There’s not much I can think to add to this besides “Thank you”, “Hooray” and a slightly sheepish “You go, girl!”  It gets tiresome being a novelty and, at this point, we’re not even particularly novel.

And I talk plenty at games - about *baseball*.  Maybe Mr. Dibble should do the same.

I was also not going to bother pointing out Rob Dibble’s misogynistic comments because, let’s face it, everyone knows that Dibble is a buffoon. No one needs to be reminded. But right now, it’s not about Rob Dibble. I mean, it is in the sense that he should get fired or at the very least have to apologize, but ultimately it’s about all of the stuff you mentioned above. It’s so hard to be taken seriously as a female baseball fan, and it’s only made worse when people with a voice that reaches thousands of people can just say that kind of thing without fear of recourse.

I’m an Orioles fan but I watch a lot of Nationals games because they’re in my market; I kind of consider them my backup for when the O’s aren’t playing. I’ve turned the sound down or flipped the channel before because Dibble’s typical awful announcing get to me, but yesterday I flipped to the Nats game when the Orioles game ended and the second I heard his voice I just turned the TV off. I don’t know when I’ll be able to watch another game.

when i was 11 or 12, i played youth baseball and was the only girl on my team. my teammates, coaches, teammates’ parents, etc didn’t care about my gender at all. however, my best friend, who was on a different team, didn’t have it so lucky: her coach would barely let her play and would say all sorts of sexist comments. she then switched teams and joined mine, but the damage was still done. 15 years later, one of us still loves baseball, and the other doesn’t, because she never felt welcomed in it.

rob dibble alienated an entire gender and it doesn’t matter if he “meant it” or not.

i’m glad you posted this, and i’m glad stacey posted her article on camden chat. it’s hard enough being a female fan without tv announcers adding to it.

“No one ever looks at a man and thinks “he must be here with his girlfriend”.”

This is great - because my fiance only goes because I drag him.

But Mr. Dibble probably thinks I’m gazing at fit guys in uniforms because of my XX chromosomes.

Thank you for taking the time to write this and respond. As you know, I go to a lot of games (this weekend I’ll surpass 30 games this season, road, home, Yankees, Mets, Angels, Dodgers, you name it). I’m a baseball junkie. And I go to games with my girlfriends. And we talk, yes, but we also talk about keeping score, and making sure that we’ve scored the play correctly. I don’t think I’ve had one conversation about shopping at a baseball game. Let’s face it, I hardly ever have conversations about shopping at all. I hate shopping. But that’s another subject for another time, as is the fact that Rob Dibble is a horrendous announcer and buffoon who shouldn’t have a job in the booth.

I do confess that when I attended a game at Chase Field in Arizona for Yankees-Diamondbacks in June, I was upgraded to seats directly behind home plate and we were on TV. I was guilty of checking my blackberry far too frequently. Mainly because my phone was blowing up with texts, tweets and emails from people writing to say, “I see you on TV!” I watched the game again on TV and was embarrassed for myself. If I’m ever lucky enough to sit in those types of seats again, I will be much more conscientious about this and only check my blackberry between innings. It would be foolish for me to say I won’t check my blackberry at all. I’m an addict.

Thanks again for writing this.

Personally, I think every female baseball fan out there should let the Nationals, MASN, and MLB hear about this one. Let them know you’ve internalized the lesson, and that the next time you DO go shopping you’ll remember that you don’t have any business buying baseball apparel.

You tell ‘em Caryn!

Here here! Sure, I’m often talking at sporting events—about the damn game. And it’s not like men never sit in awesome seats and talk to each other about business the entire time. But they don’t get called out by the announcer.

Also, if my husband and I are at a hockey game, I can tell you that I’m the one who dragged him.

I hated him when he was a Nasty Boy on the mound, and nothing since then has caused me to change my opinion one little bit.

This makes it even less likely.

Caryn Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this.  Even though I pay for MLB package, the Nationals game vs. the Mets are considered my “local area” (Durham, NC), and I am FORCED to watch the games on MASN.  I have cringed so many times over the years about Rob Dibble that I actually have sent emails previously to MASN complaining about something offensive Rob has said (one time he “encouraged” kids to get into fights on the field to make their point….).  Needless to say, he is offensive to Women, but he’s also offensive to BASEBALL!  I would be so happy to never have to see him or listen to him when I’m trying to watch the Mets vs. the Nats.

Thanks for the posting. How about pointing out that anyone who’s ever been carted out of a baseball game for being a drunk asshole is of course one with a Y chromosome? Perfect example: This week I was sitting out in dead center field at Citi, pretty much field level, and this drunk idiot next to me felt it necessary to heckle the opposing center fielder every single inning…before play, in the middle of play, didn’t matter. Was he paying any attention to the game?? Of course not. So to Mr. Dibble and others like you who want to make grand generalizations about the fairer sex when it comes to baseball: please shut the hell up.

Having spent the last two years reconnecting with my childhood favorite sport, I can say it is different than 15 years ago. Women are far more intelligent, connected and influential than any other professional sport. I think its because the blog world has exploded. Just go to a game for any professional sport, you will see people of both sexes that are there for social reasons and they annoy the hell out of me who goes to actually watch the game. But secondly, women who are baseball games are more in tune with the game and more there to watch the game. The funny thing is the last three games I have been to (I was at that heartbreaking loss to the Jankees Wednesday in Arlington) the person in the bleachers near me that personally kept score were women. I love baseball and I dont have that dedication to the game. Anyway, the story just bugged me more on that side of it more than anything.

P.S. Women be shopping.

Thanks for posting your thoughts on this.  I agree that Dibble’s comments are out of line and you make many very good points.  I’m blessed with a wife who loves baseball just as much and possibly more than I do.  Last week, we celebrated our 14th anniversary by visiting our 34th MLB park together - Fenway.  Without fail, we always sit by a group of guys who are just at the game to drink beer and try to pick up girls and who really have no clue about the game.  This annoys her to no end.  We are also in the process of raising our two daughters (9 and 5) to love baseball and they’ve already both been to nine different MLB parks (including Nationals Park this year).

For Dibble to so blatantly generalize and putdown female baseball fans everywhere is ludicrous.  I do hope that you send a link to this blog to the Nationals so they can fully understand what his statements have done.

I sent a comment to MASN.  Hopefully, since I’m actually in their market, they’ll listen. Dibble is awful…  I almost always have the volume off when I watch Nats games.  They really should fire him and hire a woman to take his place, just to drive the point home. 

Dave

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful comments. There was an awful lot of shouting on the internet today about how this was “nothing”. It’s good to see that a lot of people, male and female, get it. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. And please, DO send a note to MASN, no matter where you live!

A very well written post that someone with the IQ of Mr. Dibble might need assistance in understanding. I come from a long line of female sports fans. My grandmother taught me to love the game of baseball, instilled in me a passion for the ST. Louis Cardinals and led me to worship at the Church of Bob Gibson. I know exactly what she would say to this neanderthal,and what I would love to tell him, if ever given the chance. But while she taught me to keep score, she also taught me to be a lady. Yes, Mr. Dibble, I can enjoy a game of baseball, which I do every chance I get, and actually tell most males that I accompany more about the Cardinals than they ever thought imaginable. Now where did I put my Chanel bag?

Alright, here’s my letter to MASN:

I was sincerely offended to learn about the remarks of one of your employees and on-air hosts, Rob Dibble, recently. That he made grand generalizations about women as baseball fans was not only obnoxious but completely insulting. I live in New York and occasionally attend away games when I visit friends, but I can assure you that I will stay away from Nats games if you continue to employ this clown. I am a longtime baseball fan and also a woman. And I have had it up to here with guys, former professionals or otherwise, thinking that any girl or woman who has an interest in baseball is a freak. I’ve been playing baseball (yes, hardball) since I was eight years old, and you would think that in the 21st century we could accept that folks of both genders can be and are excellent students of the game, both on and off the field. It’s unfortunate that your organization would willingly employ someone whose thoughts on the matter are so barbaric, especially when he chooses to express them on air as a representative of your team.

Unfortunately, MASN requires a little more data than I’m comfortable giving out these days, but as a baseball fan of (OMG) 50 years’ standing with a line of erudite heckle, I found that fool so offensive that vocabulary jammed up at the exit.  So thank you (I linked to you just because).  (My team is Away, or I’d be in the stands Right Now.)

Caryn:  Thank you so much for posting this.  I’m still filled with so much rage at this, that I don’t think I can post my thoughts coherently…your write up says everything that needs to be said.

Thanks Caryn, this is great.  At the Dodger game we went to last week, I spent a lot of the game talking baseball statistics with the guy next to us and his young son.  Yes, OPS and WHIP and stuff like that - stuff I couldn’t possibly be interested in or understand because I’m a woman.  We also talked about bullpen management, and the immediate and future impacts of the July trade.  This year we have often sat behind an “older” woman (like my age, probably) who goes to the games solo and has a nifty scorecard with its own clipboard and the date, time, opponent, etc. neatly computerized.  She seems pretty content to watch the game and keep score, without the need to blab about shopping or James Loney’s indisputably cute ass.  Wonder of wonders, it’s 2010.

All of this is awesome.  You’re right, and Rob Dibble is a moron (both a sexist moron and a regular one).

We men have no natural right or monopoly on fanhood, despite what that troglodyte thinks.  Female fans are just as passionate as male ones.  Dibble deserves to be taken to task for his idiotic comments; thanks for hoisting a pitard.

Dibble’s always been an incompetent twat ever since he was an analyst for ESPN, and this just shows he hasn’t learned anything. He was irrelevant as a closer, he was irrelevant at ESPN, and now he’s irrelevant as a broadcaster. Maybe now MASN will get the message and fire this bum.

Rob you ignorant s—-.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to raise a six year old girl? Do you? I’m already fighting body image, Miley Cyrus dressing inappropriately, etc. Now I have to tell her the all-knowing voice on the TV was being mean and doesn’t know what he meant. By the way, my friends and I love to talk shop at games. Thanks jerk.

Thanks Caryn
http://natsfangirls.com/2010/08/13/rob-dibble-must-die/

Bravo for stepping to the plate. Ignorance like this cannot go unchecked.

We can take heart in one thing - if someone had to utter those words on that broadcast, it might as well be from Rob Dibble, someone who is just about universally disrespected. In the end, this can be a win for everyone that gets it.

You have many more supporters, male and female, than you might think.

Love, love, love all the Dibble hate today.  He earned it for making such an arrogant, ignorant remark.  Dibble’s probably the same guy that thought chicks only want to wear pink player tees or “women’s cut” jersey that don’t quite reach the waist of your pants. 

As someone who works in the industry, there is nothing more insulting than someone who cannot appreciate a woman as a knowledgeable baseball fan.  As Caryn mentioned it is so annoying for someone to assume who are at the game as a tagalong or to stare at ballplayers (thanks, but no thanks.)  I’d love to talk baseball with Rob Dibble…I’d proudly talk circles around him & then ask him why he even pays attention to the latest season of the Real Housewives anyway.

Thank you for posting this. I am a woman who knows how to keep score and regularly brings a scorebook to games, yet I am also the one not invited to go on the group trips to games my son-in-law and his brother organize because I am a woman, despite the fact that they admit that I probably know more about the game than they do. Needless to say, he’s not my favorite son-in-law.

I also wish that they’d let Lou Pinella beat Rob Dibble to a pulp all those years ago. Maybe that moron wouldn’t be able to spew his idiocy if his jaw had been properly broken.

What a jerk! If I didn’t live in Dallas, I’d be right there next to you sitting behind the plate with a sign.

In my family it was my mom, not my dad that got me to love the Mets and learn about baseball. Now, I do the same with my daughter and I am also the one dragging my husband to games and know a lot more about the game than he does.

Baseball is not just for boys!!!

Once again, great post!

It was Cyn from Toeing the Rubber who pointed me to your blog. 

A couple of years ago I was in Fenway watching a game with a friend of mine from Florida.  Seated near us were a group of young people who wondered which numbers belonged to which (retired), players that hung on Fenway’s right field facade.  I never got the chance to answer, as my friend not only pointed out who the numbers belonged to, but included information that highlighted the player’s career.  She, like a lot of the other women know more about the game.

Perhaps Mr. Dibble believes he’s still in a locker room atmosphere, thinking it’s okay to remark in ways that he might not were people right in front of him.  And while his on air partner might work to help him not swallow his foot, the people who employ him are the ones that let him occupy the seat. 

Caryn, if you can’t afford the seat, a postage stamp is a hell of a lot cheaper, and can carry your sentiments to those who are responsible.  With enough people who point out Dibble’s boorish behavior, maybe then he’s taken out behind the wood shed…

It’s nice to see all the support on here. We’ve got your back on this one.

...I’d like to see “Rob Dibble is a Jerk” signs in every stadium tonight!