The Sports Informant

So 28-year-old Kim Bain will join the men in the Bassmaster Classic next year. Watch out world, it’s another trailblazer.

Bain won the Women’s Bassmaster Tour Championship on Saturday, also earning the Toyota Tundra WBT Angler of the Year title, which got her a spot with the men. It will be the first time a woman will fish in the Classic in the entire 38 years it’s been around.

It’s the same old story, just another chapter. Another woman earned the right to battle the men, and the battle of the sexes will take a new turn for this generation’s equality movement. Whoopee.

Forgive my sarcasm. I hope I’m not coming across as belittling women. My mother was the strongest woman I knew, a single mom for a while while working and putting herself through college with three kids. When she remarried, she kept her flare for independence and is often the boss of our family household. My wife is a strong and intelligent woman who works full time and balances new motherhood without complaining. And I cover women’s sports with my profession and see some amazing athleticism put forth on all levels imaginable. Women are capable of great things, like stepping on the same playing field as men in several sports. That’s actually the reason I’m shrugging this new story off.

Yes, it’s newsworthy. Bain is breaking new ground and changing her sport forever. But do we have to do the same old song and dance every time this happens in every sport it does? Because if so, I’m going to have to pretend to be wowed every time this story creeps up in the near future.

In all of these sports not pitting men and women in physical contact with one another, women are capable of competing at just as high a level as men. Golf, auto racing and fishing are checked off the list, but there’s so much more to go. Each few months or years will see the birth of another co-ed lineup in another sport, whether it be bowling or darts. This is a good trend, just not a particularly interesting story anymore.

If anything, it is the hyping of the story that is belittling. “Wow, a woman is going to try to compete with the men?” Why does this surprise us anymore. Why do we rapidly click story links to read how something like this could ever happen?

Times have changed. Your country clubs will have women battling for course records, hitting from the men’s tees. NASCAR will see women spraying the champagne on their crew chiefs. Shoot, even Mixed Martial Arts will soon have women headlining main events (Gina Carano, anyone?) — although I hope not fighting the men.

This isn’t a story. It’s life. Get used to it, because it’s going to happen a lot more often. Stop acting surprised when it does.