By now you may have heard about veteran sports writer Mike Shropshire’s comments in a promotional video for the new Stage West play The Sports Page. Reflecting on women journalists entering the sports field, the author and former Star-T scribe not only dismissed all of them as “talking dolls,” but he repeated a totally unsubstantiated rumor from the mid-‘70s about a young female reporter having sex with five Texas Rangers (at once) in the clubhouse.
The fact that misogynistic assholes still exist is hardly breaking news. Yet Shropshire all but named the woman reporter in question, mentioning the year the rumor started and the broadcast medium in which she worked. What a classy guy.
But the world has changed, Shroppy. In case you haven’t noticed, women have proven themselves as sportswriters, sports editors, preachers, mayors, governors, leaders of major corporations, even presidents of countries. And there’s another way the world has changed: It’s gotten a lot gayer. Sometimes men are regarded as pieces of meat –– by other men. So let me offer a totally unsubstantiated rumor (that I just made up) about an unnamed author and former Star-T scribe. He was considered a hot piece by a lot of the baseball players back in the day. And one night in the clubhhouse, with five players, he earned a reputation as a catcher that would make Johnny Bench jealous.
Of course, I have no idea if that’s true. Neither did Shropshire when he repeated his idiotic rumor.
