Chase Utley Is Hot: In Defense Of Baseball Boyfriend
by lizroscher on Feb 15, 2012 12:24 PM EST
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Last week during the Baseball Boyfriend kerfuffle, I had a knee jerk reaction. I thought the app was stupid and pandering; a reflection of the things I dislike most about the way female baseball fans are treated. I resolved to forget about the whole thing and pretend that it didn't exist.
But it kept gnawing at me. I thought about it more over the next few days, and slowly my opinion began to change. I read some good pieces about the whole dustup -- reasoned and well-thought -- but it started to seem a little bit like female baseball fans weren't allowed to enjoy attractive men. The app still bothered me, but I started to wonder why I couldn't be a baseball fan and a woman at the same time. Couldn't I find Chase Utley attractive while also knowing his OBP and SLG? And even knowing what those abbreviations meant?
And then last night I read a piece on Jezebel -- an interview with the creator of Baseball Boyfriend, Missy Wedig. It wasn't created by CBS Sports in an effort to woo female fans. Wedig's husband created the app for her fantasy baseball league when keeping track of their baseball boyfriends became too cumbersome to do by hand. After reading it, I realized that I agreed with her. Not only did I agree with her, but I wanted to start a league so I could actually use Baseball Boyfriend. And I'm not shy to admit that at all. I'm attracted to men, and I know other women who are also attracted to men. It's not a secret, and it's not a bad thing. It's part of who I am. I shouldn't have to abandon my womanhood to be a baseball fan. There is more than enough room in my brain to enjoy the game, enjoy the stats, and enjoy the men playing it.
In fact, I suspect there's room in every woman's brain for all that and more. Women are a vocal and growing part of baseball fandom, and it's foolish to think that they're only drawn to the game because Chase Utley has a cute ass. If Baseball Boyfriends was a standalone game where you picked the cutest baseball player and watched how he performed against your friends' cutest baseball players, then yeah, that would be pretty stupid. And real baseball fans would need not apply. But you have to have a fantasy baseball team to even use Baseball Boyfriends. It's for people who find men attractive AND who like baseball enough to have a fantasy baseball team. It's like someone built an app just for me!
I can completely understand if a person -- man or woman -- doesn't want to mix their fantasy baseball with hot guys. They certainly don't have to. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. And while I hate the selection of pink, glittery, bejeweled baseball merchandise, they wouldn't sell it unless there was a market for it. It exists for a reason. There are female fans of every stripe for every sport ever invented. We are all different. There is no one size fits all. Just because I don't like rhinestones on my hat doesn't mean I don't want my Baseball Boyfriend Chase Utley to beat everyone else's lesser Baseball Boyfriend.
In the end, I have a bigger problem with the girly design of the page than with Baseball Boyfriend. And actually, the site has been redesigned to get rid of the infantile doodles (but you can still see them in the screenshots here). So now I have zero problems with Baseball Boyfriend. Really, it's just another way for me to beat everyone in my fantasy league.
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Good stuff Liz
I largely ignored Baseball Boyfriend when I heard about it last week, dismissing it on the name alone (and the headline-length descriptions on Twitter), but knowing the details and hearing your take are refreshing. Well done.
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Yes
This is not hot guys + baseball, this is baseball + hot guys. I support it. Especially when said hot guy is Chase Utley.
Point Taken
I still hate the name, but even I can admit that Chase Utley has a hot ass. Cheers.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
There is no reason to expect that gender should not have some bearing on how people enjoy baseball. Lots of things affect this: age, cultural viewpoints (race/gender), financial demographics, etc. None can arbitrarily be “best” (other than mine, which is, and everyone else can enjoy baseball in your lesser and incorrectg ways, but I won’t hold it against you).
So long as the app is not demeaning or pandering, if it bumps the fun factor, then that’s good. It doesn’t have to be Bill James’ cup of tea. Whorewear? No. BBF? Sounds ok. Can I get it for Hamels?
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on Feb 15, 2012 1:13 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Fortunately, Cole and I have discussed the open nature of our relationship, and we’re both okay with it. Otherwise I would have to hunt you down and make you bleed like a stuck pig.
by Wet Luzinski on Feb 15, 2012 6:02 PM EST up reply actions
Fortunately, Cole and I have discussed the open nature of our relationship, and we’re both okay with it. Otherwise I would have to hunt you down and make you bleed like a stuck pig.
by Wet Luzinski on Feb 15, 2012 6:03 PM EST up reply actions
Wow, WL, you really wanted to emphasize that. It’s a good thing you’re confident in your relationship.
Just wanted to make myself perfectly clear, apparently.
by Wet Luzinski on Feb 18, 2012 10:39 AM EST up reply actions
To be honest, the thing that irked me the most about Baseball Boyfriend was the rhinestones, sparkles, et al. It reminded me a lot of the aesthetic that surrounded the “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” t-shirt scandal a while back (link). There’s sort of a forced infantilization of women that is really troubling that I thought BBF was pursuing too.
That said, the tweak in the layout and the explication above do put it in some good context. It’s not as if sexuality can’t augment a baseball experience — like RTP notes — or like one can’t have a fun time with a casual version of fantasy. As long as the message isn’t something like, “Hey ladies, is all that math too hard for you? Why not do what you’re comfortable with and choose hot men to represent you,” then there’s nothing inherently wrong with a product that takes a new stab at an old standby like fantasy. It’s good that the creator has been able to clarify her work a bit.
Reminds me of when I was in HS and my 9th grade algebra teacher told us that girls started becoming less adept at math right around that time because he said, and I quote, “women’s brains weren’t wired the same way as men’s.” Of course, I pointed out to him that 6 out of the top 10 math students he’d written down on the board were female, but he dismissed that as women being better students.
Coming back around to your t-shirt idea and the infantilization of women, it just proves the point that women become less adept at math because we’re told we are and accept that as fact so we stop trying. I rejected this notion then and still do. We only become skilled at it through practice, as with everything else in life.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Also, women become sex objects around that time, and having a brain isn’t attractive.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 1:35 PM EST up reply actions
Well. Having a Brian isn’t attractive to a ninth grade guy, maybe. But as we get older, trust me, brains are very attractive.
I think attractive is the wrong word, actually. I think more 9th grade boys are intimidated by smarter girls. And let’s face it, that’s 90% of the 9th grade girls, if we’re being honest.
"Sometimes, the balls that fall in are jam shots"...Hunter Pence, on BABIP
This. My wife is smarter than I am, and I love it. I think in ninth grade I was certainly intimidated by the smart girls, even the ones I had crushes on.
I’d much rather date a girl who’s smarter than me than a moron. I just don’t want her to be too much smarter than me. A little bit smarter is fine though, and I would even say preferable to equal intelligence.
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
by TheOrangeCone on Feb 15, 2012 11:30 PM EST up reply actions
I mean there is evidence on stereotype threat that suggests woman get worse if they are made to think about their gender before taking a math test (but not other types of tests). I havn’t seen any literature on woman being worse at math, I think there is some research that suggests that woman tend to be worse at certain spatial rotation tasks on average… though they are actually better at keeping track of locations of food items: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279214/
I don’t think finding gender differences is uninteresting, I think that small minded people asserting gender differences where they are not are very uninteresting.
by Cole_Hamels_Can on Feb 15, 2012 4:51 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed. I mean, I accept that I cannot pee in the snow with accuracy. That’s just fact.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Neither can I. But the last time I peed in the snow, I was really drunk. So…
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
by TheOrangeCone on Feb 15, 2012 5:12 PM EST up reply actions
That’s not fair. When the snow’s at waist level, you can’t miss.
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
by TheOrangeCone on Feb 15, 2012 9:08 PM EST up reply actions
Either more practice or drink enough that thinks look accurate to you.
by Cole_Hamels_Can on Feb 15, 2012 9:11 PM EST up reply actions
i'm just sad this wasn't around when warren brusstar was still pitching
by taco pal on Feb 15, 2012 1:22 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Oscar the Grouch in the form a a Phillies reliever. Made my day.
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on Feb 15, 2012 2:16 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Seriously, who the fuck greenlighted that picture?
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on Feb 15, 2012 2:17 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
you should have seen the ones they rejected.
Sid Bream was out, Jeremy Giambi was safe, Pete Rose should be in the Hall, Walter O'Malley shouldn't, and the Expos should be in Montreal.
by Veni Vidi Vici on Feb 15, 2012 7:56 PM EST up reply actions
Very well said, Liz. My main problem with the app was the way it was presented. I have a huge issue with the casual references to sex in the app’s description, combined with the graphics that look like they were marketing to 14-year-olds. Now, apparently, the 14-year-old imagery stuff is gone, but the casual references to sex are still there. I guess I’m just uncomfortable with claiming (mostly) married men as “my boyfriend.” It feels whorish and immature to me. But I guess it is called “fantasy” so…
I guess I’m just being a prude.
I heart our rookies.
Pods wouldn’t want me anyway. Have you seen the guy’s wife?
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 1:32 PM EST up reply actions
Doesn’t stop most of these guys. I wish I could add a sarc tag here.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Why do you need a sarc tag?
From everything I’ve read and heard, you’re probably closer to the truth than not.
I could see it being uncomfortable speculating about folks’ private life, but if we’re going to bring it up in the first place….
That’s the point I was trying to make. I wish I could use a sarc tag, but since it’s pretty close to the truth, I can’t. It’s just sad IMO. I remember Dana O’Neill on DNL when they were discussing ARod’s infidelity years ago and she said, “That’s not news. The real story are the players who remain faithful to their wives.”
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
ALSO
Pods isn’t "eligible."
Hey now, wait a second. Scott Podsednik could make the team out of Spring Training, for all you know.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:34 PM EST up reply actions
I don’t think you’re being a prude at all. You’re not comfortable with it, and that’s completely fine. I happen to be comfortable with it, and I think it’s a nice enhancement for those who want to use it. We all have our own version of baseball fandom. No one’s is better than anyone else’s.
One of the biggest problems with how baseball is marketed to women is that all we see is that pink sparkly shit, and shirts that make us look like cleat chasing nymphos. They are marketing to us like we’re a homogenous group — for some reason, they think we’re all the same. By now I’m used to it, but I violently hate it. So when I see something that smacks of that type of brainless, demeaning marketing, my instinct is to attack it. I think if women fans were marketed to as the diverse group that we clearly are, BBBF would have been seen as something that’s fun for some but not for all. Instead, since I’m so used to being pandered to and treated like I fit into the marketers image of a female baseball fan, I immediately attacked it for being stupid and moronic. But I gave it more thought and realized that the app is doing exactly what I want baseball marketers to do: recognizing that I’m not the same as everyone else, and that I can like fantasy baseball and hot guys at the same time.
In the end, I want the marketers to understand that we’re not all the same. I will not fit into the box they have labeled “Female Baseball Fans”, and they can’t make me. And seriously, what would it take for Majestic to sell powder blue throwback tees in women’s sizes? I shouldn’t have to buy a boys XL.
And seriously, what would it take for Majestic to sell powder blue throwback tees in women’s sizes? I shouldn’t have to buy a boys XL.
TESTIFY!
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Youth sizes are cheaper, though.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:12 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, but sometimes they fit justthisside of whorewear.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
I don’t have that problem, but I guess I would if I had a larger bust.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:17 PM EST up reply actions
Speaking from experience, yes.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Well then, for both of your sakes…
Get on that, Majestic!
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:22 PM EST up reply actions
You would think with the increase in female fans and the fact that the large majority of them do the spending on clothes in the average household, they’d already exist in every item imaginable. We must conquer this front, damnit!
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
The only youth XL item that doesn’t fit me are jerseys, since they button up the front. I could probably get away with it if I wore a sports bra.
So yeah, I’d definitely support a “women’s size jerseys or bust!” campaign. We could use that slogan and everything.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:30 PM EST up reply actions
I buy a youth L cause the shirts a cheaper and I don’t like the style of player t-shirts in women sizes. I only have 1 shirt in a women’s size and it does fit better, but I enjoy player tees more.
I refuse to buy pink/sparkly baseball t-shirts.
www.southpawcurve.blogspot.com - check out my baseball blog!!
I can like fantasy baseball and hot guys at the same time.
I see your point a little better now. It’s good that CBS doesn’t just assume that female baseball fans are either a) glitter-wearing hussies or b) sexless math nerds.
I heart our rookies.
by LeepinLizardz on Feb 15, 2012 2:26 PM EST up reply actions
I fail to see why
a) and b) need be alternatives, except for the “sexless” part. I, for one, would welcome glitter- wearing math nerd hussies.
Talk about a beneficial use of genetic engineering…
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on Feb 15, 2012 10:49 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
The Good Phight – we love glitter-wearing math nerd hussies.
Bob.
by The Dark on Feb 16, 2012 12:34 PM EST via Android app up reply actions
They’re hard to find. Like 5 tool players.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
Cindy Crawford had a Chemical Engineering scholarship to Northwestern, but dropped out due to her other career opps. Like wearing glittery bathing suits for the cover of some magazine that comes with a football phone.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
I don’t think she actually ever did SI, but I could be wrong about that. On the other hand, Kathy Ireland did SI, and now she’s Businessperson of the Year or something.
Yeah, but she wasn’t on the cover. I don’t understand why not.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
It was one year she did it, and I think she was still fairly unknown. Elle MacPherson was on the cover that year, so no complaints here.
Yeah I don’t think she really hit it big until 1990 or so. The SI models are usually a little thicker as models go. The really thin ones tend to do more haute fashion.
The modeling ecology is kind of interesting in that there isn’t really a clear hierarchy of prestige between different types of things. It’s more like there are areas of specialization.
That’s a perfect analogy. We never get enough time to appreciate one before she’s swapped out for the next one.
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
by TheOrangeCone on Feb 16, 2012 3:17 PM EST up reply actions
As I told Liz on the twitters, they need to make a “baseball mancrush” companion app.
The Good Phight, NotGraphs, Twitter, fun!
You didn’t happen to be listening to SiriusXM MLB radio around 5:30 PM yesterday, did you?
They did a segment in which the hosts and producers shared their baseball “mancrushes,” and one of the hosts (maybe Jim Bowden, I’m not sure) was clearly uncomfortable with the terminology. As if saying he had a mancrush on Mike Stanton would make someone think he was gay (the horror!).
It was Bowden. He’s an idiot in so many ways. He kept using different terms and stern was like “just admit it Jim”
He’s a dweeb.
"Sometimes, the balls that fall in are jam shots"...Hunter Pence, on BABIP
holy suppression batman!
Sid Bream was out, Jeremy Giambi was safe, Pete Rose should be in the Hall, Walter O'Malley shouldn't, and the Expos should be in Montreal.
by Veni Vidi Vici on Feb 16, 2012 1:12 PM EST up reply actions
It also needs to have a mid-season “cheat on” feature.
by Wet Luzinski on Feb 18, 2012 10:45 AM EST up reply actions
I don’t understand why the baseball boyfriends website is getting so much negative attention (to me it’s just playful), but at the same time I think that website where you’re supposed to judge the wives of athletes is gross and should be taken down. I’m not sure how to explain that.
Sid Bream was out, Jeremy Giambi was safe, Pete Rose should be in the Hall, Walter O'Malley shouldn't, and the Expos should be in Montreal.
It’s a very juvenile, high school yearbook kind of exercise. I admit I’ve never seen it and never will seek it out.
Most people rating the wives are either jealous or just pissy because they know they wouldn’t rate a second glance from many of these women in real life. i.e. the so-called “ugliest” of the lot would be completely out of their league.
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
I had to Google that. Had no clue what Tucker Max was. Satire, she says hopefully?
A tie may be like kissing your sister, but it's better than getting screwed by a skills competition.
It’s just a gut reaction to the perceived misogyny of something like that. That’s what I thought when I first saw it.
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
by TheOrangeCone on Feb 16, 2012 3:21 PM EST up reply actions
They’re discussing the Phillies on Sportscenter right now. One of the analysts just said that according to advanced metrics, Chase Utley is still one of the best second basemen in baseball and a player worth having on your team. No joke.
Some people don't think it be what it is, but it do.
really? that’s funny because on Baseball tonight they were talking about how Utley had an “off” year last year.
Sid Bream was out, Jeremy Giambi was safe, Pete Rose should be in the Hall, Walter O'Malley shouldn't, and the Expos should be in Montreal.
by Veni Vidi Vici on Feb 16, 2012 5:16 PM EST up reply actions
"Couldn't I find Chase Utley attractive while also knowing his OBP and SLG?"
Every guy in the Delaware Valley seems to manage it just fine….
by Chutley's Impressed by Mac's Speed on Feb 18, 2012 7:26 AM EST reply actions
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