It always seems to happen like this.

Just as you're getting ready to make up your mind about something, once and for all, something else happens that causes you to waver and reconsider your position.

It has happened to me again. This time, it's women's sports that are the focal point.

I've been building up an intense dislike for women's sports. To start with, I've been watching the WNBA and find it a lost cause for basketball fans. Basketball is a game that is played high, fast and rough. The way they play it, the game is short, slow and tender. It's no wonder that literally dozens of fans go to the games and that the television ratings equate to those of a test pattern or early warning system test.

I've watched some of the women's tennis from Wimbledon as one Russian I've never heard of bats it back and forth with another Russian I've never heard of until one of them grunts loud enough to win the point.

I've even watched golfer Michelle Wie, who has developed a hand wave second only to the Queen of England. Watch her. No matter what kind of shot she hits, her right arm makes a right angle, she cups her right hand and smiles and mouths the word "Thanks" as she flutters a little wave.

Boring.

And then it all changed in about a minute of competition. I got hit between the eyes and discovered, again, all that is glorious and wonderful about female athletes.

It happened during the 18-hole playoff between Annika Sorenstam and Pat Hurst for the U. S. Women's Open golf championship.

The two were tied after regulation and they played a playoff round Monday. Sorenstam was in charge all the way and coming up the 18th hole she had locked it up. Sorenstam was about 25 yards in front of Hurst as they approached the green and the applause began to rise for the champion.

Sorenstam stopped about 15 yards short of the green, turned, and gave a little wave to Hurst. She waited until Hurst reached her and put her arm around her opponent as they both walked onto the green and into the applause, together.

It was clear that Sorenstam was saying "We both made it into the playoff and we both deserve this applause." The smile on Hurst's face was not one of a defeated player, but of an equal on the field of battle.

I thought, as I watched it, that hell would freeze over before you'd ever see men act this way.

For 25 years, Jim Schuemann has been the girl's soccer coach at Wauwatosa East High School. He is one of the most successful coaches in the country and has some strong opinions about why women athletes behave the way they do.

"It's not that they aren't competitive," Schuemann said this week when I asked him about it. "They are fierce competitors, but when it's not time to compete, when it's over or there's a break, women react differently.

"It comes, I think, from how they are nurtured. You know, when girls are little, their mothers tell them to make sure to include all their friends in their play. For women, it's about inclusion. Not so for men. It's in the genes."

He's right. Men stand over their vanquished and beat their chests, howling at the moon and waiting for the applause and congratulations. Watch basketball or football and you are bound to see the endless in-your-face celebrations and hear announcers who talk about "a dagger in the heart." Listen to the pregame hype where they talk about "tearing them apart."

And the Sorenstam-Hurst moment got me thinking about the difference between male and female athletes.

To male athletes, sports are war.

To female athletes, sports are ... well ... sports.

Think how much happier we'd all be if women ran the world.

10 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by OMCreader on July 10, 2006 at 8:59 a.m. (report)

eaglescout said: read my comment again clarisse. where do i say women are as strong or as pyhysical? "my point was that men and women are equal. that one sex does not hold the monopoly on fair play, sportsmanship, or even competitiveness." i find it unreal what most of you WANT to read into my posts.

Posted by OMCreader on July 9, 2006 at 11:23 p.m. (report)

Sporty Chic said: As a female athlete, I think this article is crap. The fact that men don't speak female makes them miss just how competitive women really are. In fact, it's my position that men could take lessons from women on how to be competitive. Think about it: Women are competitive ALL the time, not just with sports. When it comes to weight, hair, men, the whole 9, women are absolutely vicious. I'll admit it. Hell women WOULD have ruled the world by now if we weren't so damn competitive with each other. Myself, I am an athlete. I've always said, "It's not so much that I like winning as it is that I HATE losing." I think that bit has to do with being American, but then that's a tangent. All this crap about women wanting to play patty-cake and hold hands is just that: crap. Women are actually more competitive than men. But like most things, we're just not allowed to show it. Think I'm joking: Women are far dirtier, more sexual and more willing to talk crap about other people than any man I know. We're just better at hiding it. So Begel: Get a clue. Wake up. Open your eyes and look around. Annika is a bad ass. She can stop and walk up to the green with the loser because she already won. If someone did that to me, I'd think they were being condescending. Turn the situation around: If Annika had lost and Hurst had slowed up for her, how do you think Annika would have reacted? On the outside, she may have been pleasant but you know as well as I it would have burned her up inside to have lost that match. Know why? Because Annika hates to lose. Like any good champion, Annika hates to lose. Do you HAVE a girlfriend or converse/interact with women at all? Jeeze.

Posted by OMCreader on July 8, 2006 at 2:48 p.m. (report)

clarissse said: is there any way we can take this eagle scout guy out and have him shot. men and women are equal? is he nuts. there is tremendous inequality between the two both in physical ability and skills. one is not necessarily better than the other, but these men who claim the two genders are equal are pandering, hoping someone will think they are wonderfully impartial. what they really are is idiots

Posted by OMCreader on July 7, 2006 at 2:48 p.m. (report)

eaglescout said: emma, what did i say that was piggish? my point was that men and women are equal. that one sex does not hold the monopoly on fair play, sportsmanship, or even competitiveness. oh wait...the catty comment? my god, every woman i've ever talked to has told me this. (now go ahead, and say something stupid about the women i meet). the woman who sits next to me at work has just admitted this. whatever, though. i've seen male competitors pick up fallen rivals to continue a race or after a tackle in football. Begel would have the reader believe that only a female athlete would show this kind of sportsmanship. in fact i know many female athletes who take umbrage with Begel's statement that they don't occasionally view "sports as war". call me piggish all you want, but i find it incredible that you people choose to ignore Begel's crass generalization of the sexes simply because you feel female athletes are less competitive than men. fer chrissake, i'm a male, and sports are not "war" to me!

Posted by OMCreader on July 7, 2006 at 1:46 p.m. (report)

eaglescout said: lol. i'm not sure what you folks disagree with in my brilliant post as lame jokes about lobotomies seem to take the place of actual discourse. besides if you found nothing sexist in "daughter's" comment "The fact that we can be competitive on the field and best friends off of it, in of itself makes women at least just as good athletes as men, if not better." you really cannot comprehend what you read, as she seems to suggest men can't be friends off the field. my god, did none of you see "Brian's Song"? :)