By Laura Pappano

I can’t wait to see what happens when I tune in to the NFL this weekend. Will we see more dropped passes? Missed routes? Hugging and giggling in the huddle?

After all, the league is kicking off a month-long effort to support breast cancer awareness through its “Crucial Catch” campaign to encourage regular mammograms. Unlike last year, when teams handed out pink ribbons and sold pink fan T-shirts, this year players, coaches, and refs will be having actual pink-colored items touching their bodies.

Smartly, however, the NFL (as it does so well) has imposed limits on the amount of pink. About 100 players will be wearing pink cleats like this, others will wear pink wristbands, gloves, and helmet decals. The captain’s patches will be pink and they’ll use a pink coin for the toss.

Pink, as I’m sure you know, is a very dangerous color.

The explosion of pink merchandise (MLB, NFL, among others), like pink sports gear — from baseball and softball gloves to soccer balls and lax sticks — after all, has been positioned as a concession to female fans and girl athletes. Turn it pink and it’s a little less threatening. We’ve been conditioned to think of pink as soft, gentle, diminutive, a little ditzy, perky, bubbly….(you get the idea). Not hard core competitive stuff.

Of course, that’s precisely what University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry insisted when in the 1970s he had the walls of the visiting team’s locker room painted pink to “weaken and debilitate opposing football players.” (In 2005 the color was extended to the carpet, urinals and lockers – setting off more than a little debate — photo here).

To be fair, the Iowa shade is a bit paler than the NFL is showing this month. Perhaps it is the difference between dusty rose and a near magenta? We can call it “Power Pink,” but there’s no doubt that the psychological signaling around this color is getting awfully confusing (for a change).

Just 10 days ago Nicole Lavoi wrote on her blog One Sport Voice, about the still-alive-and-well practice of a hockey coach belittling a player by making him wear pink gloves. Did this coach not know about NFL players wearing pink gloves? Or might pink –gasp! — be on the cusp of an image makeover?

Credit those who take a stand and raise awareness about the critical importance of cancer screening (and kudos to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for pioneering the pink ribbon as a symbol of breast cancer awareness in 1991). Heck, the other day I saw a pink oil tank truck and yesterday a pink newspaper landed in my driveway. If this isn’t a sign of success, what is?

Yet, how can we normalize the overly-loaded color pink when guys like my friend, political writer Dave Denison, point out that they have been trained since childhood to find the color repellant? (And Dave in print and in person is the quintessential fair-minded dude).

Can Dave be persuaded by the likes of Brett Favre to rethink his pink aversion? (To be fair, I’m not nutty about the color, either, but perhaps I, too, have fallen under Fry’s spell?) Maybe the NFL needs to stop being so timid and go full tilt. Make the jerseys and helmets pink (think of the merchandising – it could rival throwbacks!). Why not make the football pink? And who says the lines on the field have to be white?

Then maybe we could move past all this silliness about pink – and onto whatever is next.  Like, say, What color is prostate cancer awareness?

By Laura Pappano

Let’s get over the woe-is-us tone that shrouds women’s professional soccer. Yesterday’s NY Times story captured the uncertainty league bigwigs feel around the (admittedly) very challenging task of filling soccer stadiums, and getting enough sponsor and ad dollars to give WPS staying power – and in a recession.

What’s troubling, however, is that WPS seems to want something it doesn’t have: raucous, beer-swilling, MLB and NFL fans (read: real fans). You know, the guys sports radio hosts describe as living in their mother’s basements and existing solely to follow every move of their beloved team and call in to talk about it?

It explains the origin of “fan” – that is “fanatic.”

In the Times story, Boston Breakers director of business development Andy Crossley says, “We need to get out of the ghetto of being a role model for girls.”

The quote was in the context of wanting to reach the men (again, read: real fans) who are taking the pony-tailed, soccer-playing daughters to games.

I dare say there’s not an exec in Major League Baseball who wants to get out of the ghetto of being a role model for boys.  (The stress, rather, comes because the jerseys of certain poor-role-model players suddenly become unmarketable.)

Why are young male fans courted and prized while young female fans are considered a sign of failure?

How will we cultivate a generation of season-ticket-buying female fans if we don’t value them as kids? (I suppose it’s a good thing Disney and Hannah Montana don’t discount the economic power of girls).

This is where WPS can learn from NASCAR.  A few observations:

1.    NASCAR has been all about serving the fans’ interest, creating the Sprint Cup Series to stir play-off-style excitement throughout the season, and this year mid-season changing the format of re-starts to increase the drama for fans. (Lesson: Don’t be afraid of altering the format).

2.    Drivers talk about the value of fan support and fans are known for shelling out and covering themselves in fan gear and buying sponsor’s products (Lesson: As a result, who wouldn’t want to sponsor NASCAR?)

3.    NASCAR’s fans base is changing – and that’s OK. An ESPN Sports Poll, for example, shows that today 60% of fans live outside of the South, 41% are female, and since 2000, the percentage of fans making $100,000 or more has doubled from 7% to 16% — and with that an increase in college grads (now one in four). (Lesson: You can grow beyond your original fan base)

4.    Still, the shifting fan base presents a challenge. In response to rising prices, drivers give away tickets to followers who feel priced out – even as execs think about what fans want. As one report quotes Richard Petty, seven-time champion and team owner: “We have to play the game a little bit different than what we did 15 or 20 years ago because society is dictating they want to see something different. It makes it really tough from NASCAR’s standpoint (of) what is the fan really looking for?” (Lesson: Be nimble and listen to your fans)

5.    Driver Jeff Burton actually likes kids among NASCAR fans: “There are a lot more families today, a lot more kid-friendly environments. Last week we went out to do hospitality on Sunday morning and there was a kid’s playground area with inflatable toys and all kinds of slides and all kinds of things. There’s been a huge effort to try to get children involved, which I think is a great thing.” (Lesson: Kid fans are not a negative; they are your future. Just ask the MLB and the NFL)

If pony-tailed girls are the core fan base of women’s professional soccer, work with that. There are other groups at games, too, including a report on the opening day of the L.A. Sol’s season describing the excitement among eight nuns from the order of the Eucharistic Franciscan Missionary Sisters (coincidentally dressed in heavy blue and white habits — the team’s colors), clutching T-shirts they’d won.

Guys who live in their mom’s basements may never buy a ticket to a WPS game. But who cares? Twenty years from now, that pony-tailed girl will want a luxury box.

Justine Siegal is billed by her team, The Brockton Rox, as the first woman to coach men’s professional baseball (they play in the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball or Can-Am League). She is also founder of BaseBall for All, which supports female players and provides baseball instruction around the world (Siegal coached last year in India and Hong Kong). Siegal coaches for the Springfield College Baseball team – and is a Ph.D. candidate in sports psychology. She spoke during her daily commute from Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, MA.

FGN: How long have you been playing baseball?

JS: I started playing when I was five. I played men’s baseball until I was 22.

FGN: You coach for a men’s professional team, the Brockton Rox. What do you do?

JS: I’m a rookie coach. I just started. I’ve been throwing a lot of batting practice.

FGN: How have the players reacted?

JS: So far, everyone who has spoken to me has been very supportive. I tell them I am there to help them become better baseball players and help the team win a championship – just like every coach there.

FGN: What are your career ambitions?

JS: One of my goals is to be a college baseball coach. No woman has ever been a head college baseball coach.

FGN: Why do so few girls try baseball?

JS: There is a lot of pressure on girls to play softball. I played baseball a long time – I played through high school – and I felt like every day someone was asking me to play softball instead. And I was on the baseball team! In my mind, it’s because those in power don’t want girls to play baseball. It’s considered a boy’s game.

FGN: Why do many girls switch from baseball to softball when they reach middle school?

JS: The girls who play baseball are great athletes so a college scholarship in softball is a real possibility; a scholarship in baseball is a possibility, but the [chances] are lower. It’s sad to me when girls switch when they don’t want to. One of my goals is to help them over the hump. I tell the girls, “Why can’t it be you? Why can’t you make it?” We keep taking ourselves out of the game.

FGN: What is the role of the coach in all this?

JS:  The coach is key. The girls who have a really good time on their [baseball] teams, it is coach-directed. If coaches from junior high would say, “I’d like you to try out,” that would be huge. The problem is that everyone says to girls, “Oh baseball is fun when you’re just a kid, now it’s time to move over.” That is a lesson we are teaching girls. And we are teaching boys the same lesson: Gender rules.

FGN: What about females as umpires?

JS: There are a few female umpires in the minor leagues. There is no reason women can’t be umpires and Major League Baseball knows that. There are just so many men who want to be umpires it is a matter of numbers. You need to get more girls umpiring.

FGN: Why does matter to have women in baseball?

JS: It’s important for two reasons. Without pioneers we don’t see any progress. Second, it’s important for each of us to find out what we’re made of. If we just give up playing for a reason that doesn’t make sense, it’s wrong. Some people are told they are to short or their skin’s the wrong color. We are told that just because of our gender we shouldn’t play – I don’t think that’s a good enough reason.

On April 21, Bayone, N.J. Little Leaguer Mackenzie Brown pitched a perfect game, retiring all 18 boys who got up to bat; she was invited to throw out the first pitch a Met’s game a few days later.

By Mackenzie Brown

I started playing baseball for the Cal Ripken League in Bayonne when I was six. I really enjoyed baseball so when I was nine, I decided to play in Little League as well as the Cal Ripken League. There are a lot of practices when you play in two leagues. Sometimes I have two in one day, but I love it.

When I am not practicing with my teams, I practice at home with my older brother, Daniel. He has taught me a lot about pitching because he pitches, too. Practicing every day is what makes me good. I like to pitch because it makes me feel like I am in control of the game.

When I was nine, I moved from rookie league to major league and that’s when I realized that there were only two other girls playing baseball. They were both a few years older than me.  All of the other girls played softball. At first my mom wanted me to switch to softball, but when she saw that I loved baseball she was fine with the idea. It never bothered me that there were no other girls my age that played baseball. I knew I could keep up with the boys.

Sometimes people joke and tell me that baseball is a boys’ sport and I shouldn’t play, but no one has ever said that to me seriously. I know a lot about the game so I can have a conversation about it with just about anyone. If anyone ever did say that seriously, I think I would ignore them. If your heart is in the game, no one can ever change your mind.

If I had to give advice to anyone who wanted to play baseball, I would say they have to like the game, and really want to play. Then, you need to practice real hard.

It does not matter if you are a boy or a girl. I would tell any girl who wanted to play baseball to practice even harder. Girls have to prove they can be just as good as the boys. I would tell them to learn all they can when they are off the field. They should watch MLB and listen to the sports announcers. They can learn a lot by doing that.

My favorite team is the NY Mets, and David Wright is my favorite player. I also like Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes and A.J. Pierzynski. I watch a lot of Mets games on television and I have even gone to a few games. We also go to a lot of minor league baseball games and when I’m not playing I like to go to the field and hang out.

My parents and my brothers are all very supportive. They are at every one of my games and my brother and my dad are always trying to give me pointers. When I am pitching I try not to listen to the people in the stands. I am pretty good at staying focused and concentrating on one pitch at a time. I try to keep the ball low, and just throw strikes. I never think of the score, I think only of doing my best every single play.

Next year I will be switching to softball. I think I will have some catching up to do to be as good as the other girls since they have been playing for a while, and I have never played, but I am willing to work really hard. I think if I start (I’ll be in 7th grade), I will be ready for high school.

There are not the same baseball opportunities for girls when you get to high school, so if I start softball next year, I’ll be ready. Hopefully, I’ll play through college.

My favorite part of this whole experience was meeting the Mets and throwing out the first pitch at Citi Field. I will remember that forever.

Being in the Mets dugout was exciting. I never thought I would be on the pitcher’s mound. It was amazing! I was nervous!! I thought I would be embarrassed if I wasn’t able to reach the plate. Fortunately, I reached! When I watch the Mets on television I think, “I was in that dugout with them. I was on that field.”  It’s a great feeling!

Mackenzie Brown is 12 years old, in sixth grade, and loves to play baseball and basketball.