Roberts' baseball metaphor is a clue

[donsu]

it leaves out women and children

[KC_25]

1. What?

I think that you are grasping on that one.

Kids don't play teeball? Women do not play ball?

[BlueIris]

4. Welcome to DU.

Share more of your thoughts about Roberts with us.

[KC_25]

8. Roberts is a rightwing conservative

I believe that.
But to say that the baseball metaphor is telling because it leaves out women and children, well it is reaching.

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. Baseball metaphor? I missed it. What did he say? n/t

[KC_25]

5. He said that

Justices should be umpires, call balls and strikes, not swing from the bench.

[BringEmOn]

3. Pitcher or catcher?

[skids]

13. But what is a "batter"?

:rofl:

[kestrel91316]

6. Also, it is a game with a WINNER and a LOSER.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

7. what the hell does that have to do with women and children?

i think you are reading a little TOO much into that one...

sP

[bloom]

19. I was sitting there thinking that Roberts is clueless when it comes to

women's rights as Americans.

The OP might be on to something.

[gollygee]

9. I thought it was a pretty good metaphor

Of course he will call more than balls and strikes though. Conservitives are activist judges too, they are just active in the other direction.

[MaineDem]

10. I find sports metaphors annoying

I am one of the biggest baseball fans going but, you're right, sports metaphors are better grasped by males. Granted many women are sports fans but studies show that the use of a sports metaphor causes many women to "tune out" the following statements by any speaker.

It is an indirect and many times unintentional diss of women.

[rinsd]

30. Do you have link to any of those studies/surveys? (nt)

[MaineDem]

31. Nothing current

Ten or so years ago I was teaching a course in communications. It involved listening skills and how listeners tend to drift off when triggered by certain things. One of those things was the sports metaphor. People start thinking about "oh sports again" and stop listening to the speaker. Most of these people are women for whom sports (for a majority) has never been as important as with men.

[TahitiNut]

11. Sadly, he sees a "zero-sum" world in which there are no "win-wins".

:shrug: One metaphor does not a case make, but listening to his inferred Weltgeist is telling.

[donsu]

12. when he and his handlers were casting about for a metaphor

they came up with a baseball one

baseball is a male sport (women and girls have had to FIGHT to have the right to participate in sports. and are still fighting as funding is beginning to be cut for them)

all the money surrounding pro baseball is male.

if Roberts and handlers wanted a metaphor for all americans (after all he would be a justice for ALL americans) they would have picked a better metaphor.

[Marnieworld]

21. Hey I'm no Roberts fan but...

I think you are reaching with this. Just because you don't play baseball or any other male-dominated sport doesn't mean you don't watch it. Par for the course is a metaphor grasped by non-golfers. I know lots of metaphors that don't relate to my personal experience but they are part of our cultural vernacular.

[rinsd]

23. Huh?

But what about children? Do you have any idea how many kids play little league, PBA, Pony league etc etc?

I thought the baseball metaphor included them too....or are we just stuck on the "Roberts hates woman and children" meme and just stuff those words into any post about him?

"(women and girls have had to FIGHT to have the right to participate in sports. and are still fighting as funding is beginning to be cut for them)"

In this day and age? A girl threw a perfect game against a boys team this year. Girls have been playing little league since the 70's. And that discounts the huge participation in softball.

If you are talking college level sports, most minor sports are being scrapped...male and female. But softball is now televised on ESPN.

But none of that matters, why would people think of this because he talked about being an umpire?

"all the money surrounding pro baseball is male."

Again, is that the immediate connection one makes when someone talks about being an umpire?

So explain why Roberts and his handlers choose the baseball metaphor as nod to his hatred of women and children? Especially when virtually no one would associate the two. Are they that devious?

Or was it simply to associate Roberts with an iconic arbiter known by virtually every American?

My bet is on the latter.

[donsu]

25. they didn't chose it as a "nod to his hatred of women"

they chose it because 'woman/children' are not in their minds when they are doing business. becoming a justice is doing business.

[rinsd]

28. I think it had more to do with association with an arbitration icon..

...and I wish to change my line about a nod to hatred of women and children...you only stated that they were left out.

But the metaphor doesn't leave children out or women for that matter as I stated in my post above.

In my opinion this was just a craven attempt to seem likeable and as American as baseball and apple pie.

[tx_dem41]

24. "Baseball is a male sport"??

Huh? Now exactly WHO is discriminating against whom?

[MaineDem]

27. I agree with you

Many people do not realize the impact of sports analogies and metaphors in speech.

Much of it is unintentional but inconsiderate all the same. I think the replies in this thread bear that out. Many people - not just women but that's the predominate group - react to sports metaphors. Upon hearing one, these people start to think "here's another sports story" and stop listening to the speaker.

I'm a great sports fan. But I remember time before Title IX and I worry that this nominee may see that we ALL live like that again.

[ellenfl]

14. does that mean he WON'T be on steroids? eom

[Modem Butterfly]

15. So is he a pitcher or a catcher?

:evilgrin:

[NoQuarter]

18. My guess is catcher. n/t

[DemonFighterLives]

16. Biden went on for 10 minutes about baseball metaphors

He just said foul ball now too. Come on Biden just get to it will ya.

[MaineDem]

17. Biden was pretty good

Said umpires don't make the rules. SCOTUS defines the strike zone, not just enforces it.

[DemonFighterLives]

20. He is doing pretty well

Talking about gender discrimination.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

22. but which umpire is he?

The story of a reporter asking three umpires how they call ball/strikes.

The first one says "I call 'em as I see 'em."
The second says "I call 'em as they are."
and the third one says "they ain't nothing until I call 'em."

[FreedomAngel82]

26. I have no clue what you are talking about

When making a post such as this can you please give more details? Simply this doesn't mean anything to me since I have no clue what you are talking about.

[rinsd]

29. See post #12 (nt)

[radar]

32. Claiming he's just a referee - enforce existing rules...

...Made by others.

Part of a rejoinder at AmericaBlog...

"...they don't make the rules, they simply apply them. "And no one ever went to a baseball game to watch an umpire."
...From the memos we've seen, if Roberts were the umpire in charge just 50 years ago, when blacks wanted to join the game he would have shrugged his shoulders and said, "Them's the rules." When women wanted to join the game, Roberts would have laughed and said, "Girls don't care about sports." When the players kicked off a teammate because he was gay, Roberts would have said, "Tough. Baseball has always been played by straight white men." And when the air became so polluted that players got ill simply trying to play the game, Roberts would have asked, "What can I do?"

Roberts Hearings: Judges Are Just Umpires, Not Players
by Michael in New York - 9/12/2005 04:00:00 PM
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/roberts-hearings-judges-are-just.html