Justine Siegal, who was already the first woman to coach a professional baseball team (The Brockton (MA) Rox, recently in the news for giving Bill Bucker a job managing, pitched batting practice yesterday for the Indians’ camp.  She confessed to being nervous, called herself an old lady…and still made manager Manny Acta, who also pitches BP on occasion, look bad.

Apparently in her teens, she threw in the upper 70s.  Hey, that’s faster than Tim Wakefield!  She’s scheduled to pitch BP for the Oakland Athletics later in the week, too.

Also, we’re back! Did you miss us?

This is about PhD chicks who kick ass.

Like Rosi Sexton, 5′4″, 121 lbs, with a PhD in theoretical computer science, who stepped into the MMA ring last week.  Now, she got beat, but her competition goes by the stage/fighting name “Warrior Princess,” so we guess we like her too.

Jezebel (one of our fave blogs) makes some interesting points about how these women seem to keep having to assert their femininity outside the ring  just because they kick each other in the face a lot, and that got us thinking: Why?

Fighting is actually as much a female activity as a male one in pop culture today–sure, warriors were male most of the time in ancient cultures, but nowadays a movie is more likely to feature a cat fight than two dudes brawling.  Women-battling-each-other plots have abounded in your multiplex: Bride Wars, anyone?  Whereas the last dudes-fighting movie we can come up with off the top of our heads might be Fight Club, though we’re sure we’re missing some.

Women fighting each other is a cultural trope for better or worse– and MMA is part of the better.  Stand proud, ladies!

not seeing a hat of any kind...

When we think of the Olympic torch, we think of the fabulousness of photo finishes.  The dedication of athletes who devote their lives to sport.  OK, maybe that parade with the interesting outfits and the incredibly excited athletes from Togo, or the Marshall Islands….all three of them.  Here’s what we don’t think of: Over-moussed country singers who, as far as we know, have no special appreciation for sports.

Clearly, we’re not from Canada!

With all the important people and impressive athletes from Canada, the person chosen to light the Olympic cauldron, carrying the torch those final few crucial yards was…Shania Twain.  She seemed to do a decent job…she didn’t trip, or attempt to sing a high C, or anything.  When asked how she felt about the job, which she called “a highlight of my life,” Shania made a joke about..the weather.

We haven’t found pics, but we’re guessing her hat was pink.

Yesterday, we were depressed to see that Fox, in its infinite wisdom, would be showing us Shaka Zulu instead of the unbeaten Giants playing the unbeaten Saints, which we figured was because they wanted us to watch our hometown Texans take on these bizarro-world really good Bengals.  And by take on, we mean “get kicked by.” Repeatedly.

So, we threw up our collective hands, gave in to the fact that really, we’re pretty girly, and decided we’d watch the Grad Prix and rock out some figureskating instead.

Except, then someone told Fox that nobody was going to watch their late game (Eagles. Versus. Raiders. EXTREME EXCITEMENT!), so they switched the coverage, and now we’re facing a serious dilemma.  Best game of week? Or frilly outfits and lite-classical music?  I mean, any sport with something actually officially called a “Kiss and Cry” is clearly the girliest thing EVER.

We’re not gonna lie. We’re picking figureskating. We’ll let you know if there are pink hats.

(Update: just clicked over to the figureskating.  So far, it’s an infomercial.  Could we have our cake and eat it too, aided by the Fabulous G2 Swivel Sweeper?  Stay tuned….

It’s about hats. The hats that ball players wear, the hats that gang members wear, the hats the fashionistas wear that kind of look like those other two types.

New Era is the official maker of caps for MLB, something they began doing for their first professional team contract, with the Indians, in the 1920s.  They keep all their logos and color swatches on massive computers, so that’s why you get any combination you want of color, style, and logo.  Including, at one point, logos for the Crips and the Bloods!

And, yeah, probably why you get pink freakin’ hats.

Jessica Simpson

They broke up, it’s true.  But Jessica Simpson’s romance with Tony Romo has led to some serious pink hat action. Now, Jessica’s a good Texas girl.  She probably loves football entirely legitimately.  But now? Well, now, you too, as it happens, can own a pink Tony Romo jersey.

Get excited.

We love Jessica Simpson. We stuck with her in the Newlyweds phase.  The Daisy Duke phase. The ill-advised leopard print phase.  We even kind of like her country radio single from last year.  (OK, kind of a lot, actually.)  And we appreciate that this jersey represents how she was–in classic country music tradition–standing by her man.

But now that they’ve broken up, we’re left with a ton of pink NFL  jerseys. It leads to guys like the total keeper who runs dallascowboysjersey.org (why the non-profit doman address, we dunno), who exhorts his bros to buy their girls such an item.   Apparently, “it has a much more attractive and tighter fit than her wearing a men’s one.”

Because clearly, that’s what matters when a girl goes to a football game.

The people with the seats next to us showed up.

There were two of them, and they came glued to late-twenties guys in well-worn team apparel.  Teeny tiny tank tops and cutoffs were the order of the day.  These girls proudly displayed the team logo on their brand-spanking-new, baby pink hats.

“So, who are we playing again?” asked girl #1.  The game progressed,  punctuated by a ton of giggles, a squeal or two about the attractiveness of the flowing-haired center fielder, and a debate as to which guy on the field was the shortstop, anyway.  UPH began to experience a sinking feeling, but we figured it might be these girls’ first game, and we were excited for them.

Until we heard the fateful words.  “Ohmigod, I’m like, the biggest Sox fan ever!  I just love Derek Jeter!”

Now, don’t get us wrong. UPH loves sports-loving women.  There should be more of us in the world. The problem is just that anyone who cares more about the second baseman’s sex life than his slugging percentage is less than likely to be the biggest Sox fan–or any team fan–ever.

There’s a place for the Pink Hat Girls–and enough rhinestone studded logo baby tees at every sporting event to keep their closets happy–but this blog ain’t it.

This is the voice of the rest of the sports chicks: the women who proudly bleed team colors and can spit stats with the best of them.  Read. Comment. Enjoy.

Just leave your pink hat at the door.