Forty years ago today, "Sports Illustrated" and its reporter Melissa Ludtke took on Major League Baseball and won. It's the reason I'm a sportswriter, and I learned it from my dad. We never wanted for anything we really needed, but my parents, raised in the Depression, were cautious about spending. You can't do this without asking about their dogs and their mom and what bugs them even worse than dropping the soap in the shower. When the coveted Rangers beat came open, I was passed over. A feature on the woman who washes the Rangers' clothes was not out of the question. from Family trips in an egg-shell-white Impala to see the cousins in Plainview took fewer rough turns. It was after the Iron Bowl, the big game against Auburn. Its my fault, Walsh said, his eyes still glistening. If you get this one right, you will win. The Boston Herald offered her a transfer to Australia, where she would work for the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, which Olson accepted. I hate to invade their pain and their anger and sometimes even their happiness. A few feet in, I realized a hall ran in front of the showers. She faced off against the MLB commissioner and won access a year later, but the . "I can't believe you are not in love with these men," she says, biting her cuticle. Reprinted here with permission from the author, who has also provided an afterword about the response to her story. Female players never have to be naked for the media to do their job as they get 30 minutes of closed locker room time for privacy and dignity. If you dont understand that, particularly as a woman, you might misinterpret it.. He ran into a dark office where I found him hiding under the desk. The Ludtke case did NOT result in merely an order to allow equal access for female reporters to the Yankees locker room, but it ALSO ordered the Yankees to provide privacy for players whil. From a New York Times obit by Richard Sandomir headlined "Robin Herman, Who Pried Open Doors in the NHL, Dies at 70":. (She had tried to do the same thing at the Boston Globe, but could not get past security.) I began to cry. So, 35 years ago, Herman and another woman a Montreal radio reporter, Marcel St. Cyr gathered with other reporters after the game and walked in to conduct postgame interviews. My most innocent comments were greeted with sexual innuendo. SAGAL: Or C, Benjamin Franklin became the first and only member thrown out because of his horrible morals? He shook his head and said, "No, I didn't say that.". Apparently this happened at the morning budget meeting where "My Life in the Locker Room" was discussed at great length. A small band of medianormal-sized humanstries to keep out of half-naked players way as they dip behind a curtain sporting the teams logo and into the showers. It was an exercise in concentration trying to figure out who was who, and while I was concentrating, unfortunately, I managed to sashay into an area that should have had warning signs around it. We're sitting around the salon one day making bets on when the rest of the country will catch on that Ross Perot is a weasel when someone says he finished ahead of Bush and Clinton in another poll. SAGAL: You're going to say B, he got back to London but couldn't be readmitted because he wasn't wearing a jacket and tie. I asked. I began to wonder, what had I done with the last seven years of my life? We've invited Tafoya to play a game called "Enter at your own risk!" That being said, strip clubs and runway shows are completely different to NBA locker rooms. It is because it doesn't seem that any reporter should be there. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. And a few guys maybe flounced around a little more just for brief amusement. We both approached the front desk, where the clerk sided with the guard, saying I could remain for 10 more minutes, but only if I stayed out of the central lobby and remained "mobile." Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. TAFOYA: Yes, on-field commentary, pre-game interviews, post-game interviews. James Donaldson was the very tallest, and I almost always waited until he had some small piece of fabric on before I walked back there. Host virtual town halls, onboard and train employees, collaborate efficiently. Here's your last question. It gets a lot worse than the predictable . Had all that I'd put up with just been for nothing? "May I talk to you?" The players didn't know I'd grown up with games or that my best friends had usually been crude guys or that I could open a beer bottle with my incisors or that I liked to fish as much as they did. What kind of a goob would they take me for if they knew? At first, I thought he meant on the job. Youve got limited time to talk to the players before they leave, so make hay or fail is my mantra. I had started wandering longingly over to the sports department, just to talk about baseball. essentially logistical problem that could easily have been solved by a few big towels.. If they're usually not allowed in, I wouldn't expect the teams to apologize for enforcing normal rules. Oh no, I was not having that. She has covered sports stories in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Japan, China, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. I was trying to work and didn't feel I had the time for petty bullshit. In my three years away, I'd shed a husband, a house, a lot of weight, and a collection of unhealthy habits. I complained. "Do you think I am a prostitute?" This is all very exciting. Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens talks to reporters in the locker room circa 1975 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I had been officially baptized, and it was no big deal. "Can I stand here with y'all for a while?" I was nervous the first time I entered the Rangers locker room, about seven years ago. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. SAGAL: That's what you do. But the road has been anything but smooth. Show More. Yeah. I wasn't afraid of naked men. And what if someone saw me in this state of trepidation? Sometimes we'd just watch any game on the TV. I can look back now and see I was sunk early, my heart hopelessly immersed in a severely codependent relationship with a kids' game played by grown-ups. After several female sports reporters discussed the level of sexual harassment that they faced in the sports industry with Sports Illustrated in 2015, SI revisits the topic in 2017. About two yards down, I see legs behind the batting cage. . Two Sundays ago, for example, Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh missed a last-second chip shot that would have likely advanced his team to the next round of the NFL playoffs. I want you guys here when I make the game-winning kicks, and I realize that I got to have you guys here when I miss them. "Are you going to talk to me or not?" (I'm serious, they really ask this. The realities of the corporate world and the attitudes of Texas high school and college coaches quickly clouded my idealistic vision of a quick ascent from 18-year-old ball-girl phenom to big-league ace baseball writer. After a while, you just get used to nakedness and its all business. They gave me all the weird stories. Before The Best American Sports Writing for that year was in bookstores, I went on a Thelma and Louise-type journey with a girlfriend. They picked threeCindy, because she was a perky cheerleader at the University of Texas at Arlington; Jamie, because she had modeling experience; and me, because I was a pest. NFL Network reporter, Jane Slater, says that her job being dependent on waiting around an NFL locker room while men are completely naked for an hour to get a. She had prepared for it by being in the first class of women admitted to Princeton and said TAFOYA: Well, you have to maneuver around that. When you've interviewed a 17-year-old mother whose daughter was stillborn for lack of prenatal care, how tough can it be to talk to a young pitcher who's lost to the Angels for lack of run support? I was ready to gnaw my way through the first one I saw that might have had the book in it. In fact, after 10 minutes in a locker room, you dont notice anyone naked. I went into the girls' locker room by mistake, and considering it was a room with open showers in one area, I was in for a real surprise. For eight months, the editors refused to assign me any stories. Sometimes I'm kind of quiet in a group interview, and I have this feeling other reporters will think it's because I'm a dumb ol' girl. It was like putting the lid on something. As usual, several radio guys lined up behind me. So do you know about sports?" Ines Sainz, a reporter for Mexico's TV Azteca doing a story on quarterback Mark Sanchez, had footballs thrown in her direction by a Jets coach during practice, and players later called out to her in the team's locker room. [12], In 1998, Olson returned to the United States to be with her gravely ill father and took a position with the New York Daily News.[1][9]. Check out some of our favorites so far. He had leis, candles, and the whole altar thing going on in his locker. He might not understand that I meant its thickness and shine were enviable. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. All-Star Game in Montreal. Fugitive in $18 million COVID fraud scheme extradited to U.S. Hunter who killed, skinned pet dogs says he thought they were coyotes, Ex-Georgia star Jalen Carter was racing in deadly crash, arrest warrants allege. And of course, women everywhere want to know about that great walled fortress of wet boy flesh, the locker room. Event marketing. But one thing kept me in sports: I got a Rangers media pass every year. I was so happy I was almost crying, but I was trying to sound very nonchalant while Glenn was giving me the particulars. Hopefully we can ditch this weird practices permanently in 2022. A three-part series on Ruth Ryan, spouse of Nolan, turned into a delightful three-week chore that included stops at the Ryans' ranch in Alvin and the stadium. He was home and reading stuff on the wire, as we called it at the time. Or at least made me feel that way. [11] On February 24, 1992, her attorney said that Olson had settled the lawsuit on undisclosed terms. ADAM FELBER: Welcome back to You Disgust Me with Michele Tafoya. he demanded. A new generation of sports writers has responded to this shift by increasingly using advanced metrics and digital tools to change the genre entirely. Accuracy and availability may vary. I was one of the guys. I was so pissed over that (excessive celebration).. TAFOYA: No, I always talk to them off camera because I can get more out of them, and then I come back after halftime, and I report to the audience what I've been told. [1], Beginning in the 1970s, when increasing numbers of women sought to enter the field of sportswriting, female sportswriters faced frequent discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. I was afraid of the unknown. The most puzzled responses to my job come from the friends and acquaintances in my personal life. It was the last time I would ever try to interview Reggie. Clubs and runway shows are completely different to NBA locker rooms learned it from my dad not! 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