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March 8th Is International Women’s Day

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Billie Jean King

The celebration started in Santa Rosa, California.

March is Women’s History Month, a celebration of women’s accomplishments that began forty-five years ago as a local event in Santa Rosa, California as Women’s History Week. Billie Jean King is part of that history.  King spoke out against sexism in sports in the 1960s. In 1967, King took on the United States Lawn Tennis Association and its policy of paying top players under the table to guarantee their entry into tournaments. King felt the under the table payments practice was corrupt and kept tennis highly elitist. 

King and other women players risked their careers to start the first professional women’s tennis tour in 1970. The group had trouble finding a sponsor. In 1964, the United States Surgeon General’s report concluded that cigarette smoking was harmful to a smoker’s health, but Phillip Morris’s Virginia Slims brand was the only company interested in supporting King’s circuit. King’s backers took the money despite the health risks and warnings. King defended the decision saying people could decide whether they smoked. King pushed for equal prize money in the men’s and women’s matches after winning the 1972 U. S. Open. She was paid $15,000 less than the men’s champion Ilie Nastase and threatened to sit out the 1973 U. S. Open if the prize money was not equaled.  In 1973, the U. S. Open offered equal prize money for men and women. In 1973, King became the first president of the Women’s Tennis Association, the first women’s union in sports. In 1974, she helped start the Women’s Sports Foundation. Also, that year she helped launch World Team Tennis. King was part of a movement that culminated in getting Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Nixon’s signature gave women equal opportunity in higher education and sports in the United States with men.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Richard Nixon





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Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton to get 3rd round of PRP injections in both elbows

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New York Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton gestures after his grand slam against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the ninth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton will return to New York for a third round of platelet-rich plasma injections in his ailing elbows on Monday, manager Aaron Boone told reporters.

Stanton was back at the Yankees’ spring training complex on Friday. Boone was quoted as saying the five-time All-Star is not likely to play in any exhibition games.

Stanton said on Feb. 17 after reporting to camp that he had not swung a bat in three or four weeks because of pain in both elbows. The Yankees said he had been in New York, where he received two rounds of PRP injections.

Stanton hit .233 with 27 homers and 72 RBIs while playing 114 games last year, his season interrupted by a strained left hamstring that sidelined him between June 22 and July 29. Stanton batted .273 with seven homers and 16 RBIs in the postseason.

He signed a then-record $325 million, 13-year contract with the Marlins ahead of the 2015 season and had 59 homers and 132 RBIs in 2017, winning the NL MVP award. He was acquired by the Yankees that December and hit 38 homers with 100 RBIs in his first season with New York.

He missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of injuries that included strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis.

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The San Antonio Arena Game Has Started

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The 22-year-old arena might be outdated.

The NBA’s Spurs ownership lease to use the San Antonio lease ends in 2032.  

For a sports owner to gain leverage in either the stadium and/or the arena game, that owner needs someone else to make the if you don’t come up with public dollars to either upgrade an existing arena or build an entirely new arena, I will move the franchise argument. The National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs ownership got that person or entity to make the point. It has the local newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, making the point. On the editorial page there was this opinion. “A new arena is key to keeping the Spurs in San Antonio. Without it, other markets will come calling for the team.” In other words, you better do this or the Spurs ownership may go to Austin, Texas full-time. The Spurs ownership has been using an Austin arena for a handful of games over the past two years and there are people in San Antonio who are convinced that people in Austin will swoop in and take the franchise after the Spurs ownership and the local government’s arena deal ends in 2032.

The quest to build an arena for Spurs ownership group has begun. The name of the plan is Project Marvel, which sounds as if it was lifted from a comic book. Project Marvel includes the construction of a San Antonio arena along with renovations to the 31-year-old Alamodome. The price tag of Project Marvel is estimated to be around $4 billion. The public will provide a share of the tab by not getting any of the taxes collected within the arena-district zone. The developers of Project Marvel will keep the 6% hotel tax and 6% sales tax so they can pay down the costs of the project. But those tax dollars are certainly not enough to fund the $4 billion expenditure. The haggling has started in the San Antonio arena game.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Project Marvel is designed to transform San Antonio







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March Madness is coming soon and it is all over social media.

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Iowa State women’s basketball star Audi Crooks has a love-hate relationship with social media.

Sometimes she’ll scroll through her direct messages and find a note from a little girl who sees her as a role model and asks for advice or to take a picture with her after the next game.

Other times, the Big 12’s leading scorer will receive a message criticizing the way she looks, the way she plays or the way she acts.

“They’re missing the whole point of social media, of the internet, of being able to interact with us,” Crooks said. “I want to use my social platform for positive connections.”

With March Madness approaching and International Women’s Day on Saturday, Crooks and Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke are promoting healthy digital habits through their name, image and likeness partnerships with UScellular.

“I think making connections with people online can be very healthy,” Stuelke said. “There are a lot of younger girls who reach out to me and I get to respond and encourage what they’re doing. That’s the upside to social media, being able to mentor people and be a leader to people who may not have a leader.”

Online abuse of college athletes received attention last weekend when Kansas men’s basketball player Zeke Mayo shared screen shots of hateful social media posts directed at him after he struggled in a loss at Texas Tech.

An NCAA study released last fall found female college athletes are targeted for online abuse three times as much as male athletes. Among types of content targeting athletes, 18% was sexual in nature, 17% was general abuse, 14% was sexist and 12% dealt with gambling.

The NCAA said abusive content can cause targeted athletes to suffer from anxiety, depression, loss of confidence, panic attacks and in extreme cases can be a contributing factor in suicidal tendencies or actions. Most athletic departments have counselors to help athletes who are struggling to deal with online negativity.

“Most of the time,” Crooks said, “I try to just brush it off.”

But it’s not always easy to do, she said.

“For women in sports specifically, there’s just not many things that you can do without being criticized, whether you’re celebrating, you’re getting a little chippy. All of a sudden that’s out of line,” she said. “But if a men’s basketball player were to do the same thing, then they’re OK.

“From a social media perspective, it’s the opinions of, ‘Oh, she’s cocky, she’s this, she’s that. She looks this way. She appears this way. That’s not very ladylike.’ ”

Stuelke said she follows Iowa coach Jan Jensen’s advice to the players, which is to put the phone down and spend time with people who matter the most, whether it’s teammates, coaches, friends or family. When Stuelke does look at Instagram, she knows it’s possible there’ll be a nasty message waiting for her from an anonymous keyboard warrior.

“I think it’s important we spread the message that this is happening to us and that there are ways to handle it,” Stuelke said, “and that you aren’t alone if you are struggling with this.”

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball





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