what about us?

Tomorrow night 32 men are going to have their dreams come true. They will chosen by a team and become wealthy beyond their imagination. The first 10 picks are going to command at least 400 million dollars in bonuses, salary, and most importantly guaranteed money. The top pick in this draft will be given at least 70 million dollars and about 50 million of that will be guaranteed. The Rams have that selection and they someone who is ready to step on the field tomorrow and deliver. But like I said yesterday I will not about the draft. Today I want to talk about a topic that just seems to get swept under the table. Women professional athletes really have it rough. Can you imagine that you are in your athletic prime and dominating a sport and have to make a biological decision to determine whether or not to end your career or keep it going or to put it on hold so that you can start a family. Over the past four years there have been four women at the top of their profession who have retired so they can start a family. Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Annika Sorenstam, Lindsay Davenport are the four that come to mind. Lisa Leslie did it a couple of years ago and her teammate Candace Parker had a baby last season and came back during the year. So as all of these young are getting rich based on potential, what do these established women have to get some respect. On Friday, Lorena Ochoa is going to announce her retirement from professional golf. She is the number 1 player in the world and she is deciding to leave the game for a awhile so she can focus on a family. The only reason why I am shocked about this decision is that the women's golf tour is struggling and it needs a superstar like her to keep the sport relevant. When Candace Parker had her daughter the WNBA absolutely panicked because its league M.V.P was going to be gone and not the same player when she returned because she was getting used to her body changes. She is also only 22 or 23 so they are lucky that they have many years with her to return to form. Especially now that Lisa Leslie has retired the WNBA needs Parker to be back in Los Angeles ready to dominate again. Most people will agree that if the Williams sisters were not involved with tennis the game would have crumbled when the three ladies mentioned before retired for a bit. Now that Henin is back and so is Clijsters the women's game will be back in the forefront of tennis in general. Ochoa is probably the quietest and most unrecognizable best player in the world than any athlete out there. In fact more people probably know who Ashley Force is than Ochoa and her sport is only on one day a week. ( she is a drag racer who is a lot like Danica Patrick, but wins more).
The women's pro golf tour has had problems over the past years keeping sponsors and networks. ESPN has been covering most of their events and NBC and CBS only doing their majors. Everyone is waiting for an American woman to take this sport over so that the interest level in this country will grow. Whether it is Michelle Wie or Paula Creamer or Megan Pressl, the networks will not put money in this sport until one of them can take it over like Serena has women's tennis.It is sad because Ochoa is a great champion, but she is Mexican and because her English is not very good, she has not made it big time here in the states. Now her departure may open doors for these American girls to fulfill that role but right now they are too inconsistent. Plus the players from Asia are beginning to take over women's golf. Every week there is a new Korean or Japanese player that is challenging for title and though that is great for the expansion of the sport globally, no U.S. company cares. Lorena is a probably going to get some flack for retiring now, but I support her decision to be a woman first and then a golfer second.
Unfortunately in this crazy world we live in you not be both....