ixgavdr wrote

The fact that all physical sports are dominated by men almost surely means that those sports rely only on physical strength and related skills.

I would love there to be some sport where different skills are useful, sure you have some positions that require that strength, but maybe you have one position that's focused on who can woo a wombat the fastest.

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BeanOfTheGods t1_ixhx9y7 wrote

It's really dominated by strength and skill in those particular sports, I see more women in volleyball ball then men and they seem to have the specific traits and skills to be good with volleyball more so then men I see more often then not, I think it's just a society thing with how we're already built up on it, but also males and females just have different natural traits, roles, and strengths they fill in evolution, we're merging slowly into women having their own sports and stuff but also it's just easier for a man to play around with muscle mass and natural bonding with a fellow man to understand and accomplish a goal, absolutely not saying women can't, I'm saying there's less of a group for women's sports to be built up rn so natrually there's just an inequality because we arnt pumping our lady's with testosterone and ball slapping energy but we are getting more women in sports and I'm all about that energy, I want diversity in my sports, watch something with variables

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BeanOfTheGods t1_ixhxd1t wrote

It's really dominated by strength and skill in those particular sports, I see more women in volleyball ball then men and they seem to have the specific traits and skills to be good with volleyball more so then men I see more often then not, I think it's just a society thing with how we're already built up on it, but also males and females just have different natural traits, roles, and strengths they fill in evolution, we're merging slowly into women having their own sports and stuff but also it's just easier for a man to play around with muscle mass and natural bonding with a fellow man to understand and accomplish a goal, absolutely not saying women can't, I'm saying there's less of a group for women's sports to be built up rn so natrually there's just an inequality because we arnt pumping our lady's with testosterone and ball slapping energy but we are getting more women in sports and I'm all about that energy, I want diversity in my sports, watch something with variables

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MrSoftServe1337 t1_ixgllva wrote

This is why esports are the future. The problem is that men dominate gaming and the few women who do game have a million incentives to not go pro. Eventually though woman pro players competing among men as peers will be the norm.

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dizzyducky14 t1_ixgz0en wrote

The crazy thing is women typically have better reaction time and sometimes hand eye coordination. A lack of opportunity and hostile environments drive women out of a lot of gaming and sports.

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DarkStarStorm t1_ixh7wjc wrote

I have looked at many studies, none of which have ever said that women have better reaction time. All of them say that men do.

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codelapiz t1_ixh3b0j wrote

If they could take being called the nword, stupid, autistic, fat, short, skinny, nerd, virgin, bad, dogshit, retarded, roomtempratureIQ, cracker, commie, nazi and bald. As well as men take it they could do great.

Substitute short and virgin that arent realy insults when said to woman for some generic anti woman insults and u got their list.

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dizzyducky14 t1_ixh3rb1 wrote

You live a sheltered life.

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codelapiz t1_ixh51e6 wrote

Forgot the touchgrass category of insults. Now sure woman migth hear those aswell but its way more likely for a man to get them.

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Gororar t1_ixgo3ue wrote

Not really gonna happen. Men are just genetically better at almost every sport,except long distance swimming. Or do you spot any woman in the top 10 of the best current chess Player?

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daiaomori t1_ixgtd9w wrote

Holy shit.

Do you *actually* believe that? Asking for a friend.

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Gororar t1_ixguqn6 wrote

no. like seriously. its factual. Here why woman are better than men in long distance swimming

Here are the top chess player in the world. You need to go back quiet a lot to find a woman.

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Here is a video about an all woman Esports Team competing with man.

​

If you want to see a woman be at the top of a sport, you need to go to fiction and watch queens gambit.

Or go to long distance swimming. Like I said. Its the only field in which woman are genetically better suited for than men.

​

edit: people downvote me, because they think facts are sexist lol

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daiaomori t1_ixhdesp wrote

But how do you disentangle genetics from all the other co-factors, namely sociological ones?

I don’t disagree about the factual chess high score, but you just pinpointed everything - for all sports - on „genetics“.

Sorry, but that’s completely counter-factual.

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KingViktorious t1_ixher1v wrote

It’s called testosterone.

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daiaomori t1_ixhfbob wrote

You mean thats why his thinking is screwed or why men are better at all sports except long distance swimming?

Im so confused.

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Danskheart t1_ixhhfls wrote

Not the person you're talking with, but assuming you're not a troll, women have an advantage in long distance swimming because their bodies are more buoyant than mens' due to higher body fat. This allows them to spend less energy staying afloat. The difference isn't enough to matter in short sprints, but becomes increasingly important the longer the race.

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daiaomori t1_ixho17p wrote

Seemingly, you miss the point.

The original argument was "men are genetically better prepared for every sport but long distance swimming" - which is complete nonsense.

The universal statement is (as most universal statements) pretty obviously counter-factual, the empiric basis is completely biased, and routing this "to genetics" is also even more obviously false.

This does not mean that men are not better than women in most sports. But the original argument is simply wrong. This also doesn't change by the fact that women are better at long distance swimming for a biological reason.

As a matter of fact, many men are less able to compete with some women, so we talk statistics, anyway.

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Gororar t1_ixi9vh2 wrote

you are funny. I love the "lalalalala iam not hearing what you say, because I dont like it lalalalala" mindset.

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daiaomori t1_ixla8ww wrote

Maybe you need a hug; you could ask someone like Dani Elle Speegle. Wish you luck, mate :)

And I mean come on you must recognize that your claim doesn’t make sense. „All Sports“. The German table soccer league was all-gender until very recently (no idea why they split it up in the first place but anyway).

What about fencing? Platform diving? Synchronized swimming?

Sure, „all sports“ and „only genetics“. You could even build a solid argument, but you don’t seem to have the basic concepts at hand how arguments work.

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Gororar t1_ixlmgi4 wrote

Men are better equiped to perform at the highest level in any of the sports you just named.

"you could even build a solid argument".

I did.

I even gave you studies to look up, why woman are in a dissadvantage compared to men... except long distance swimming :)

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Danskheart t1_ixlnfff wrote

Men are better at literally every sport you just mentioned. You're kind of proving yourself wrong.

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Gororar t1_ixhmscv wrote

what do you mean with "screwed"?

Biological Men and Biological Female Brains/Bodies just work different.

For example: Men on average have almost double the amount of upper body strenght compared to woman.

I dont understand what exactly is so confusing for you. Iam giving you all the links to look up on the topic to educate yourself. But you just seem a bit angry about it.

https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/personal-training/men-vs-women-upper-body-strength.htm

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throwtheclownaway20 t1_ixeythx wrote

Isn't the only reason baseball had a gender gap is because some 17-Y.O. girl struck out Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game and so the MLB commissioner decided to ban women?

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Adorable-Ad-3223 t1_ixez6u5 wrote

Source please?

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Madam_meatsocket t1_ixghcg9 wrote

A woman named Jackie Mitchell struck out babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. She played for Chattanooga. The dollop did a podcast about her. Pretty interesting.

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Dendad6972 t1_ixf1hha wrote

I've heard the story but never that reason.

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Omar___Comin t1_ixjm1y3 wrote

Not at all... it was an exhibition, as you said. They were basically hamming it up as a show for the people.

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BigTexasButters39 t1_ixf4xr9 wrote

If a woman was a five tool player, like if there was a Michelle Trout, you bet your ass she'd be in the league. There's no gender gap there is just winning. It's not like it's mandated that women can't play in the big leagues, there was just a woman drafter earlier this year. There just aren't many Aaron Judge sized women out there so it's hard for them to make it.

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pm_me-ur_vulva t1_ixf5sbv wrote

Wrong sport to claim size is the reason. Altuve is smaller than a LOT of women. Baseball is one sport where size determines very little about their ability to play and excel at the game.

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merlin401 t1_ixfkzy5 wrote

Yes but mens muscle mass and general strength is still going to be a barrier. Any guy playing MLB is a far far outlier in some way among men… I just don’t see how a woman could bridge that gap (maybe as a very weird specialist, like some soft tossing relief pitcher that has impeccable command and a weird trick pitch?)

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HarrySanderson t1_ixf086u wrote

No, it's because men are better at sports?

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nowhereman136 t1_ixf2ddm wrote

On average yes, but averages don't mean much to the individual. I'm not automatically better than a female baseball player because I'm a man. She can throw farther, run faster, and hit harder than I can, even though she's a woman.

She may be so good, that she is better than the worst player on the team. If that's the case, than She deserves to be on the roster more than that guy, regardless of gender. I'm not saying the teams need to be 50/50 male/female, just to have the best players possible, regardless of gender.

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jl_theprofessor t1_ixf3w6y wrote

Women aren't banned from playing in the MLB. They don't because they are, on average, physically not as capable as men.

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Bayoris t1_ixh06z8 wrote

They were banned for 40 years until 1992. There was at least one woman playing AA ball prior to that ban. It’s possible a woman might have advanced to AAA or even the big leagues had they been given a chance. It’s true that they are on average less physically capable than men. But there are physically exceptional women. I could see a female pitcher possibly doing well by virtue of the fact that the men are not used to her style of delivery. For the same reason knuckleballers sometimes do well even though they throw slowly.

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Rob_Drinkovich t1_ixf2ysd wrote

But professional baseball players aren’t average men either, they are the the most elite of the elite. An elite female baseball player is much better than me, but could they compete with the elite males? Idk, if they could they would probably be on a team because owners only care about making money and an all star female player would make them a lot of it.

Sounds like this girl is as good as if not better than a lot of the D1 guys but that’s still not MLB level.

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Arete108 t1_ixg4we0 wrote

But what makes a great athlete varies by sport. For example, David Epstein in The Sports Gene had a whole chapter about how great MLB players have just freakishly good visual acuity. Like if the normal rate of 20/5 vision is I dunno 1 in 5,000 normally it's way more common in MLB, and that allows players to hit the ball better. So that's a skill that really doesn't have to do with increased upper body strength, it's visual acuity + brain software.

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camyok t1_ixh8tbk wrote

The thing is, even college sports are already operating at a level significantly above average compared to the general population, there simply won't be a lot of overlap between men's top 1 percent and women's top 1 percent.

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merlin401 t1_ixfkwdb wrote

That is irrelevant. Think of peak physical athletic ability has a normal curve distribution. The one for men is shifted significantly up from that of womens curve. There’s TONS of overlap but the only professional athletes are in the extreme extreme outlier of that curve. The top .001% men outliers are always going to be shifted further ahead of the women outliers on the their curve.

Also the original comment saying “men are better” at sports is kind of disingenuous. Physically there’s just no comparison. A smaller woman (or man for that matter) can be incredibly skilled and tactically sound but the physical limitation just makes it impossible to compete with a larger stronger faster human, even if that person is a worse student of the game

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Bayoris t1_ixh0o6h wrote

If baseball was a pure test of strength then women would not be able to compete. 100%. But it isn’t. Baseball pitchers rely on unpredictability. If you can throw a sinker or a knuckleball or a curveball then you don’t need a fastball.

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merlin401 t1_ixujoid wrote

I did say in another comment that maybe the one chance there is is for a woman to make it as a specialized pitcher known exclusively for a trick pitch (of which a knuckleball would be a good example). Sinker is not (which is essentially a fastball btw) and curve is not because traditional breaking pitches rely heavily on a complimentary fastball to set them up. Fastballs are essential to keeping people from sitting on the predictable motion of your breaking pitches and keeping people off balance. Knuckleballs are distinct because they have no predictable motion. But knuckleballs are super hard to throw: look how many men can master them, almost none.

Also pitchers are in a different way the worst example to pick. Pitchers have the highest rate of injury and catastrophic injury of any position in all of sports due to how much stress every pitchers puts on their elbow and shoulder. Knuckleballs may look easy on the body, but throwing pitches from 60 feet away on an elevated mound is hard and these pitches are included (they only look easy since we are used to seeing pitchers throw 90+ which virtually no one you or I know could even accomplish on flat ground, man or especially woman!

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MikeGolfsPoorly t1_ixi3fqz wrote

Which is why the only people drafted to be hockey goalies are sumo wrestlers. They're larger and stronger than most people, so even though they are worse students of the game, they obviously have no physical comparison, and it's impossible for anyone else to compete.

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merlin401 t1_ixuirut wrote

I mean this is such a stupid comment. Obviously, as you know, hockey goalies need massive amounts of agility and quickness that a sumo wrestler would not have, which is why teams aren’t stupid and this doesn’t happen. Similarly teams aren’t stupid and it’s why men are virtually exclusively drafted into mens sports even though anyone is free to be drafted

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MikeGolfsPoorly t1_ixwbdye wrote

> A smaller woman (or man for that matter) can be incredibly skilled and tactically sound but the physical limitation just makes it impossible to compete with a larger stronger faster human, even if that person is a worse student of the game

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Arete108 t1_ixg5522 wrote

Not necessarily. There was talk of Cheryl Miller as a potential NBA player before her health ruled that out.

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HarrySanderson t1_ixggklc wrote

That is absolutely ridiculous.. you are living in a total fantasy land if you think there is even a shred of a slither of a slice of truth to that

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Interesting_Engine37 t1_ixhccix wrote

I just wondered……Why is it OK for women, to “invade” men’s sports? I am against biological males in women’s sports, because of the biological difference in physical abilities. So, it the opposite OK, because women are the weaker sex?

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paperclip_nazi t1_ixhlsj6 wrote

Yes dude. Woman are obviously less physically gifted then men, so it’s fine if they can make the men’s team.

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StoneTwin t1_ixzju38 wrote

  • women are less testosterone gifted

Showcased when (talented) teen boys can compete with professional female athletes.

It's nothing about skill or proficiency above other humans, the biology of human muscles.

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