Ladies First Isn’t Manners, It’s Television

After years of anonymity, women’s college basketball startled the establishment when the Connecticut-Tennessee NCAA final drew a 5.7 television rating, led by a monster 38.8 in Hartford.

That tripled Fox’s NHL telecast nationally and was 42% higher than the Spurs-Suns NBA game.

The women’s game has caught on at UConn, where the men’s and women’s teams were once No. 1 last season. When both played at Kansas, the women had a higher rating than the men.

UConn’s Rebecca Lobo appeared on David Letterman’s show. Sports Illustrated put the UConn women on the cover in New England editions. Nike is putting out a line of Air Swoopes in honor of former Texas Tech star Sheryl Swoopes.

“When I signed with Nike, I thought it was kind of a joke,” Swoopes told the New York Times. “And when they said they’d name a shoe for me, we all had a good laugh.”

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Oink? Women didn’t laugh as much when CBS’ Bill Packer said he couldn’t believe the women’s NCAA rating.

Packer then was obliged to explain that his comments reflected only his views on the rating system.

“This has nothing to do with my knowledge, hopes and aspirations for women’s basketball,” he told USA Today’s Rudy Martzke. “The ratings system is over. I guarantee you, by 2000, there won’t be Nielsens. You’ll be able to poll every TV set.”

Responded Leandra Reilly of Prime NewSport to Packer: “The fans have moved into the ‘90s. Maybe you should too.”

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Add oink? USA Today’s Tom Weir notes that UConn Coach Geno Auriemma won three of the four top coaching awards in women’s college basketball.

“The only one that Mr. Auriemma didn’t receive was the award voted on by his mostly female peers in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn.,” wrote Weir “ . . . Could it be there’s a little reverse sexism brewing in women’s basketball?”

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Trivia time: Has baseball ever actually used replacement players?

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The candidate: Steve Sax’s decision to run for the California Assembly was even a surprise in baseball, where he is best known.

Wrote the New York Times’ Murray Chass: “One person who has watched him on the field said Sax threw his hat in the ring and missed.”

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Hard core: If you want to know what kind of people ran the NFL as recently as the late ‘80s, here’s how former Cowboy president Tex Schramm says he’d have handled that baseball strike.

“I’d have had replacement players ready when (the union players) walked,” Schramm told USA Today’s Gordon Forbes.

The NFL used replacements for three games in 1987 and broke the last football strike.

“Just think if baseball could have brought up triple-A players,” Schramm said. “Fans probably wouldn’t have known the difference.”

Schramm left the Cowboys after Jerry Jones bought the team but says he misses “the arena.” Baseball still needs a permanent commissioner, so if those owners are really serious, they might want to call Tex.

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Trivia answer: Once, in 1912 when the Detroit Tigers staged a one-day strike to protest the suspension of Ty Cobb for attacking a fan. Owner Frank Navin hired collegians and sand-lot players and lost a road game to the Philadelphia Athletics, 24-2.

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Quotebook: Charles Barkley to worried Phoenix Suns’ fans: “Relax and enjoy yourself. If we have the best team in the world, then we’ll win the world championship. If we don’t, we won’t. Stop being a pain in the butt.”