Book ordered. At the slowest rate, free shipping in addition to the discount. It's interesting (to me at least) that the Rutgers University Press website is apparently hosted by the University of Chicago.
It's hard to overstate how terrible a commissioner Bowie Kuhn was. Not a lot of people can have "village idiot" be a major link in articles about them, but Bowie earned it every day he was in office.
As to you, Melissa, I remember the story as it was happening and I had the fortune to be in Boston at the time, where Leslie Visser was working for the Globe, so I got a more balanced perspective than most. But the perceived need to cover the opinions of troglodytes on the participation of anyone but males in sports certainly hasn't ended. Looking forward to the read!
kudos for bravely waging the fight for equal access, it's a shame that so many barriers still exist to gender and/or racial equality...
sadly, i won't be able to read any of Joe's wonderful writings, or any of his guests such as Melissa, for my gift subscription expires this week, and with my circumstances even more dire than ever (i just lost my residence after 3 1/2 yrs, and am literally on the streets), no way can i afford to pay to continue it; i can barely afford food at this current time...
Looking forward to reading this book from this pioneer in sports journalism. Thank you, Joe, for using your platform to shine light on stories I might not otherwise hear about. Here's to continuing to build a society where everyone is permitted to develop and maximize their talents and interests!
It is remarkable to look back and see the societal norms of that time, and how profoundly some have changed since. I recall the news and arguments about women in locker rooms for professional sports, and how heated some of those arguments were. I confess I have given no thought to what it might have cost the woman at the forefront of that argument. My admiration to you, Melissa!
I remember when this happened and some of the conversations that went on about it, both in the media and in private. For those that just say it was a brave stand because it is just what we do now, let someone older remind you that it was exponentially harder then than it would be today. The prevailing attitude was so much different, and so against Women at the time. This was not at all the popular stand it would be today. I also think SI should get a few props for filing the lawsuit, and I am thankful that most issues of Women's rights came well before the Supreme Court we have today.
Congratulations on your achievement, Melissa, you did deserve equal access as the male sportswriters and it’s admirable the fight you put up to gain that equality. The fight you fought was a courageous one and the world is forever changed for the women who came after you.
You absolutely, undeniably deserved equal access to the athletes you interviewed. America is a better place due in part to your spirit and determination.
However, there’s another aspect to this story that’s long been overlooked. The undeniable elephant in the room is the absolute denial of the simple right of modesty and privacy that should have been provided to the players for all those years.
Why should professional athletes have to be subjected to people mulling around when they’re naked after getting off their work shift? Can you think of another profession in America where this is forced upon its employees? Are women allowed in the mens' locker room after B shift down at the steel mill?
Nope. Are men allowed in the nurse's locker room after the night shift at the hospital? Nope. No, this would absolutely be an HR violation to the highest degree in any other industry, but for some reason it’s been tolerated for as long as there have been locker rooms.
Once Melissa won her case, the only reasonable thing to do would have been to ban all reporters from the locker rooms, and set up separate interview rooms away from the lockers and showers. Simple as that.
Melissa, I’m sure you won’t respond to this, but not from a lack of courage. I won’t question your courage, as you’ve already proven that 45 years ago. But I still doubt you’ll comment because I’m not sure you’ll be able to truthfully respond or perhaps you’ve never truly put yourself in the shoes of the real victims… the players.
But suppose as part of your duties as a reporter, after you were done writing your article, you were required to shower and change in the Sports Illustrated writers locker room. And in that 10 or 15 minutes when you were at your most vulnerable, men of all ages were wandering around the locker room... most respectful, but many with wandering eyes, perhaps catching a quick glance at your privates when they could, some even taking a peek into the showers while you were washing your hair.
I know this is hypothetical, but how would you feel? Would you be comfortable? Would you get used to it after a while? What if your superiors tried to tell you “well, that’s part of writing for Sports Illustrated. You better get used to having men and women floating around while you’re naked after finishing your article. And you better not get mad if you catch them peeking because some of them will. That’s just part of writing for SI. And if you don’t like it, it’s the same at every other magazine and newspaper so find another profession.”
I know it sounds preposterous, but that’s exactly how professional athletes have it.
And it’s still like that, with reporters still allowed in many locker rooms. Or "male" locker rooms I should say.
If what was written in the comments about the WNBA is true, why are male pro basketball players required to have members of the opposite sex present while they're naked in the locker room, but female pro basketball players are not?
Why isn't there equal protection for the employees, in this case those players who are naked in locker rooms after games? Many WNBA teams are owned by their NBA counterparts. Why are the rules not equal?
It seems like everyone is so concerned about the reporters, but they're not the ones whose modesty is compromised, are they?
How would you like to be the wife of a pro athlete, knowing that women get a chance to gaze at your husband's privates after the games? Sure the reporters say "oh, I'm just there doing my job, I don't even notice the fact that they're naked," but we know for many that's just the company line.
Although I’ll assume most reporters demonstrate the utmost in professionalism, but let’s face it … many do not.
How about the female reporter in Boston 15 or 20 years ago who caused all the fuss and claimed to have been harrassed because of the nature of the locker room talk she was subjected to? She herself had a reputation of going back to her newsroom and telling the most intimate details about the naked athletes to her girlfriends... what certain players looked like naked, who had a big unit, and who had a small one... which players were circumcised and which weren't. Really? How'd you like to go to work and have some woman stare at your junk after your shift, and then go and tell her friends how big or small your thing was? Think about that for a minute.
What about Derek Lowe. How'd you like to be his wife? Derek Lowe left his wife for a female sports reporter who had access to the Dodgers locker room. Don't tell me Carolyn Hughes was just there doing her job. Don’t tell me she didn’t check out his junk. There are laws against doctors becoming involved with their patients, how is this any different?
The point is, no employees in any industry should be subjected to people meandering in their presence when they're undressed after their work shift. End of story. Even strippers can retire to the privacy of their dressing room after their shift without dealing with guys hanging around. Think about that for a minute.
Why have pro athletes been denied the right to their privacy and modesty for so long?
If the players have a problem with it -- as you imagine they should -- they could take it up with their union. As I understand it, MLB players have a pretty good one representing their interests.
I’ve already finished reading this book by Melissa because I pre-ordered it a while back and your comment reads like it was written in the 1970s. It’s uncanny how you’ve used the exact same arguments that were used back then. Parts of your comment could have been in the book, word-for-word.
I encourage you to read the book. Here’s an excerpt specifically about the Yankees’ clubhouse:
“Fritz [Ludke’s lawyer] knew Judge Motley needed to get acquainted with the layout of the Yankees’ clubhouse. To do this, he submitted blueprints of the clubhouse as exhibits. He’d used those to show her its many rooms where ballplayers could be but no writers were allowed to go. In this way, he’d demonstrate that no ballplayer had to be naked in front of any writer. There were lots of places where he could put his clothes on after a shower. Since women writers had worked in pro basketball and hockey locker rooms for several years, Fritz would have some of them write affidavits to tell Judge Motley how things worked for them and the players.”
Before Ludke’s case, women had been covering the NBA and NHL without incident. Male athletes could shower away from the eyes of any writer and grab a towel or put on clothes before talking to reporters. No player had to be naked in front of any writer.
All I can say is bless Melissa and thanks for doing the right thing. I grew up in the 1950's and 1960s. Dad was a Navy fighter pilot, usually carrier based, and frequently deployed for months at a time. My mom was effectively a single mom at those times . It was infuriating to me to see how poorly she was treated by other adults, particularly men. Salesmen would ignore her or ask if her husband knew she was shopping in their store. We've come a long way but sometimes need to stop and thank those that made that happen.
I remember it at the time, and the oddity that Dick Young, who often was a right-wing nut, was for her and Red Smith, who became much more liberal with age, was against her. But there's a story that Ira Berkow tells in his marvelous biography of Smith. A woman sportswriter--memory says Jane Gross--told Red that thanks to people like him, she couldn't go into the locker room. She said he looked pained and went on in. A little later, he came out and handed her several pages of notes he had taken for her--and he never needed to take notes.
I've already finished reading this book and based on what I read, Dick Young was not a supporter of Ludke. Like most male writers, he ignored that she was simply asking for equal access and made it seem as if the lawsuit was about nudity.
This is from the book:
“Back in New York City, sports columnist Dick Young encouraged his peers to use this same legal tactic. “If Melissa Ludtke can interview Reggie Jax with a towel wrapped around him, then I can interview Chrissie Evert with two towels wrapped around her. This could be the next federal case,” he wrote in his reaction story. Earlier, in his “Young Ideas” column, Young had told readers that he’d fulfilled his reportorial duties at the Women’s Basketball Classic at Madison Square Garden “in the interest of equal rights for men, and with a touch of vestigial voyeurism.” To his dismay, the women athletes had not undressed in the locker room but stayed in their uniforms for the interviews. Still he could not resist describing Louisiana Tech coach Sonja Hogg as “a doll [with] shining blonde bob, blue eyes, turned up nose, and just the sweetest Scarlett O’Hara drawl you ever did hear.”
Red Smith was worse and had a greater influence at the time. Another excerpt:
“With this column, Smith set the tone of what sportswriters’ coverage of my case would be. In Americans’ minds, he’d left the indelible image of a laughable case involving a lucky girl who couldn’t get naked men off her mind. His influence showed in the subsequent stories that echoed his views. In fact, Smith’s view and tone became the dominant narrative about my case as the men played the same old tune about how no “lady” whose feminine sensibilities anchored her moral core would think of entering a room where strange men might be undressed. The drumbeat of this insinuation led readers to conclude that I wasn’t a “lady,” and explains, in part, why writers—and headline writers—were comfortable referring to me as “girl,” “gal,” and “damsel.”
Before his Melissa ruling, in 1974, Bowie ruled that Hank Aaron, then 2 homers from breaking the record, had to play in the season's first 2 games in Cincinnati. He played the opener and homered.
Courageously, the Brave sat Hank for the second game. When Aaron set the record 2 days later Bowie was a no show. I guess he had more important things to do that night.
No reporters should be anywhere where people are changing their clothes. It wouldn't be allowed in any non-insane workplace.
Obviously it was completely unfair for Kuhn to allow male reporters in there while blocking women. But the problem could have been solved by just keeping all media out of there and conducting all postgame interviews in a place where people weren't changing their clothes.
If you listen to her interview today on Richard Deitsch’s Sports Media podcast she makes it clear that no reporter has ever had access to the shower and private changing area for players. Whether players walk around the clubhouse naked is their choice.
I've been in one professional locker room (shadowing a reporter as part of a college journalism class), and almost all of the (AAA baseball) players were wearing a towel and waiting for us to leave. It really didn't take long. I think we were there for 15 minutes, writing down cliches from young men who didn't seem very bright to me.
Having never been in a professional locker room, I was eager to look around but that would have been VERY weird. I don't know if it even would have been possible. I stuck like glue to the reporter I followed around. We were only going to hang out by the lockers, waiting to talk to (a) the winning pitcher; (b) the hitter of the day; and (c) the one or two articulate guys who really didn't do much but could speak in coherent sentences. They were the ones quoted in the paper the next day. I have to imagine pro athletes get media training that the minor leaguers don't.
A couple of the players were naked-naked (i.e., not just unclothed for a few seconds while they put on their boxer shorts after the shower), and THAT was definitely a choice. It struck me (at age 20ish) as a power play by those players, trying to intimate the reporters and get us out of the locker room.
There are ways to insure modesty and there were then as well, albeit some athletes pushed the boundaries. It may not occur to everyone, but I think about that every time I see post game interviews conducted with coaches and athletes at a table after a game taking questions from a pool of reporters.
Interestingly, although female reporters have full access to male locker rooms, male reporters do not have full access to female locker rooms in many cases. In fact I believe the WNBA bans all media for this very reason.
The important point being that access is equal for the reporters. I am surprised that teams took years to start embracing providing coaches and players in a press conference style set up as opposed to locker room access. It should reduce the unguarded, immediate aftermath of the game outbursts that can cause PR problems.
Considering how at least one male Indiana reporter spoke to Caitlin Clark AT A PUBLIC PRESS CONFERENCE on her first day with the Fever, I think the WNBA simply banning all media from the locker rooms is more understandable than it would be for any male-dominated league to do the same
I remember as an early teen learning about women sports writers like Ludtke and the challenges faced via the very patrician Roger Angell. His writing in The New Yorker back sometime in the late 70s or early 80s (and included in the collection Late Innings) gave some brief bios of the writers and complementary review of their work both as a member of the press gaggles around the lockers as well as the resulting words from their pens.
Baseball has had some idiots as commissioner. Landis comes to mind. Kuhn certainly. With Manfred, Goodell and Silver running the three other major leagues, Gary Bettman unbelievably looks like the best of the group.
I think it’s undoubtedly Silver who is the least contemptible. Bettman has heartlessly presided over THREE lockouts that canceled or shortened seasons. Sure, Silver may look like a creature from some faraway planet, but he’s actually done a pretty good job especially when compared to those other three lunatics.
I am convinced Bettman is an NBA plant, working as an inside man to destroy the NHL. He is aggressively incompetent. But even he couldn't completely squander 20 years of Ovi and Crosby. Just mostly.
Silver is easily the best of the group, low bar that it is.
Book ordered. At the slowest rate, free shipping in addition to the discount. It's interesting (to me at least) that the Rutgers University Press website is apparently hosted by the University of Chicago.
It's hard to overstate how terrible a commissioner Bowie Kuhn was. Not a lot of people can have "village idiot" be a major link in articles about them, but Bowie earned it every day he was in office.
As to you, Melissa, I remember the story as it was happening and I had the fortune to be in Boston at the time, where Leslie Visser was working for the Globe, so I got a more balanced perspective than most. But the perceived need to cover the opinions of troglodytes on the participation of anyone but males in sports certainly hasn't ended. Looking forward to the read!
kudos for bravely waging the fight for equal access, it's a shame that so many barriers still exist to gender and/or racial equality...
sadly, i won't be able to read any of Joe's wonderful writings, or any of his guests such as Melissa, for my gift subscription expires this week, and with my circumstances even more dire than ever (i just lost my residence after 3 1/2 yrs, and am literally on the streets), no way can i afford to pay to continue it; i can barely afford food at this current time...
Looking forward to reading this book from this pioneer in sports journalism. Thank you, Joe, for using your platform to shine light on stories I might not otherwise hear about. Here's to continuing to build a society where everyone is permitted to develop and maximize their talents and interests!
It is remarkable to look back and see the societal norms of that time, and how profoundly some have changed since. I recall the news and arguments about women in locker rooms for professional sports, and how heated some of those arguments were. I confess I have given no thought to what it might have cost the woman at the forefront of that argument. My admiration to you, Melissa!
I remember when this happened and some of the conversations that went on about it, both in the media and in private. For those that just say it was a brave stand because it is just what we do now, let someone older remind you that it was exponentially harder then than it would be today. The prevailing attitude was so much different, and so against Women at the time. This was not at all the popular stand it would be today. I also think SI should get a few props for filing the lawsuit, and I am thankful that most issues of Women's rights came well before the Supreme Court we have today.
Bravo!!
Congratulations on your achievement, Melissa, you did deserve equal access as the male sportswriters and it’s admirable the fight you put up to gain that equality. The fight you fought was a courageous one and the world is forever changed for the women who came after you.
You absolutely, undeniably deserved equal access to the athletes you interviewed. America is a better place due in part to your spirit and determination.
However, there’s another aspect to this story that’s long been overlooked. The undeniable elephant in the room is the absolute denial of the simple right of modesty and privacy that should have been provided to the players for all those years.
Why should professional athletes have to be subjected to people mulling around when they’re naked after getting off their work shift? Can you think of another profession in America where this is forced upon its employees? Are women allowed in the mens' locker room after B shift down at the steel mill?
Nope. Are men allowed in the nurse's locker room after the night shift at the hospital? Nope. No, this would absolutely be an HR violation to the highest degree in any other industry, but for some reason it’s been tolerated for as long as there have been locker rooms.
Once Melissa won her case, the only reasonable thing to do would have been to ban all reporters from the locker rooms, and set up separate interview rooms away from the lockers and showers. Simple as that.
Melissa, I’m sure you won’t respond to this, but not from a lack of courage. I won’t question your courage, as you’ve already proven that 45 years ago. But I still doubt you’ll comment because I’m not sure you’ll be able to truthfully respond or perhaps you’ve never truly put yourself in the shoes of the real victims… the players.
But suppose as part of your duties as a reporter, after you were done writing your article, you were required to shower and change in the Sports Illustrated writers locker room. And in that 10 or 15 minutes when you were at your most vulnerable, men of all ages were wandering around the locker room... most respectful, but many with wandering eyes, perhaps catching a quick glance at your privates when they could, some even taking a peek into the showers while you were washing your hair.
I know this is hypothetical, but how would you feel? Would you be comfortable? Would you get used to it after a while? What if your superiors tried to tell you “well, that’s part of writing for Sports Illustrated. You better get used to having men and women floating around while you’re naked after finishing your article. And you better not get mad if you catch them peeking because some of them will. That’s just part of writing for SI. And if you don’t like it, it’s the same at every other magazine and newspaper so find another profession.”
I know it sounds preposterous, but that’s exactly how professional athletes have it.
And it’s still like that, with reporters still allowed in many locker rooms. Or "male" locker rooms I should say.
If what was written in the comments about the WNBA is true, why are male pro basketball players required to have members of the opposite sex present while they're naked in the locker room, but female pro basketball players are not?
Why isn't there equal protection for the employees, in this case those players who are naked in locker rooms after games? Many WNBA teams are owned by their NBA counterparts. Why are the rules not equal?
It seems like everyone is so concerned about the reporters, but they're not the ones whose modesty is compromised, are they?
How would you like to be the wife of a pro athlete, knowing that women get a chance to gaze at your husband's privates after the games? Sure the reporters say "oh, I'm just there doing my job, I don't even notice the fact that they're naked," but we know for many that's just the company line.
Although I’ll assume most reporters demonstrate the utmost in professionalism, but let’s face it … many do not.
How about the female reporter in Boston 15 or 20 years ago who caused all the fuss and claimed to have been harrassed because of the nature of the locker room talk she was subjected to? She herself had a reputation of going back to her newsroom and telling the most intimate details about the naked athletes to her girlfriends... what certain players looked like naked, who had a big unit, and who had a small one... which players were circumcised and which weren't. Really? How'd you like to go to work and have some woman stare at your junk after your shift, and then go and tell her friends how big or small your thing was? Think about that for a minute.
What about Derek Lowe. How'd you like to be his wife? Derek Lowe left his wife for a female sports reporter who had access to the Dodgers locker room. Don't tell me Carolyn Hughes was just there doing her job. Don’t tell me she didn’t check out his junk. There are laws against doctors becoming involved with their patients, how is this any different?
The point is, no employees in any industry should be subjected to people meandering in their presence when they're undressed after their work shift. End of story. Even strippers can retire to the privacy of their dressing room after their shift without dealing with guys hanging around. Think about that for a minute.
Why have pro athletes been denied the right to their privacy and modesty for so long?
If the players have a problem with it -- as you imagine they should -- they could take it up with their union. As I understand it, MLB players have a pretty good one representing their interests.
I’ve already finished reading this book by Melissa because I pre-ordered it a while back and your comment reads like it was written in the 1970s. It’s uncanny how you’ve used the exact same arguments that were used back then. Parts of your comment could have been in the book, word-for-word.
I encourage you to read the book. Here’s an excerpt specifically about the Yankees’ clubhouse:
“Fritz [Ludke’s lawyer] knew Judge Motley needed to get acquainted with the layout of the Yankees’ clubhouse. To do this, he submitted blueprints of the clubhouse as exhibits. He’d used those to show her its many rooms where ballplayers could be but no writers were allowed to go. In this way, he’d demonstrate that no ballplayer had to be naked in front of any writer. There were lots of places where he could put his clothes on after a shower. Since women writers had worked in pro basketball and hockey locker rooms for several years, Fritz would have some of them write affidavits to tell Judge Motley how things worked for them and the players.”
Before Ludke’s case, women had been covering the NBA and NHL without incident. Male athletes could shower away from the eyes of any writer and grab a towel or put on clothes before talking to reporters. No player had to be naked in front of any writer.
This is like a JD Vance hot take.
JD Vance's book was shorter than this post.
Why do people have so many hangups about bodies? But we're not gonna solve that one here.
Bowie Kuhn was one of the biggest dumbasses to ever walk the earth.
All I can say is bless Melissa and thanks for doing the right thing. I grew up in the 1950's and 1960s. Dad was a Navy fighter pilot, usually carrier based, and frequently deployed for months at a time. My mom was effectively a single mom at those times . It was infuriating to me to see how poorly she was treated by other adults, particularly men. Salesmen would ignore her or ask if her husband knew she was shopping in their store. We've come a long way but sometimes need to stop and thank those that made that happen.
An inspiring person with a tough story.
I remember it at the time, and the oddity that Dick Young, who often was a right-wing nut, was for her and Red Smith, who became much more liberal with age, was against her. But there's a story that Ira Berkow tells in his marvelous biography of Smith. A woman sportswriter--memory says Jane Gross--told Red that thanks to people like him, she couldn't go into the locker room. She said he looked pained and went on in. A little later, he came out and handed her several pages of notes he had taken for her--and he never needed to take notes.
I've already finished reading this book and based on what I read, Dick Young was not a supporter of Ludke. Like most male writers, he ignored that she was simply asking for equal access and made it seem as if the lawsuit was about nudity.
This is from the book:
“Back in New York City, sports columnist Dick Young encouraged his peers to use this same legal tactic. “If Melissa Ludtke can interview Reggie Jax with a towel wrapped around him, then I can interview Chrissie Evert with two towels wrapped around her. This could be the next federal case,” he wrote in his reaction story. Earlier, in his “Young Ideas” column, Young had told readers that he’d fulfilled his reportorial duties at the Women’s Basketball Classic at Madison Square Garden “in the interest of equal rights for men, and with a touch of vestigial voyeurism.” To his dismay, the women athletes had not undressed in the locker room but stayed in their uniforms for the interviews. Still he could not resist describing Louisiana Tech coach Sonja Hogg as “a doll [with] shining blonde bob, blue eyes, turned up nose, and just the sweetest Scarlett O’Hara drawl you ever did hear.”
Red Smith was worse and had a greater influence at the time. Another excerpt:
“With this column, Smith set the tone of what sportswriters’ coverage of my case would be. In Americans’ minds, he’d left the indelible image of a laughable case involving a lucky girl who couldn’t get naked men off her mind. His influence showed in the subsequent stories that echoed his views. In fact, Smith’s view and tone became the dominant narrative about my case as the men played the same old tune about how no “lady” whose feminine sensibilities anchored her moral core would think of entering a room where strange men might be undressed. The drumbeat of this insinuation led readers to conclude that I wasn’t a “lady,” and explains, in part, why writers—and headline writers—were comfortable referring to me as “girl,” “gal,” and “damsel.”
I knew Red was worse than Young on this one, maybe the only time in his life. Thanks.
Oh SURE - a baseball book tour that actually goes through Minneapolis... and Joe doesn't tell us about it until after the event! Darn!
Before his Melissa ruling, in 1974, Bowie ruled that Hank Aaron, then 2 homers from breaking the record, had to play in the season's first 2 games in Cincinnati. He played the opener and homered.
Courageously, the Brave sat Hank for the second game. When Aaron set the record 2 days later Bowie was a no show. I guess he had more important things to do that night.
No reporters should be anywhere where people are changing their clothes. It wouldn't be allowed in any non-insane workplace.
Obviously it was completely unfair for Kuhn to allow male reporters in there while blocking women. But the problem could have been solved by just keeping all media out of there and conducting all postgame interviews in a place where people weren't changing their clothes.
If you listen to her interview today on Richard Deitsch’s Sports Media podcast she makes it clear that no reporter has ever had access to the shower and private changing area for players. Whether players walk around the clubhouse naked is their choice.
I've been in one professional locker room (shadowing a reporter as part of a college journalism class), and almost all of the (AAA baseball) players were wearing a towel and waiting for us to leave. It really didn't take long. I think we were there for 15 minutes, writing down cliches from young men who didn't seem very bright to me.
Having never been in a professional locker room, I was eager to look around but that would have been VERY weird. I don't know if it even would have been possible. I stuck like glue to the reporter I followed around. We were only going to hang out by the lockers, waiting to talk to (a) the winning pitcher; (b) the hitter of the day; and (c) the one or two articulate guys who really didn't do much but could speak in coherent sentences. They were the ones quoted in the paper the next day. I have to imagine pro athletes get media training that the minor leaguers don't.
A couple of the players were naked-naked (i.e., not just unclothed for a few seconds while they put on their boxer shorts after the shower), and THAT was definitely a choice. It struck me (at age 20ish) as a power play by those players, trying to intimate the reporters and get us out of the locker room.
There are ways to insure modesty and there were then as well, albeit some athletes pushed the boundaries. It may not occur to everyone, but I think about that every time I see post game interviews conducted with coaches and athletes at a table after a game taking questions from a pool of reporters.
Interestingly, although female reporters have full access to male locker rooms, male reporters do not have full access to female locker rooms in many cases. In fact I believe the WNBA bans all media for this very reason.
If they ban all media, it is still equal.
The important point being that access is equal for the reporters. I am surprised that teams took years to start embracing providing coaches and players in a press conference style set up as opposed to locker room access. It should reduce the unguarded, immediate aftermath of the game outbursts that can cause PR problems.
Considering how at least one male Indiana reporter spoke to Caitlin Clark AT A PUBLIC PRESS CONFERENCE on her first day with the Fever, I think the WNBA simply banning all media from the locker rooms is more understandable than it would be for any male-dominated league to do the same
Banning all media is a very reasonable way to handle the situation I think.
I'm looking forward to reading the book.
I remember as an early teen learning about women sports writers like Ludtke and the challenges faced via the very patrician Roger Angell. His writing in The New Yorker back sometime in the late 70s or early 80s (and included in the collection Late Innings) gave some brief bios of the writers and complementary review of their work both as a member of the press gaggles around the lockers as well as the resulting words from their pens.
Baseball has had some idiots as commissioner. Landis comes to mind. Kuhn certainly. With Manfred, Goodell and Silver running the three other major leagues, Gary Bettman unbelievably looks like the best of the group.
I think it’s undoubtedly Silver who is the least contemptible. Bettman has heartlessly presided over THREE lockouts that canceled or shortened seasons. Sure, Silver may look like a creature from some faraway planet, but he’s actually done a pretty good job especially when compared to those other three lunatics.
I am convinced Bettman is an NBA plant, working as an inside man to destroy the NHL. He is aggressively incompetent. But even he couldn't completely squander 20 years of Ovi and Crosby. Just mostly.
Silver is easily the best of the group, low bar that it is.