Category Archives: Women Athletes

This Is Us: Softball’s walkout that the media missed

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By Pershelle Rohrer

October 6, 2020

Pershelle Rohrer is a second-year BGSU student from Logan, Utah. She is a Sport Management major with a minor in Journalism. Her primary sports interests are football, basketball, and baseball, both at the professional and collegiate levels.

On June 22, 2020, the Scrap Yard Dawgs, an independent professional softball team, played the first of what was supposed to be a seven-game series against Florida-based USSSA Pride. The game marked the return of softball, as the sport was one of the first to restart from the coronavirus-related shutdown that effectively halted sports in March. The New York Times writer Natalie Weiner (2020) noted, “For a few hours this week, softball had a shot at something it has pursued for decades: the spotlight” (para. 1). The sport did receive attention following the game, but it wasn’t because of the teams’ play on the field. Rather, a mid-game tweet from Scrap Yard’s general manager caused an uproar that led all 18 players and the team’s coaches to walk away from the team (Poe, 2020).

When the players arrived back in the locker room following the game, they were met with screenshots and texts about the tweet. Scrap Yard general manager Connie May posted a photo on Scrap Yard’s Twitter page of the team standing on the field during the national anthem, tagging President Donald Trump’s Twitter handle with the caption, “Hey @realDonaldTrump Pro Fastpitch being played live … Everyone standing for the FLAG!” (Poe, 2020, para. 3). The President has been critical of athletes who kneel for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice. The tweet was posted at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, just shy of a month after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The tweet was deleted before the conclusion of the game.

The players quickly identified May as the poster of the tweet and met with her to discuss the issue. May used the phrase “all lives matter” during the meeting, a statement that is often used in opposition to “Black lives matter” in order to disregard the struggles of the Black community to find justice and equality (Weiner, 2020). Kiki Stokes, one of Scrap Yard’s two Black players, walked out of the meeting, and the rest of the team followed (Hays, 2020b).

Players expressed their frustration about the politicization of the post. Pitcher and Olympic gold medalist Cat Osterman said, “We were used as pawns in a political post, and that’s not OK” (Weiner, 2020, para. 9). USSSA Pride player A.J. Andrews emphasized the freedom to express personal political beliefs but opposed speaking for an entire group without consent. “Any statement anyone wants to make regarding the national anthem — it’s their right to take their own personal stand. It’s no one else’s right to take that for them. So to have someone shift that and have it come out in a statement that does not represent you as a person — you feel violated,” she said (Brunt, 2020, para. 9).

The story spread through the players’ social media accounts, which they used to call out Connie May. Aubree Munro and Aubrey Leach both emphasized that “this isn’t us” and stated that they wouldn’t play for Scrap Yard again.

May’s tweet from the Scrap Yard page was a deviation from the norm. Jade Hewitt, a longtime employee of Scrap Yard, managed the team’s social media almost exclusively. It was unusual for anyone else to post to the Scrap Yard accounts, so when May’s tweet was posted, many people assumed that it was written by Hewitt (Hays, 2020a). May’s decision to tweet from the official account not only took away the voices of the players, but also caused Hewitt to receive backlash for something that she did not post (Hays, 2020a).  It was a demonstration of how quickly a social media post can spread and the impact it can have on the image of the individuals involved with its creation.

Hewitt said, “I did not write or post that tweet. It is not what I personally stand for. I stand by our athletes, I stand by our players. And Scrap Yard is no longer an organization that I will be affiliated with” (Hays, 2020a, para. 13).

Scrap Yard’s players pledged to never represent the organization again, and many fans and media members assumed that their season was over. However, the players felt that they could continue to make an impact on the field. Yahoo Sports’ Chris Cwik (2020) wrote, “The players may have left the Scrap Yard Dawgs behind, but had no intention of walking away from softball, especially after what happened. So they did the next best thing: They started their own team” (para. 3). The 18 players, 11 of whom are listed on the United States roster for the Tokyo Olympics, rebranded as “This Is Us” with the intention of continuing their series against the USSSA Pride (Poe, 2020). The team developed a mission statement, saying that This Is Us is “here to spark a necessary change in the softball community, gaining and sharing knowledge about racial injustice in our world” (Hays, 2020b, para. 4). 

The team put their words into action following their first game under the new brand. This Is Us defeated the Pride, 3-1, on June 27. Kiki Stokes and Samantha Show took a stand against social injustice by kneeling for the national anthem prior to the contest, and Sam Fischer led a moderated panel discussion on the field following the game. Stokes, Show, Aubree Munro, and Taylor Edwards participated in the discussion about the events of the past week (Rosenberg, 2020).

Media members praised the players of Scrap Yard for making the difficult decision to leave the team behind despite the potential financial insecurity it could cause. The Orlando Sentinel’s Julia Poe (2020) talked about the risk behind the decision, explaining that, “Professional softball is a high-risk, low income sport in the U.S., with players coaching or picking up extra jobs on the side to support their careers” (para. 11). ESPN’s Graham Hays (2020b) wrote that Scrap Yard was one of the most lucrative options for softball players to compete professionally without going overseas to Japan. Natasha Watley, the first Black softball player for team USA, emphasized that, “We’re already getting paid pennies and now we’re going to get paid nothing to stand up for this. That’s how much it matters” (Poe, 2020, para. 14).

Despite the potential financial issues the walkout could cause, Cat Osterman explained that the decision to rebrand was easy. “We’re not going to tolerate that in our sport. It wasn’t as hard of a decision as everyone thinks it was, because we knew it was the right thing to do,” she said (Weiner, 2020, para. 20).

This Is Us played through donations and fundraising before Smash It Sports helped sponsor the team. USSSA helped provide uniforms for the team and planned on hosting the team for at least 20 games against the Pride with the season ending on July 24 (Rosenberg, 2020). However, the season was cancelled on July 8 after just five games due to This Is Us being exposed to COVID-19 (Hays, 2020c). 

While This Is Us didn’t have the opportunity to finish their season, their story was covered by national news outlets such as the New York Times and Associated Press (Rosenberg, 2020). However, sports media, particularly ESPN, had little to no coverage of the series of events. Graham Hays was the only ESPN writer to cover This Is Us, writing three articles about their journey from quitting Scrap Yard to the rebrand to the season’s cancellation. ESPN’s social media accounts do not have any coverage of this story. Social media plays a major influence in fans’ perceptions of sports, and ESPN’s lack of coverage could be a cause of This Is Us’ story remaining virtually unknown in the sports world three months later. Yahoo Sports’ Chris Cwik, Softball America’s Benjamin Rosenberg, and Sports Illustrated’s Jenna West also released stories about This Is Us, but it remains unknown how much more coverage an entire team’s disaffiliation would have received if it occurred in a more popular sport. 

The rebranding of the Scrap Yard players into This Is Us helped inspire change in a predominantly white sport. “Playing would be really powerful, taking that control back that was taken away from us,” This Is Us player Sam Fischer noted (Hays, 2020b, para. 8). That goal should be considered a success, as the softball world united behind the 18 players who walked out and supported them on their goal for achieving racial equality. Although their season was short, This Is Us looks to continue to fight for social justice in 2021 and beyond.

References

Aubree_Munro1. (2020, June 22). Tonight we were misrepresented by Connie May who acted on behalf of @ScrapYardFP I’m appalled by the insentivity & will not represent Scrap Yard ever again. I’m so sorry to all my friends & teammates and the future softball players that are hurt by this. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Aubree_Munro1/status/1275247782648053760?s=20

aubrey_lynne10. (2020, June 22). THIS ISN’T US! What has happened was incredibly inconsiderate, we do not condone, and will no longer be supporting @ScrapYardFP due to the actions taken behind our backs. This season was ment to be something special, to be a light in the darkness. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/aubrey_lynne10/status/1275239965862002692?s=20

aubrey_lynne10. (2020, June 22). [Statement following Connie May tweet] [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/aubrey_lynne10/status/1275245355995664384?s=20

Brunt, C. (2020, June 25). Pro softball team suffers fallout after GM’s anthem tweet. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/b624cbde1bff8817ee8a112646f5322e

Cwik, C. (2020, June 26). How a Donald Trump tweet controversy inspired pro softball players to speak out and form a new team. Yahoo! Entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/how-a-donald-trump-tweet-controversy-inspired-pro-softball-players-to-stand-up-and-form-a-new-team-191245388.html

Hays, G. (2020a, June 23). Scrap Yard Dawgs softball players walk out after GM’s tweet about national anthem. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/olympics/softball/story/_/id/29353915/scrap-yard-dawgs-softball-players-walk-gm-tweet-national-anthem

Hays, G. (2020b, June 27). Ex-Scrap Yard softball players return to form This Is Us team. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/olympics/softball/story/_/id/29372544/ex-scrap-yard-softball-players-return-form-us-team

Hays, G. (2020c, July 8). ‘This Is Us’ all-star softball team cancels season 2 weeks after launch. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/olympics/softball/story/_/id/29431087/this-us-all-star-softball-team-cancels-season-2-weeks-launch

Poe, J. (2020, June 29). This Is Us softball team formed in response to Donald Trump anthem tweet. Orlando Sentinel. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-sp-softball-this-is-us-anthem-donald-trump-20200630-qaoyfr4oxfd57b5wowelpjzjr4-story.html

Rosenberg, B. (2020, July 6). This Is Us Softball hopes to continue fight for racial justice. Softball America. https://www.softballamerica.com/stories/this-is-us-softball-hopes-to-continue-fight-for-racial-justice/

Weiner, N. (2020, June 24). A softball team’s tweet to Trump leads players to quit mid-series. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/sports/scrap-yard-softball-anthem-tweet.html

Media Spreads the Word about Jazz Matthews

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By Dr. Nancy E. Spencer

February 19, 2019

The entries that we post on Maxwell Media Watch typically focus on critiques of the media with suggestions for how they could do better. This post will be different since it recognizes the outstanding work of several area media outlets that have shared the story of a former BGSU student and basketball stand-out. Thanks to a story that appeared in the Toledo Blade (Briggs, 2019) and another that was broadcast on WTOL (Paley, 2019), tens of thousands of dollars have been raised in support of a woman who needs a miracle.

If you follow BGSU Women’s Basketball, you may be familiar with Jasmine Matthews (Jazz), who played on the team from 2011-2015. The Toledo Blade writer David Briggs (2019) described her as “the picture of athletic grace, a sweet-shooting guard for the Bowling Green women’s basketball team” (para. 1).

Jazz was a Sport Management major as an undergraduate and decided to continue her education by pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport Administration. I was fortunate to have Jasmine in my classes as both an undergraduate student and as her graduate adviser.

I vividly remember the day that Jazz told me what she decided to do for her Master’s Project. She had been talking to her godfather (Gerald) who was the head coach at Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. Gerald knew that Jazz had been contemplating a career in coaching after she finished her master’s program.

But he had a better idea.

“Officiating.”

At first, Jazz was skeptical about the suggestion. But as Gerald talked to her more, he began to convince her that her training and knowledge of the game, plus her fitness made her a prime candidate to succeed as a basketball official. She could get experience at an entry level, and if she did well, she could eventually advance to Division I women’s basketball.

Once she was convinced, Jasmine pursued the idea with all the vigor of a motivated athlete who suddenly sees the big picture and trains hard to prepare for the biggest game of her life. Better yet, her godfather’s suggestion gave her an idea for what she could do for her Master’s Project.

As Jazz filled me in on what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, she explained how it related to her idea for a final project. She wanted to write about her experiences in becoming an official. We discussed the idea of doing an autoethnography, which would enable her to integrate her personal experiences with literature about her potential career path. She even found an autoethnography by another woman who had played basketball in college – Claire Schaeperkoetter (2016), whose article on “Basketball officiating as a gendered arena” became the template for her to examine and reflect upon her own experiences.

In December 2016, Jasmine completed her project and received her Master’s degree.

A year later, she was diagnosed with MS, “multiple sclerosis… the insidious disease with no cure that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord” (Briggs, 2019, para. 6). Within three weeks, she had lost everything, and was completely disabled (Paley, 2019).

Jazz has made progress in fighting the disease, but she needs support to take the next step in her journey. Thanks to a doctor who lives near her home, Dr. Richard Burt, she is a candidate for “the use of stem cell transplants to treat” her (Briggs, 2019, para. 15). But the treatment is expensive and her insurance does not cover it. Therefore, Jazz set up a GoFundMe page on Facebook to raise the $125,000 needed for the treatment. Nearly $60,000 in donations have already been contributed by 790 people, as of this writing.

Jasmine’s dream to become a basketball official is still alive. She concluded her interview on WTOL by saying, “Once I get my life back I plan on being a Division I official, referee” (Paley, 2019, para. 14).

Jazz has only begun to write her story, and I cannot wait to read the next chapter!

Briggs, D. (2019, February 12). As a former BG player hopes for a ‘miracle,’ a basketball community rallies. The Toledo Blade. Retrieved from https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/bgsu/2019/02/12/former-bowling-green-falcons-player-jasmine-matthews-battles-multiple-sclerosis/stories/20190212137

Paley, T. (2019, February 12). Community donated thousands to former BGSU basketball player with MS. WTOL.com. Retrieved from http://www.wtol.com/2019/02/12/community-donates-thousands-former-bgsu-basketball-player-with-ms/

Schaeperkoetter, C. (2016). Basketball officiating as a gendered arena: An autoethnography. Sport Management Review, 128-141.

The WNBA’s Low Pay in the Age of Social Media

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By Bre Moorer

For the past couple of months, WNBA stars have been more outspoken than usual about the pay gap.  Or maybe they have always shared their thoughts, but did not get as much attention as they are getting now.  It could be because they can just type their thoughts out in 140 characters or less and simply hit a button that shows their message to millions of people.  That has been an option for years, but why are the fed up women of the professional basketball league seemingly being heard now more than ever?  With the help of social media, specifically Twitter, the low salaries in the WNBA are back in the spotlight this summer, but this time it feels different.

To get the discussion started this time around, Skylar Diggins-Smith of the Dallas Wings appeared on ESPN’s Get Up on May 28th to address the issue with Jalen Rose and Michelle Beadle.  Jalen directed his frustration toward the NBA by saying they need to do a better job of “dedicating resources to help promote” the women’s league since the WNBA is a “subsidiary of the NBA.”  While Diggins-Smith did not flat out agree with Jalen’s point about the NBA being responsible for WNBA players not getting paid as much, she did bring up the fact that “it’s all about exposure.”  In the same breath, the fearless leader of the Dallas Wings also mentioned social platforms should be better utilized.  She recommended showing more games on Twitter.  The South Bend legend’s comments inspired her peers to express themselves without regret.

In the wake of LeBron James signing a 4-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers for a whopping $153.3 million, rookie sensation A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces took to Twitter to “congratulate” King James.

While some Twitter users backed Wilson, most users bombarded the 1st overall pick in the 2018 draft with reasons as to why they think she should get back in her lane.  One person said ratings are too low for the women hoopers to get more money, to which Wilson responded it is more than just viewings.  A couple of users tweeted that if she was as good as LeBron, then she would earn more.  The power forward laughed at those tweets for the most part, but she did say to one troll that bench players in the NBA get paid more than starters in the WNBA – eliminating the arguments that the pay gap is about skill set.  Perhaps the most popular argument against the WNBA getting paid more is the NBA bringing in more revenue than the WNBA.  The 2017 NCAA champion had a response for that too.  She said that the NBA gets more of a percentage of the revenue they bring in than the women so it is still unfair regardless of how much revenue is brought in.  Wilson spent a whole weekend defeating Internet trolls in the beginning of July. She ended her run by hoping that the men in her mentions had daughters who want to play basketball so that they can grasp where she is coming from.  She was “glad to stir the pot.”

This past weekend, NBA superstar Damian Lillard watched A’ja Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces and the Connecticut Sun work.  He was obviously impressed by what he saw and backed Wilson’s call for equal pay.  By the end of the game, a video of Lillard revealing his thoughts on the lack of respect WNBA players get was trending on Twitter.

In Lillard’s opinion, the women as individuals should be treated as the pros they are as far as salaries go and their league deserves to be exalted.  Having someone like Damian Lillard, who is a 3-time NBA All-Star, could start a trend of NBA players speaking up in support of WNBA players getting paid more.

After all is said and done, the WNBA is in need of support and exposure in order for its players to get what they deserve in the first place – more money.  As long as the women continue to use their platforms and their male counterparts actively show their love for the WNBA, the future looks bright for equal pay between the NBA and WNBA.

Dear Maya

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Dear Maya,

Thank you. Thank you for being an inspiration. It goes deeper than basketball. I could talk all day about your career accolades. The rings, the stats, the awards. I could go on for days about it. But you already know that. As one of my favorite athletes, you have always captivated me with your abilities on the court. You represent something much more than basketball to me.

You’re hope. I think one of the most impactful things I’ve ever experienced was a sport and gender class last year. I learned so much more about the plight of the woman athlete. It was truly eye-opening, but it also made me more conscious than ever about what people say. I see the nasty things people say on message boards and comments. The Internet provides people the space to do so anonymously and without consequence. Yet you press on. It’s bigger than that.

I see the impact of representation. Your Jordan commercial was something to behold. The wave of kids you inspired from using your platform in such a way is uniquely special. Count myself in as well. I see visions of a world being shaped by our current-day athletes that will allow me to tell my children they can do anything. That nothing can hold them back. As athletes, whether you think it’s fair, you all have an enormous reach. I want to thank you for being a great role model.

I wrote an article a while back [See: “Why can’t I buy a WNBA jersey?” on this site]. I was griping about not being able to purchase your jersey that day. I should have been a bit more patient as the next day it was available on the team store. However, I am a man of my word. Today, I’ll be rocking one of my favorite player’s threads seeing her play for the first time in person. Please try not to give out too many buckets today against the Sky. They are still my hometown team.

You’re a walking legend. On and off the court. And for that, I thank you.

Sincerely,

Don Collins