One More Brickhead In The Wall

Last weekend former MLB first baseman Keith Hernandez showed his true cholers. The San Diego paper says

He needed just minutes while commenting as part of SportsNet New York's broadcast team to remind us sexism is alive and pitiful, openly questioning the presence of a woman in San Diego's dugout.

The victim of his insensitive remarks was Kelly Calabrese, in her third season as the Padres' massage therapist and the first female to be employed full time in a major league training room. There isn't a person more respected in San Diego's clubhouse, confirmed yesterday as players and coaches charged to her defense. Players who often would not have seen the field if not for her skill. ...

"I won't say women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout. ... I think it's a man's game." ...

[Padres pitcher Chris Young commented:] "It's 2006. Wake up. We have women fighting on our front lines in Iraq. I think they can be in a baseball clubhouse. My wife is in law school. Imagine that. Women can be lawyers, too."

Hernandez issued an apology on air during yesterday's game and yet still couched it by insinuating that major league baseball's rules are strict about which members of a training staff can be present in the dugout.

He is being properly jumped on for this, for example by Feminist Law Professors and by Elayne Riggs. Best of all was the story at The Onion:

Keith Hernandez Narrowing Down List Of Places Women Do And Don't Belong ...

Although he was not specifically asked, Hernandez also took time to speak at length as to what he believed was the proper place for society's Hispanics.

It is very lucky for this remnant of the fading present that he will not still be batting when the first woman player does come up to the majors. She will be a left-handed pitcher. Can you say knockdown?