I was just looking at two books I have lying around. One is the one I am reading about the 1999 U.S. Women's Soccer team the other one is about Jackie Robinson.
I started to think about it and at least on the surface I think that you can compare Jackie Robinson to Mia Hamm because both of them opened doors for so many people to sports.
I am a huge fan of sports, I still watch games, but at some point I think you keep moving up a ladder. It's not just about being a fan. It's not just about making comparison's between Kobe and Lebron. It becomes a little more about the impact sports has on others. You begin to care about the administrative part of sports. You begin to care about the mental aspect of sports. How does a person mentally prepare to play the game and how as a coach can you use psychology to get the most out of your players. You begin to care about the problems in sports. Not why the Nationals can't get an out but rather why African American's are not playing baseball anymore. I have begun to ponder bigger picture things, like the significance of Jackie Robinson and Mia Hamm on sports in general.
I love my games. I don't usually miss Cowboys games (I did make a compromise in November that I would watch only part of the Cowboys Giants game because I needed time to study and I felt that the Big East Women's Soccer Championship game vs. Notre Dame was the most important game that weekend.) or big Mets games. However, there are many sporting events that I wouldn't watch if there was a show about some of the issues in sports. An Outside The Lines show. I remember not caring about that show but now I love it. I've gotten somewhat bored listening to people argue over who is going to win a game the next day. "Whoever plays harder, whoever gets more rebounds, whoever takes more shots, whoever can exploit the other teams weakness, whoever is better mentally prepared"....ok I got it.
Back to Mia Hamm and Jackie Robinson. As a white male I can't understand the full significance of either of those athletes because they never opened any doors for me. I am impressed by both of them but I don't know what it's like not to be able to play or not getting respect for playing or both. They both have done a lot for minorities (Robinson) and women (Hamm) in sports.
I was just thinking about my role models growing up. Mine were typical for someone from my generation: Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, Ken Griffey Jr. Kirby Puckett, Deion Sanders, Michael Johnson and even though I wasn't a Lions fan...to some degree Barry Sanders. They were my role models so I pursued those sports...except track. In Johnson's case I always wanted to run like him...without having to train...(That's changed now) I wanted to play baseball, basketball and football so I could be like my heroes.
I think a lack of role models is the hardest thing for men's soccer in the U.S. I bet I would have played soccer when I was young if there was a star to look up to. Somehow Alexi Lalas didn't do it for me.
I can't imagine how much Mia Hamm meant to girls. She is probably the biggest female athlete role model. Being from Connecticut we think of Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore but I don't think they have been as big of a nationwide role model that Mia Hamm was. Hamm proved to young girls that it is possible to be a great athlete and a girl. That has to motivate and inspire females to be good at sports. Michael Jordan and Emmitt Smith and company certainly motivated me to play sports...to have a job in sports. I have to think Hamm was someone who inspired female athletes.
What is also unique about Hamm is that she is the most famous American soccer player. It's rare that an American sport is defined by a female. It actually has changed American's perception about soccer when compared to the rest of the world. By herself we think that it's natural for a girl to play soccer. It's not odd to us. As an American I think of women as a major part of soccer. We think of females and soccer more than men and soccer in the United States because of the women's national team's success. That is so radically different from the way it is seen in the rest of the world. In some parts of the world women are just lucky enough to be allowed to kick a ball.
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