Again, I'm not bringing any Olympians into the discussion of fairness in sports.
I'll address that as evidence comes in.
Still, this debate about male and female athletes keeps coming up.
This is nothing new.
So, my longest-term girlfriend is lefthanded. I'm righthanded.
We both played for our company's softball team.
There were times when the opposing team had a good defense to my left side -- which is the side that you pull to if you're batting righthanded.
Even in regard to sports that aren't important, and just fun, and it was all only about personal edification at most, this told me something about fairness.
Again, I'm righthanded. I'm not an elite athlete. I never claimed to be an elite athlete.
Still, there were times when I decided to bat lefthanded to give me a better chance of hitting the ball in the direction of worse outfielders.
My girlfriend, at the time, was always batting left.
She's also shorter than me and lighter than me.
Who do you think was the better lefthanded batter?
Of course I was the better batter. Every honest person knows that I would be the better batter.
She could go full Ichiro into a swing with her dominant hand, and she might get on base.
I could make the swing with my wrong hand and hit a ground ruel double.
We used to go to the gym and lift weights together.
Again, even as a dude who doesn't claim to be much of an athlete, we weren't in the same category. She was never close to lifting what I could.
Olympic competitors aside for the moment, the question of trans women in women's sports is pervasive and ongoing.
I can tell you that, even in this throwaway competition that next to nobody cares about, or ever will, I don't know how to make my lefthanded batting fair with my ex.
I can't tell you how many estrogen shots I'd need to take. I can't tell you how many Harrison Bergeron-type weights you'd need to put on my body to make me an equal, lefthanded batter.
You can't tell me that, either.
Feel free to try. I just doubt that you can.
What I do know is that I'm a man. I understand that being a man comes with some responsibility.
If I know that I'm significantly stronger swinging with my wrong hand than a woman is swinging with her dominant hand, that should influence how I navigate the world.
It does influence how I navigate the world.
I don't put my hands on anybody who doesn't ask for it.
This is still a problem with the radical left, which insists that you are -- what you say you are -- is what you are, no matter what.
My ex could have identified as Ty Cobb.
It wouldn't have changed the fact that I have a stronger lefthanded swing than she would ever been capable of.