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Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball

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ceejeemcbeegee is not here
03/14/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Hey, at least the WNBA is still making news...
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BlondeGrlz
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
What's wrong with having a baby and then going back to the sport you played? Or deciding once you have a baby your life is *gasp* different and maybe hitting balls around isn't for you anymore?

And why is this any of our business??

On a side note, if she's still playing she deserves a medal for most ambitious pregnant woman ever. I can only get to the second floor of my house like once a day, I cannot imagine being asked to run.
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Zombies make the heart grow fonder
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Eeesh Dodai, I'm not sure I want to put Brynn Cameron on a pedastal. That whole story really saddens me.
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Khrushchev
03/13/09

@Unemployed Zombies make the heart grow fonder: That profile of her is the only thing I've read. What is your issue with her?
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Zombies make the heart grow fonder
03/13/09

@Khrushchev: Oh you are lucky then. She was ripped apart in sports blogs worse than Bridget Mognhan (sp) was when she got pregnant. It was made even worse with the fact that Paris Hilton was linked to Leinhart right around then too.

Brynn was like a freshman when she and Leinart broke up and she was pregnant. It is one of those cases where I feel like showing how she is doing okay now makes it seem as though getting pregnant while on a basketball scholarship was something she was thrilled about and planned. Even that article has this whole condescending "I am okay now, and can't imagine my life without Cole" attitude as if they expect her to come out and say "yeah no, this was a huge mistake I wish had never happened".

Yeah, I am glad she is making things work but I don't think we need to make it look like having a baby is cool and easy.
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Eleanor Ramilly
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Someday the world will be like Junior and the little Arnold Schwarzenegger in all of our men will take care of this.
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Rare Affinity
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Sadly I often have Candace's body shape without the pregnancy, such are the joys of fibroids.
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Hamsterpants
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
As I have said before, I'm a huge sports fan, and I'm constantly trying to balance that in my head with being a feminist, and trust me, it doesn't work so good. I can't even read sports mags or websites anymore, the out-and-out sexism just makes me cringe. I just mostly watch games and hope that during the play-by-play Marv Albert doesn't say something that makes me stabby, like "Ilgauskas throws down like a GIRL". That, and I pretend I'm Suzy Kolber.
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: It is tough. I used to love Keith Hernandez until I actually had to listen to him call Mets games. Even before the "womenz don't belong in the dugout!!!!" incident. Meathead.
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pandorasmittens
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: This is why Marv Albert should be avoided at all costs.

I hear where you're coming from, completely. Most of the ire I feel comes from reading the idiocy scrawled across the comment boards. That, and have you ever tried talking to men about sports? Usually they start out thinking, "wow! It's so cool that you love sports and play sports!" But once they say something stupid and I call them on it, the response is, "Wait. You're one of those 'feminists' aren't you?" And because sports love=feminism=OMG lesbian! to most men, the conversation usually ends at that point.
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Hamsterpants
03/13/09

@Maritsa: Yeah, he is a turd. But for serious, it's like I've got my fingers in my ears half the time singing LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU, MENS! when I watch sports.
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: It's not like they say much that's all that illuminating, anyway. Perhaps there are some good TV baseball announcers somewhere but I grew up listening to Tim McCarver. Christ almighty. The Mets' radio guys were and are much better.
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Hamsterpants
03/13/09

@Maritsa: I've been lucky. Vin Scully and (SOB), the dear departed Chick Hearn.
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Hamsterpants
03/13/09

@pandorasmittens: Of course! Liking sports=sexy! KNOWING/UNDERSTANDING sports=DYKE ("I bet you played softball in college, huh?")
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: I'm jealous. Tim McCarver, now Keith. It's obvious that God hates the Mets.
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SovietBear
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: After watching Big Z play soft around the rim this season, I'd like to see Ilgauskas throw down in any way, shape, or form more often.
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@Hamsterpants: @pandorasmittens: I also like the smirk when you first tell a guy you like baseball. They assume you're a pink-hat-wearing bimbo who only likes watching guys in tight pants. (No offense meant to ladies who like the pink hats, although I hate them and find that most non-fans wear them, I recognize that some real female fans like them as well.)
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@Maritsa: Oh and also when people assume that my husband "dragged" me to a game.
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Hamsterpants
03/13/09

@SovietBear: Heh. You're right. It's that soft European game. But no big eastern european guy has really brought it since Arvydas.
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pandorasmittens
03/13/09

@Maritsa: I feel the same way about the "Touch" line. Is it acceptable for someone to care about their appearance? Yes. But does this necessitate an ENTIRE LINE of tube tops and ruched camis where the logo for the team you OMG LUV is BARELY VISIBLE?

Give me the regular hat and an oversized jersey, because if you are at a rowdy stadium, that shit is getting destroyed by relish and/or beer showers, fast.
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Maritsa
03/13/09

@pandorasmittens: But sometimes I want to support my team and show everyone my boobeez!!!

I admit to having a maternity Mets shirt with an arrow pointing down that said "future Mets fan," but it wasn't pink! But I had little choice, it was that or like an XXL shirt to get over my ginormous preggo belly.
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MaeHemm
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
This brings up so many more issues than a more "traditional" career track.

Obviously, your body is a huge part of your job when you're a professional athlete, and you can't work while pregnant like say, a lawyer can. Also, you'll need more postpartum time to "recover" to a degree that you can do your job again.

Add to that the fact that most professional athletes are done by the time they hit 35 (if they're lucky) so taking a year to 18 months to have a baby is a BIG issue.

It's crazy when you compare female athletes to male athletes who have several kids during the course of their career without it even affecting them in the slightest. Most don't even have to miss a game!
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Majrhoulihan
03/13/09

@MaeHemm: True. I know plenty of publicists who were back on their computers/blackberries soon after giving birth, but I don't anyone with an episotomy who wants to be thrown into a basketball game.
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Khrushchev
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Also the only issue I have with this 22-year-old is that she makes us childless, careerless 22-year-olds look like chumps.
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SkipToMyLou
03/13/09

@Khrushchev: Here, have a bourbon. Makes it all better and Candace can't join in.
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Khrushchev
03/13/09

@SkipToMyLou can't make the transition. She's back and stayi...: I'LL HAVE SIX, THANK YOU.
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SylvanSylph
03/13/09

@Khrushchev: Just wait until she retires at 30 with her children and MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
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vamusical
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
"W.N.B.A. Commissioner Donna Orender said her initial reaction to Parker's pregnancy was a quiet sigh of resignation,"

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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MizJenkins
03/13/09

@vamusical: Well, I mean if your job was to run a never-before-tested league of professional female athletes and build up enough of a fan base to be profitable against all societal odds and one of your new star-studded, super-hyped athletes made a decision that would likely a) cost her game time, b) weaken her body, c) take her focus off the court and d) shorten her career...BUT you were a woman and understood that no woman should have to sacrifice her family for a career or vice versa, what else would your reaction be?
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Majrhoulihan
03/13/09

@vamusical: I think probably every manager with a good female employee thinks this when the, "I'm going to need to take maternity leave" discussion arises.

Not because they're begrudging women their time off, but because no one wants to lose a great employee, even if it's just for six or eight weeks.
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vamusical
03/13/09

@MizJenkins: Personally I'd jump on the opportunity to present how amazing she could be and STILL have time be a ridiculous athlete, or see it as a chance to set the record straight on how women dealing with desire for success and family time SHOULD be handled by their employers (The WNBA would be a very public example), but it's true that those are both thoughts possibly accompanying a sigh. That was more a cry of anger at every future employer who will likely see me as a baby-making machine who will some day demand maternity leave, giving them reason to pick a male instead.
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MizJenkins
03/13/09

@vamusical: I think they are trying to portray it in a positive light...they did say that that was the commissioner's initial reaction. Hopefully she does make the best of it going forward, because you're right that it could be used as a great example of working motherhood.

BUT in fairness you can't be a ridiculous athlete while pregnant. Afterwards maybe, but nine months is an entire season and she's a rookie with a whole lot of hype and momentum behind her that the league is going to lose out on. Any manager is going to react to that with a sigh of "well, crap."
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vamusical
03/13/09

@MizJenkins: Yes indeed. However, this did not come from a manager, it came from the WNBA commissioner, who would really only be concerned about the loss of Candace Parker from a marketing standpoint. Hence the growl. If it was a manager, agent, or coach, it would be far more understandable.
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Majrhoulihan
03/13/09

@vamusical: But...marketing is important. The WNBA is a struggling enterprise and they were really counting on her being there to be a rising star and bring some money to the league. No one should make her feel guilty for making her own decions about her life and her body, but I think disappointment might be in order.
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JessicaLovejoy: Laughing, riding, cornholing!
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
She did have to give up a $1.5 million deal to play for a Russian club.

That baby better come out speaking three languages and with the ability to whip up one native dish from every country in the world.
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Flackette Goes Retro
03/13/09

@JessicaLovejoy: Laughing, riding, cornholing!: Sort of casts a different light on my mom's decision to give up a career teaching high school French to annoying teenagers.
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the dodo, the cuckoo, and the nene
03/13/09

@Flackette is a Red State Elitist: I am the daughter of a mother who made a career out of teaching high school Spanish to "annoying teengers" for over 30 years. And she loved it(still loves it, actually) and couldn't really give it up when she had children because she and my dad both had to work to support our family. Sorry for being overly sensitive...it just kind of touched a nerve.
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CherriSpryte
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
"How big can Candace Parker get?" is kind of offensive in this situation, no?
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Plum-Pie
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: A bit too "pregnant = fat" for me.
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bess marvin, girl detective
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte and @Plum-Pie: are you guys serious? please tell me you're joking.
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ellaesther
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: @Plum-Pie: Actually, for me, as a woman who has carried two babies and more than once looked down at myself and asked myself the same question, I kind of loved it. I love that a joke that a woman would make about herself and her pregnancy is being used (on the cover of a typically male magazine no less!) to cut two ways, and indicate that while the mom gets physically bigger, the athlete's career is also getting huge.

Made me smile.
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ellaesther
03/13/09

@ellaesther: Also, I was known to say "I look like I've swallowed a basketball." So, there's that.
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Khrushchev
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: I don't find it offensive as a woman; I find it offensive as a lover of funny things.
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CherriSpryte
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: maybe i meant "weird" rather than "offensive" - then again, i dont' have much experience with pregnancy, so if this is a commonly accepted question, nevermind. I just thought it was a bit off.
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ellaesther
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: It's cool. This is why we love the Jezebel!
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Plum-Pie
03/13/09

@bess marvin, girl detective: The pun exists in a context of a high level of sexism in sports journalism - see Hamsterpants thread below.
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SweetIo
03/13/09

@CherriSpryte: Heh. I actually thought the headline was kind of cute.
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bess marvin, girl detective
03/14/09

@Plum-Pie: umm, no it doesn't. it isn't sexist to ask "how big can candace parker's career get?" especially in the next year when she will no doubt have to take time out to give birth then tend to a newborn? no.
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Khrushchev
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
How Big Can Candace Parker Get?

Oh, I get it, ESPN Magazine. In one way you are talking about her fame, which is considerable, but at the same time you are acknowleding that her womb is expanding due to the child growing within it.
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tscheese
03/13/09

@Khrushchev: I WOULD HAVE TOTALLY MISSED THAT. MY GOD, WHAT CLEVER WORDPLAY. IT ALMOST WENT RIGHT OVER MY HEAD. YOU CAN'T SPELL "DROLL" WITHOUT "LOL". LIKE SNAP. WOW. SOOO DEEP.
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SkipToMyLou
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Is Candace Parker still playing? If not, did she continue to play into her pregnancy?
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SkipToMyLou
03/13/09

@SkipToMyLou can't make the transition. She's back and stayi...: I'm asking because Netball Australia a couple of yeas back was sued by some players who wanted to keep playing into their pregnancies, and the association guidelines treated the pregnancy sort of like an injury, and left them off their teams' list. It was found to be discriminatory practice and now you can play professional netball until you and your doctor decide its time to stop. Netball is sort of like basketball. Less contact, however.
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FourInchHeels
03/13/09

@SkipToMyLou can't make the transition. She's back and stayi...: I wonder, only because of the liability aspect. I see both sides of that case. Don't tell me pregnancy means I can't play .... but if I get knocked into and lose the baby - is someone going to get sued?
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sarrible
03/13/09

@SkipToMyLou can't make the transition. She's back and stayi...: She's due in May, and the season begins in June. The article says she expects to be back with the Sparks in July.
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SkipToMyLou
03/13/09

@sarrible: So I guess she became pregnant in August/September of 2008? I guess that assumes she played while pregnant for at least 2 or 3 months, til the end of the season.
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mama_t
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Professional athletics are a JOB. A JOB. Just because they have fans doesn't make it any different that an entertainer/office worker/lawyer who has a child. Gah! As long as they treat their contracts like the legal documents they are - WHO GIVES A CRAP?

This makes me nutty.
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MizJenkins
03/13/09

@mama_t: It is slightly different because the toll it takes on your body is competing more directly with the toll pregnancy takes on your body. It's much easier to be pregnant in a cubicle.
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linnyt is a walking cliché
03/13/09

@mama_t: how come people can't make the connection between 'career' and 'job'? why is it such a leap?

also, i wish i had fans of the work i do at my job.
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Spaceman Bill Leah
03/13/09

@mama_t: This is all very true but rather than another kind of public figure, a politician or an actor, people, the fans, tend to feel ownership towards sports teams. So Candace is not just "ruining" her chances at a title, or even her team's, the feeling is that she's ruining "our" chances at success.

It's not right, for sure, but it's very interesting.
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mama_t
03/13/09

@MizJenkins: Out of all my friends who have been pregnant, the ones who's bodies responded the best were athletes and dancers. Being in top physical condition makes it not only easier to be pregnant, but to resume a level of physicality afterwards.

I'm not saying that it doesn't impact a body hugely, but considering that are mothers in the league already, it logics to me that if they want to play after the birth, they have a good shot of doing so.
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DangerMouse
03/13/09

@linnyt is a walking cliché: WOOHOO! GREAT COLLATING! YEAH!
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MizJenkins
03/13/09

@mama_t: That's a totally fair point, but I'm speaking from the perspective of an employer. Pregnancy might take less of a toll on athlete's bodies overall but their employers have more of a reason to care. It's understandably more controversial to be a pregnant athlete than a pregnant office-worker because relatively speaking it interferes more with job performance.

Unless Candace totally blows us out of the water and proves that pregnant women can dunk.
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tscheese
03/13/09

In reply to Juggling Pregnancy & Career Without Dropping The Ball
Famous woman decides not to have kids: "Oh my GAWD, I BET SHE IS SO MISERABLE because she is BARREN and WOE. What is WRONG with her that CLOCK IS TICKING, don't you HEAR IT, tick-TOCK, you'll want kids some day, I'm suuuure, having your nice life without anyone to support AREN'T YOU BEING SELFISH!!?"

Famous woman decides to have kids: "Oh my GAWD, she is so SELFISH, putting her career on HOLD like that, how DARE SHE, that COW, all knocked UP, how HORRIBLE I CANNOT BELIEVE SHE DID THIS IT IS TERRIBLE, WHY OH WHY, oh man the NERVE of her, AREN'T YOU BEING SELFISH!!?"

...Like, is there EVER going to be a happy medium, here? Will we ever win?
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Uncommon Whore
03/13/09

@tscheese: We win when we stop listening and adopt a shit-ton of cats.
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hfree
03/13/09

@tscheese: That my friend is the $64,000 question. F*ing double standards.
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veronykah
03/13/09

@tscheese: You forgot...

"OMG! What are you going to do when you are old?! Who is going to take care of you!"

and my personal favorite...

"You'll change your mind!"
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haguenite
03/13/09

@tscheese: I love it when you get all worked up!

By the way, I'm so happy that offensive Jennifer Aniston "Finally! A BABY!" cover has disappeared from the top. I kept saying it in my head in this baby-voice and it freaked me out!
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amsci
03/13/09

@veronykah: "Who is going to take care of you!"

Why, the cabana boy I will be bankrolling on the money I saved from not having children, of course! He's the gift that keeps on giving!
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veronykah
03/13/09

@amsci: EXACTLY.
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MerryLilly
03/13/09

@tscheese: Actually, even if you delete the word "famous" from there, everything you said still applies to the rest of women. Awesome!
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