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I'm still waiting for Sharapova to call me for something to eat... |
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Posted on 08/11/2009 9:09:27 AM PDT by Harrius Magnus
Some men don't like playing Griffin.
Three years ago, league members voted to rescind a rule that penalized them for refusing to compete against her or anyone else. The change has kept her from taking on some of the league's top players. Men have invoked both their wives and God to avoid matches against her.
Now, Griffin has made her problems on the court a matter for a court. She is suing the city, alleging discrimination. She wants the penalty rule reinstated and the city to pay her $10,000 or more for emotional distress.
Griffin has been playing since she was 10 and was recruited to play at Barton College in Wilson. In 1993 and 1994, the U.S. Tennis Association ranked her among North Carolina's top female singles players.
Today, the 41-year-old substitute teacher says her fitness and unorthodox, self-taught technique make her a formidable opponent. She rates a 5.0 on the National Tennis Rating Program's 7.0 scale. Raleigh's highest level of competition for either sex is a 4.5 challenge ladder, in which participants challenge each other to move up in ranking.
Griffin joined the men's ladder in 1999, hoping for keener competition. "I just signed up and played," she said. "Nobody tried to stop me."
She made it to the final eight tournament all nine times she played. Then, in 2003, she tried to sign up for the summer season. But city officials said women could no longer play on the men's ladder because a co-ed ladder had been created.
On and off the ladder
Griffin petitioned the city to let her back onto the men's ladder, gathering 300 signatures, including 20 from men on the ladder.
Raleigh tennis officials relented and let her play.
That winter, though, the excuses began.
"One said he had a jealous wife, and he couldn't play females," Griffin said. "Another said he heard I made people run too much."
Griffin complained. Ken Glanville, the city's assistant tennis director, responded with a new rule: A challenger would get 24 points any time an opponent ignored a challenge or refused to play, Griffin said. It was called the "avoidance rule."
In spring 2006, Griffin won the men's 4.5 ladder tournament. The next season, she invoked the rule for the first time when a would-be opponent ignored her challenge but went on to play men. Glanville awarded her 24 points and said he would review the rule, according to an e-mail provided by Griffin's attorney.
Soon after, the city sent an e-mail to members of the ladder, asking whether the avoidance rule should be scuttled.
Out went the rule.
In an e-mail to Griffin provided by her lawyer, Glanville said the move was best for everyone. "The best compromise is that now you are able to play anyone on the ladder regardless of rank and if you can't coordinate with a player you just move on and play someone else," he added.
Efforts to reach him failed.
"To me, the way they went about removing the rule wasn't right," Griffin said. "A lot of the men probably didn't realize why the rule was there."
She continued to complain to city tennis officials.
In an e-mail Sept. 6, 2007, David Bell, the city's tennis director, told Griffin he didn't think men were avoiding playing her because of her sex.
"The city is not in the position of requiring each player on the ladder to play each other," Bell wrote. "From the information I've received so far, there seems to be no indication that players are avoiding you based on your sex."
Bell declined to comment.
The reasons men give
Without the avoidance penalty, the excuses resumed.
"If they say I have to play you then I will quit the ladder to keep peace because I don't feel comfortable playing a singles match with another woman other than my wife as I do not think it would honor my wife," Adam Schainblatt wrote in an e-mail to Griffin earlier this year.
Schainblatt said Monday that he wants to play only men. He's never asked his wife if she would mind his playing women.
"It's me, not her," he said.
Randy Browning asked Griffin not to challenge him.
"As a husband, father and deacon in my church, I don't believe it's a good thing for me to be seen out playing a female other than my wife in casual matches without her around," Browning wrote in a Sept. 4 e-mail provided by Griffin's attorney. "As a believer I hope you can understand this."
He declined to comment.
Without the avoidance rule, Griffin has been unable to gain enough points to move up the ladder, according to her suit.
Raleigh officials, including City Manager Russell Allen and Mayor Charles Meeker, would not comment.
Some guys don't mind
There are men who enjoy playing Griffin.
Nile Testerman, who has played her several times, says he has no problem with women on the ladder, especially Griffin, who is one of two female competitors this season.
"She's stronger than half the players in it," he said. "It shows in her win-loss record. She's always in the top."
He said he didn't know the avoidance rule had even existed, but it seemed OK.
"You've got to play when people ask you to play," he said.
Despite the lawsuit, Griffin continues to compete on the men's ladder.
"I'm a follower of Jesus Christ; and I love everyone on here," she said. "I just want the program run fairly for everyone."
Griffin said the dispute has taken a toll, and she's experienced depression. But the fall season begins Aug. 24. She'll be playing.
Every man is entitled to be a pussy. Right?
This is tax payer sponsored league.
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I'm still waiting for Sharapova to call me for something to eat... |
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If your contest is tax payer sponsored like this tennis league then you should sue. Of course, we know that it is liberals that like to sue so you will have leave FR and go over the the DU.
Freedom of Association would seem to imply you’re free to join the league or not - and I’ve heard no claims to the contrary. When you’re in a sports league, though, you follow their rules. Choosing who you play does not appear to be a freedom of association issue (for league games, not casual ones.)
Checkers
“Guilty!”
Twaddle.
I never turned down a request from any female to play racquetball. At least one that I played against quite a few times was nationally ranked, and against her I won sometimes and lost other times. The ones who don't belong figure it out pretty quickly. The ones who do belong deserve credit for competing on a level playing field much as Judit Polgar and Rachel Alexandra have done. (Well, Rachel does get a weight allowance but they hardly matter and so I think she deserves credit.) The opportunity to compete should not be denied to anyone who has the demonstrated ability to compete.
ML/NJ
Sorry, I missed that. But she’s still an azz for trying to force anyone to play against her.
It is very exasperating to read about women that do not know their place.
In coed softball leagues, they usually have a minimum number of women on the field at a time. If they didn't, the guys would have a couple of females that sat on the bench and maybe got in when a game was out of hand. There have been several attempts to get women into professional sports, either as a hockey goalie or in basketball. These experiments start with great fanfare and end with a whimper. Usually, they don't even report on the tryout cause she gets whipped so badly in the first twenty minutes it's embarrassing. A few years ago, there were all these headlines about the first woman to compete in NCAA men's football. She was a kicker, and she didn't kick off or attempt field goals. Extra points only, and I think she missed one of those.
There are always made up events, where they get the top female athletes to compete against average guys and they make a big whoop about it.
Men can't be allowed to compete in women's leagues or brackets because if they were, there wouldn't be any women's brackets.
I also understand why men don't want to play against women when they signed up for a men's league.
I'm also tired of people pretending that women can compete with men in athletic events. A top woman can compete with an average guy, but at the top level there's no contest.
Examples (may not be exact numbers, but close): Top female bench press without lifting shirt is 420 pounds. Top men's is over 700. Top female with lifting shirt is 520. Top men's, over 1000 pounds.
The men are still pussies for being afraid to play against her.
That’s true also, but I don’t believe that it should be a sue-able offense, to be a wimp, if that’s really all it is for all the men. Maybe they just don’t like her, but you’re not allowed to not like people, especially if they’re of a protected class, these days.
If she’s such a stud, turn pro.
I would have no problem playing anyone, male or female, who was better than me. My problem is just being able to play tennis, period. I love to play, but my body doesn’t go along with the program. Too many arm and shoulder problems. It’s a lot more fun playing better players than it is weaker players. Case in point I never once beat my older brother playing table tennis when we were kids. I never gave up, and I knew how good I was. I was never discouraged from playing. I was determined to beat him the next time. Which never happened. Plus playing against him made me a better player. I could usually beat everyone else. Anyone who doesn’t want to play against a stronger player, regardless of gender, is only defeating themself.
I would have no problem playing anyone, male or female, who was better than me. My problem is just being able to play tennis, period. I love to play, but my body doesn’t go along with the program. Too many arm and shoulder problems. It’s a lot more fun playing better players than it is weaker players. Case in point I never once beat my older brother playing table tennis when we were kids. I never gave up, and I knew how good I was. I was never discouraged from playing. I was determined to beat him the next time. Which never happened. Plus playing against him made me a better player. I could usually beat everyone else. Anyone who doesn’t want to play against a stronger player, regardless of gender, is only defeating themself.
So it helps if you lift your shirt?
Our sneaky, lying little bitch of a president is of the protected class. I feel quite free to despise him.
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