Go, girl

Today is International Women's Day. I just happen to be writing a story for the newspaper on a local girls hockey team that has struggled against the system.

We folks in journalism like to be timely, but unfortunately that story won't be running today. So I'll use this post instead to be timely.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, I decided to comb my collection for a female representative of as many sports as I could find. Some collectors have a problem with Allen & Ginter and Olympics cards, but that's their issue, because that is where you have the best chance of finding female athletes on cards. And who doesn't enjoy female athletes on cards. Are you that obsessed with dudes?

I don't go out of my way to collect cards of female athletes, but I do like them and I do set aside some of them for certain sports, such as tennis.

So here is what I found in my collection:

BASEBALL

Toni Stone, Negro League player and baseball pioneer and for my money one of the greatest cards in my collection. There is no other card like it.

I also can't write this post without showing the Ted Williams Company All American Girls Professional Baseball League subset.

Baseball legends immortalized by the movie "A League of Their Own". One of the best features of this subset is the backs show updated photos of the players. And they're all featured on the back of the checklist, too.

That's great.

BASKETBALL

Diana Taurasi

Not the only female basketball player card in my collection. After all, this is the most established team sport for women. I was a little perturbed that I could find only one Sue Bird card in my collection. Also, there needs to be a Breanna Stewart card in my collection. I just went looking for one and the choices are minimal.

BOWLING

Kelly Kulick

BOXING

Ana Julaton

CYCLING

Kristin Armstrong

FENCING

Mariel Zagunis

My nieces used to fence. Also, it took this post for me to realize I actually have two cards of Mariel Zagunis.

I have two cards of a fencer! I'm a fencer player collector!

FIGURE SKATING

Kristi Yamaguchi

GOLF

Annika Sorenstam

It was a big loss when Sorenstam left the game. I don't think the LPGA has really recovered.

GYMNASTICS

Kerri Strug

HOCKEY

Manon Rheaume

Legit female pioneer. Where I live, if a girl is going to have significant success in sports it's going to be in hockey. Plenty of local girls have gone to play in college and some have played pro. We currently cover probably the best women's hockey player in the country in Loren Gabel (although she's from Canada).

IRONMAN (IRONWOMAN?)

Chrissie Wellington

LUGE

Erin Hamlin

Tried to get her to speak at a banquet we hold every year. Got turned down.

MODERN PENTATHLON

Margaux Isaksen

POOL

Jeanette Lee

POWERLIFTING

Laura Phelps Sweatt

I've done a story or two on a female powerlifter in our area who has Olympic aspirations. She is one of the tiniest people I have ever met. The amount she can lift at that size is one of the most amazing things I have seen in covering sports.

ROWING

Megan Kalmoe

SKIING

Lindsey Vonn

FREESTYLE SKIING

Ashley Caldwell

SOCCER

Hope Solo

The U.S. women's soccer team sued U.S. Soccer today. I'm assuming they timed it for this particular day.

SOFTBALL

Cat Osterman

One thing that some fans can't admit is that some women's sports are just more interesting than men's sports. I won't say that women's softball is more interesting than men's baseball but it is more interesting than men's softball. And the more that baseball becomes "blast more blasts than the other team blasts," the more I'll find women's softball interesting.

SURFING

Lakey Peterson

SWIMMING

Summer Sanders

TENNIS

Martina Hingis

There is a disturbing lack of Steffi Graf cards.

TRACK AND FIELD

Allyson Felix

That's the end.

There were a few cards of female athletes in other sports that I didn't scan, partly because I ran out of time and partly because I don't consider things like poker a sport. But I got most of the main ones.

Except football, of course. That's a sport that still seems to be steadfastly male, at least when it comes to cards.

Frankly, I don't need brute force all the time in my sports and that's why I like some women's version of sports better than men  because they can do finesse better. Stuff like tennis and gymnastics is more interesting to me when women do it.

I hope you had a fine International Women's Day. Support the women who want to do stuff, whether it's in athletics or anything else. Because if you do, maybe I'll have more cards to collect.