Today we salute you, Ms. Sports Enthusiast.

She knows that a short stop is not just an awesome burger joint, but a baseball position as well.

She is fully aware that the yellow line across her television screen during a football game is indeed an imaginary line where the first down is and that two people are not viciously holding two ends of yellow tape across the field to trip someone.

She knows that a tight end is an offensive position for football and is not, in fact, someone who keeps the “end tight.”

She knows that a golf club is a piece of equipment that a golfer uses to hit a golf ball, not a hot new dance club that is opening down the street.

She knows that making it to home and being safe isn’t making it to her house alive and in one piece.

She is aware that forward is not only a direction, but a position a soccer player might take.

She knows that when a quarterback is under pressure that it isn’t when he is thinking about his test the next day and hopes that he studied enough.

She knows that volleyball players are not convicted of murder every time they make a kill.

She knows that not every bat has wings and that when a bat hits a ball, a flying rodent does not fall out of the sky …

That was dedicated to all my fellow females who have ever been underestimated or thought to be unaware of the inner workings of sport.

Just because someone is a certain gender and does not fit someone’s stereotype of what something should or shouldn’t be, does not justify sexual discrimination.

There are many women out there who are going to give you a run for your money, fellas.

I am not writing this to come across as some overly feminist person — I just experienced some discrimination earlier this week and had to get my point across.

Nor am I trying to say I know every little thing about every sport out there; I learn something new every single day, I promise you that.  

If you are interviewing someone for a certain sport you are writing about, don’t you think that you have a pretty good idea about that particular sport?

And he wasn’t trying to be a smart aleck about it either.

He looked me dead straight in the eye and told me this blatantly obvious fact that even an athlete’s unborn child would know.

I don’t know … it was just an annoying situation and it is not the first time it happened. I guess ignorance is, indeed, bliss and people take vacations there instead of just staying for a little visit.

I am sorry if anyone saw this as a meaningless rant, but I had to throw it out there because it is important to me.

To all my fellow Ms. Sport Enthusiast’s — do what you do best:  know more about sports than your boyfriend does.

Erin Bass is a junior journalism major from Bossier City and serves as sports editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to emb023@latech.edu