Reddit reviews Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions

There is a book about stuff like this. Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan --

In Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan, Gallagher says that the USWNT soccer team will often scrimmage against boys teams. Apparently the USWNT can beat the U13 boys, but not the U15 ones. (Or something like that...) Puberty much?

Edit: fixed the link.

I think they should be allowed to, but they wouldn't be competitive enough to participate in the top professional leagues. In the book Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan, the author dedicates a chapter to the gap between men and women in sports.

He concludes that the top women in the world compete at about the level of 15-year-old boys. For example, the world records in track and field for women are right around the records of 15-16 year-old boys. Also, the US Women's National soccer team regularly scrimmages 14-16 year-old men's club soccer teams. They can beat the 14-year-old squads pretty easily but once they play against the 15-year-old teams, they start having trouble. They start getting beat regularly playing against the 16-year-old teams. It's the same in basketball.

Even in non-physical sports, the top women aren't really close to the top men. The author interviewed the top women's pool player in the world, Jeanette Lee, and she said that if she played in the men's tour, she would be ranked around 200.

I have a book, written by my sister's friend and the guy who played Andy, called, "Andy Roddick beat me with a Frying Pan."

It's hilarious. I highly recommend it.

> and a woman occasionally gets to the level where she may be drafted,

I'm not aware of this ever legitimately happening. I am a fan of some women's sports, and I've actually coached some fairly high level women's sports teams, but to be honest, most people (even most sexist people) often UNDERestimate the athletic gulf between men and women.

The USA women's NATIONAL ice hockey team (so the best women from the entire US) sometimes scrimmages boys HIGH SCHOOL teams (using women rules so no body checking), and AFAIK loses a decent amount of them. The US women's national soccer team (the best in the world) scrimmages guys youth travel teams (i think ones at a fairly high level, but not even like the u-17 men's national or whatever), and IIRC starts to struggle around 16, and starts getting dominated around 17. (source: http://www.amazon.com/Andy-Roddick-Beat-Frying-Pan/dp/0307352803)

Honestly, other than as a football kicker (of which a few have played, although I don't think one has ever started for a d1 team), I can't see a women realistically playing any men's college team sport. MAYBE as a baseball knuckle-ball pitcher? You'd have to ask somebody who knows more about baseball.

The book Andy Roddick Beat With a Frying Pan has a chapter called "How big is the gap between male and female athletes?"

IT's much larger than anyone thinks. Here's the author's answer in an interview:

> GM: Why do you think there's this misconception that women are almost at men's level when it comes to sports? And why do you think there's the disparity you've found? Is it possible this isn't a physiological inevitability, but instead a reflection of the disparate financial and other incentives sporting men and women face?

> TG: The misconception is almost entirely attributable to members of the press wanting to show social concern and not doing even the slightest bit of research. Oh, and that people are nuts in this country and don't allow for open dialogues of conversation about certain topics. Just ask Lawrence Summers how venturing into this territory turned out for him, and you can pretty quickly understand why the press is hesitant to touch the subject in a real way.
In my own life, a good friend of mine said I was being misogynistic when I said to him that the top female athletes are on par with 15-year-old boys. He's really into a lot of women's issues, and it was a very visceral reaction. Eventually he calmed down and ended up thinking the chapter was well-done, but still added: "Why even do a chapter like that?" So it's easy to imagine what kind of a reaction I'd get from people more invested in women's rights. Thankfully, my publisher has shielded me from any kind of negative reaction by making sure no one hears about the book. Personally, I think the whole thing is ridiculous because sports are so incredibly inane. Of all the things to worry about the implications of us being equal in…
It's possible that the reasons for the disparity aren't physiological, but I seriously doubt it. Maybe the balance in sports like darts would be closer if it weren't for some of the other factors, but given how consistently the women's best times in any size, speed, and strength events come in the range of 14- to 15-year-old boys, it's hard to fathom that it could be anything but puberty that causes the major separation. That consistency of range, and listening to the US women's soccer team and other female athletes talk about how boys of that age just get too big and fast to compete with, is pretty convincing to me.

I agree with his conclusion, a 14 to 15 year old boy at the same weight would be a fair fight physically. Once boys start puberty the advantage grows so large. I'd guess it's probably 40-50 lbs before the strength gets comparable, but maybe not even then.

No, that's the name of the book, and yes Andy Roddick did beat the writer of the book with a Frying Pan handicap. I've been meaning to read it for a while but I haven't been able to work it in yet.

A really fun book you can get is Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan. The author gets pro athletes to compete is basically bar bets, like playing tennis against Roddick where Roddick has to use a frying pan. The book shows how insanely seriously the pro athletes take competition no matter how silly. It's a really fun read.

https://www.amazon.com/Andy-Roddick-Beat-Frying-Pan/dp/0307352803

the abilities of top female athletes are generally equivalent to top male athletes at age ~14. This book has a whole really entertaining chapter on it.