Paige Sultzbach was set to play for an Arizona state high school baseball championship Thursday night with Mesa Preparatory Academy. But her opponents decided to forfeit their chance at glory.
Just because she's a girl.
Our Lady of Sorrows, a fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix, declined to play in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship game because of the 15-year-old's presence at second base for Mesa Prep. The freshman sat out two regular-season meetings between the schools, both Mesa victories, out of respect for Our Lady of Sorrows' beliefs. But she had no intention of riding the pine with a state title on the line.
Sultzbach told the Arizona Republic that she felt put down by being asked to sit out those first two meetings.
"I felt like any passionate athletic person would feel (in that situation)," Sultzbach, who's also disappointed with the manner in which her team became a state champion, told the newspaper. "I don't want our very first high school baseball team to win the championship on a forfeit."
Our Lady of Sorrows is run by the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist church that distanced itself from the Roman Catholic Church in 1970 because of Vatican reforms. An Our Lady of Sorrows official told Fox News.com in a statement that the school had no other option but to forfeit the game because of its strict policy forbidding participation in co-ed athletics.
"Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty," the statement read. "Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls."
In other words, girls are only good for having babies and staying home to clean the house, NOT for beating the boys in sporting events.
I don't know who I feel sorrier for, Paige for missing out on a chance to win a legitimate state title, or these boys for being raised to believe that females are dangerous to their manhood and must be treated as delicate objects rather than as people like themselves.
Of course perhaps the REAL concern is that of girls who play sports of course MUST be gay, and they are simply afraid it is an airborne virus that their boys might catch while sharing the same field? I would not put such a ridiculous notion past them.
I have been waiting for you to post this story, Gryphen!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it ironic that a cult like the Catholics, I was once one, can get rid of those pesky rules about adultry ans other sins they were once so adamantly enforcing centuries ago to denying a two baseball teams the right to sport. This just proves over and over again the wrong path organized religion is taking us down.
As a recovering catholic, I just don't even understand this stance at all. But then I had and am still friends with 2 very progressive, pro union Irish priests. I do not even recognize this extreme view as I was never exposed to it ever during my upbringing.
DeleteCan't she sue them for discrimination??
ReplyDeleteHey, maybe the priests there just hope that keeping boys from playing with girls will make them more susceptible to the priests' advances.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is a disgusting remark, but hey, it is no more disgusting than their policy and the pain they inflict upon females through it.
Why is it so much "Christian" dogma is anti-female or simply cruel and hateful?
I am not trying to disrespect Christianity as a a faith, just the rigid dogma that infuses the fundamentalists wing of it. This was a fundamentalist Catholic sect and just like many evangelical Protestant churches, there seems to be a strong nasty streak running through it.
"Why is it so much "Christian" dogma is anti-female or simply cruel and hateful?"
DeleteRead your Bible: women are property, period.
I have never been comfotable with girls wrestling boys in high school, but baseball is not a contact sport!
ReplyDeleteThe coaches and parents are to blame for this one. Mesa should be proud to win state, they already beat Sorrows twice, knowing the rules before hand should have been anticipated of a state championship. The rules need to be changed one way or another. Are there more schools like Mesa in this division? If the majority of schools allow co-ed sports in AZ...then those schools like Sorrows cannot participate. State champs are usually a joke anyway as the private schools recruit the best with free tuition and the large school simply have a larger pool.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking they didn't want their asses kicked by a team who has a girl on it.
ReplyDeleteI"m thinking that, too, the wusses.
Deletesorry-ass cowards hiding behind the skirts of the pedophile priests - pshaw losers
DeleteThis is just wrong. What I would like to know is were the parents of Sorrows players in favor of this? I can't imagine their Coach wanted to forfeit. Anyway congratulations to Mesa Prep and Paige. She's only a Freshmen.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in fundamentalist Catholicism. Of course the parents were in favor of this. Any chance they get to make an "anti-worldly" stance, they are wildly congratulating themselves....all the more proof of their own holiness.
DeleteThey got their way twice - when the lass didn't play - it never works to give into bullies - and that is precisely what the Mesa school was doing - bullying others because they have a different belief system.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Paige sat out those first 2 games. But I am glad she is strong in her own views and I guess the bigots can plan on forfeiting games again next yr. If I were the other schools in thei district, I would recruit a young lady for their teams too, maybe if OLofSorrows has to forfeit evey game they can really feel sorry for themselves.
ReplyDelete"Our Lady of Sorrows" - How apt.
Delete"... instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls."
ReplyDeleteMy ass. Profound respect would allow women to make their own choices in life.
Respect for women and girls, HAH! Like uncontrolled fertility and exclusion from high-level power roles is respect. What LIARS they are.
ReplyDeleteAnd, to top it off, what kind of league permits teams to refuse to play other teams that are constituted according to league rules. If the league permits girls, then they should eject teams that won't play with them.
That league mgmt should be ashamed. Would they tolerate a team that refused to play against a team with black player, a gay player, a transgender player, a non-Christian player?
Radical religions that use their rules to humiliate non-related women/girls should be isolated and scorned. I won't tolerate Islamist store clerks that won't look at my (gasp) uncovered face. And I would raise hell if it were my girl that was insulted with a forfeit instead of the right to play peacefully and with good sportsmanship against a team holding such ideas of disgusting pride and conceit.
That school deprived a girl of her right to learn from competition. They robbed her. It's not respect. It's attempt to steal and humiliate. The league is a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteWell, there goes the Mixed Doubles championships. Sounds like a call to the Saudi Religious Police is in order.
ReplyDeleteThe LEAGUE needs to decide if it is co-ed or not. And then require all participants to adhere to league rules. If a participating school cannot or will not comply, then they should be kicked out, with a requirement to sit out the rest of the season PLUS one more season (to prevent in/out just to avoid playing a co-ed school).
ReplyDeleteGod forbid that a boy would have to take a chance on being out played by a GIRL! God forbid one of these boys might actually have to, you know, TOUCH, this girl while playing the game, and you know what THAT could lead to!
ReplyDeleteSome secure, honorable, men they are raising there. Not!
BTW, my 7 year old son just got his butt kicked by his 8 year old friend, who happens to be a girl, in the co-ed wrestling our school participates in. He wasn't upset that a girl beat him, they giggled about it and he'll just try harder next time.
One of my sons wrestled thru college,oftentimes with and against girls. It really burned my ass when I would hear parents uncomfortable or downright against boys wrestling girls. These are tough kids in a tough sport and to demean them by suggesting that there was something sexual going on only illustrated the ignorance they carried from their own upbringing. I can only hope for the day when religion is only a dimly remembered relic of darker times.
DeleteYEAH FOR PAIGE !!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe rest of you douche-bags can eat one.
"Our Lady of Sorrows"...you fucking got THAT right! You know, it's a sad day for radical religion when, for all of its sanctimonious blather and bravado, when it would rather forgo victory in a simple ball game to avoid competing against a young woman playing second base.
ReplyDeleteGoliath, meet David. But no need for stones here, 'cause Paige rocks!!!
okay why would any parent send their kid to a school named "our lady of sorrows?" I mean really, talk about depressing.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that "Lady of Sorrows" is really sorrowful about that sorry excuse for a school.
ReplyDeleteOh. Arizona again. That explains a lot. I feel sorry for the sane people in Az, yes there are a few left.
ReplyDeleteReligion will be what brings down the human species, I think. And Christianity is leading the charge.
Reminds me, how can they tolerate a female governor? Granted, she's batshit crazy like they are, and they don't pay taxes.
DeleteLoved your last two sentences, well said!
I had no idea the bible said girls playing baseball was forbidden or co-ed sports was an abomination.
ReplyDeleteMust be in the letters of Paul somewhere.
Not being a pedophile priest, she understandably would not qualify for any of the higher honors that may be awarded by Our Lady of the Sorrows. And since none of the Vatican reforms have dealt meaningfully with the issue of pedophilia, I wonder which Vatican "reforms" The Society of Pius X disagrees with?? Apparently they think things at the Vatican are just not sufficiently right-wing and ''CONSERVATIVE ENOUGH'.
ReplyDeleteThere are 179 dioceses and bishoprics in the United States. Of the 179, 177 have been found guilty by courts of law in cases of criminal pedophilia. The biggest case of child pornography ever litigated by any court of law in the world was for St. Joseph's Church in New Castle, England, where a priest was convicted and sentenced for posting on the internet OVER 8,000 HOURS of child pornography films.
ReplyDeleteNo WONDER there is a war on women, greatly orchestrated and paid for by the Vatican and Opus Dei. Isn't ganging up on soccer-playing girls and declaring war against women a FANTASTICALLY EFFECTIVE change-the-subject ruse for them? Just look at how effectively it has worked. Who's talking about pedophilia and child pornography convictions NOW????
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone has paid at least $660,000,000 dollars in damages (read that again: I said SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY MILLION dollars). That's only ONE of the 179 bishophrics and dioceses. Total damages to the church to keep this story-of-the-century silent are, to date, in the tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars in the United States alone. World-wide, the damages are incalculable.
Keep it up, fellas: having us distracted from the real horrors by talking about girls' soccer is really working for you. Seriously.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is another major offender. The Archbishop who presided while the molestations took place went through a huge court case, promised it was "fixed". He retired then another round came to the forefront, coincidentally, he died the night after he was found "competent to stand trial".
DeleteI don't recall the amount they settled for, but it wasn't close to six hundred sixty million!
How many lives have they destroyed?
It appears that the forfeiting team knew that Mesa Prep was by far the better team, and didn't want to "have their noses rubbed in it" by Mesa putting "a girl" into the lineup and still kicking their asses a third time.
ReplyDeleteThumbs down to the Our Lady of Sorrows coach and administration. Whether cowardice or miscegenation, you adults whiffed on this as an opportunity to lead and teach.
Our Lady of Sorrows -- preparing our students to meet the 18th century head-on!
ReplyDeleteNext year, she should forget about deferring to Our Lady of Sorrows and play the two regular season games, forcing them to forfeit and thus eliminating their chances of getting to state. They Mesa could actually play in a state championship game. Personally, I think if Our Lady of Sorrows doesn't want to play against certain players on other teams, they shouldn't bother to field a baseball team.
ReplyDeleteAnd what are these boys going to do when they have to go out into the big bad world and actually work beside women? Or work for a woman? Are they going to avoid those opportunities too? What if they have to sit beside a woman at a meeting?
ReplyDeleteThese d*psh*t t**b*gg*ng f*ckt*rds don't want to turn the clock back 200 years, they want to turn it back 2000 years!
ReplyDeleteOur Lady of Sorrows. Yep, that'd be R.I.G.H.T.
Well gee, when you're too misogynist for the RCC to accept you. hint: YOU HAVE THE PROBELM.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that the governing body of these tournaments or leagues would refuse to accept this misogynist organization in the future - learn to play by the rules, or don't get on the field! Or you can go play your own incestuous scrimmages with your teeny tiny group of like minded Neanderthals. - No slight meant to Neanderthals.
On the subject of Taliban like religious groups trying to impose their will on those not of their religions, just saw this:
ReplyDeleteexcerpt:
" [...] The Senate approved the bill Friday on a 33-3 vote. The House had
approved it, 120-0, earlier in the week. The measure goes next to
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who hasn't said whether he'll sign or
veto the measure.
"The measure doesn't specifically mention Shariah law, which broadly
refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. Instead, it says that
courts, administrative agencies or state tribunals can't base rulings
on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the parties the
same rights guaranteed by state and U.S. constitutions. [...] "
I hope Brownbackend signs it, because it will backfire bigtime - I mean, the RCC is a foreign power (Vatican City) so laws like "no contraception" can't be used to affect US law - thus PAY UP YOU MISOGYNIST DEADBEATS FOR CONTRACEPTION COVERAGE. This law would have to be enforced equally. The ACLU is gonna have a field day with this. They are already salivating.
Oh the boys of "Our Lady of Sorrows" are afraid of being beat by a girl, oh the horrors! They might grow up to be men who dare to think women are equals. Whaaaaa!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat century is it? It's a high school baseball game. We need more "Paige's" in this world and fewer fanatical sore losers.
C'mon, Gryphen, lighten up, will ya? They're just protecting the fragile boys on the team. It's a well established scientific fact that all 15 year old girls are carriers of the most virulent forms of girl cooties known to... ummm... known to man. If you don't believe me, check out the latest issue of The American Journal of The He-Man's Women Haters Club. It's the one with the nude picture of Rush Limbaugh on the cover.
ReplyDelete