Last night I went to a friend's wedding. At one point I was standing at the bar watching the Rangers game, and a guy I'd never met approached me. "You're watching the baseball game?" I told him I was, in fact, watching the baseball game, to which he responded, "You've got to marry me."

So, I guess this is as good a time as any to delve into 'Girls Who Like Sports' talk.

There seem to be two groups of men out there: those who love women that can share a love of sports with them, and those who are frightened or put-off by them. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground there. I'm focusing on the latter, because they are far more interesting.

First off, background info that may be pertinent. I've always gotten along better with guys than girls. I have a few close female friends, but I've always spent more of my time with guys. (It should also be noted than none of these guys were ever boyfriends. I had two boyfriends in college, neither of which had any interest in sports. They were too indie rock for sports, and this eventually led me back to single life. When you realize you'd rather be watching Sportscenter than making out, you know the relationship is pretty much over.)

Being a girl that wears skirts and makeup and loves nothing more than spending a Saturday night watching a hockey game over pizza and beer is extremely difficult. Most people seem to think that women who like sports have to look a certain way, and skirts, makeup, and stiletto heels don't usually fit into that stereotype. Anyway, things have been this way since I can remember. It was a normal day of 2nd grade the first time I realized that boys and girls were not viewed the same way when sports were involved. I was outside for recess dressed in a pair of jeans and my brand new Flyers jacket. A boy in my class ran over to me, pulled my hair, yelled “Girls don’t like hockey” in my face, and ran away laughing. He most likely forgot about the incident by the end of the day. But 17 years later, I still remember his name and the incident with remarkable clarity.

Years later I was in junior high and I had finally found a female friend who loved sports as much as I. We frequented card shows and whenever a local athlete was making an appearance, we were first in line. There obviously aren't a lot of women at sports collectibles shows, so I wasn't offended at the occasional stare. But I was not willing to put up with the one thing we heard at nearly every single show we attended.

“So...which player do you two ladies think is the cutest?”

(Yes, women do think athletes are sexy. I won't lie. There have been many sex dreams about Jason Varitek, and I would be more than willing to let Doug Mientkiewicz father my children. But why must that automatically mean I don’t know how to calculate a pitcher’s ERA?)

In college it was no different. My reputation as a sports junkie followed me, and I'd always be the girl in the kitchen at parties debating Leon Stickle's non-call of offsides in Game 6 of the 1980 Islanders-Flyers Cup Finals, or arguing that the Rangers would never be successful as long as Neil Smith was the GM. For me, that was more enjoyable than huddling around the keg with my girlfriends, talking about my latest bikini wax. But it left me confused and, most of the time, alone. It created strain between my girlfriends and I. They saw me as a traitor; why would I rather talk about football than weddings and boy troubles? And the guys saw me as a great friend who could hopefully introduce them to my hot friends over by the keg.

[I should point out, now, that I am generalizing for the sake of discussion. I have had boyfriends and friends that could appreciate my ability to love both skirts and sports (including the guy at the wedding last night), but I still have found that these kinds of men are in the minority. So if you are one of them, thank you. Carry on. It’s the others I'm worried about.]

It's no coincidence that today I work at a sports-talk radio station. When I got the job I thought I was in heaven. I was finally surrounded by people who knew sports, and who would talk to me like a human being. Or so I thought. Once when I inquired why there were no women on the air, I was told that “men like to think of women in a certain way, and women talking about sports doesn't fit in with that.” Since then, I have found a handful of guys at work who will talk to me like I'm an intelligent human being, and I appreciate them more than they will ever know. But there is still the contingent that smirks after I share a sports opinion, as if everything I say is followed by a pink asterisk, because they can’t believe that sentence came out of a girl’s mouth.

From what I can tell, and again, I'm generalizing for the sake of discussion, guys prefer the kind of girls who like sports on a social level. The perfect girlfriend is the one who won’t complain when you want to watch the baseball game with the guys – but she wouldn’t have any interest in being involved. If forced, she could sit through a game, could recognize a double play, and could probably even name each position on the field. But that’s where it ends. She would never form her own opinions about the game, and would certainly never, under any circumstances, remark that while Pokey Reese’s defense is superior, it’s hard not to play Bellhorn at 2nd because of his impressive OBP.

My question is: why?

A guy called into the radio station once and told the story of his college girlfriend. She was a total knockout, and the relationship seemed to be perfect. That is, until they sat down to watch a hockey game. She remarked that the Stars seemed to have a problem killing penalties, since they had given up 10 power play goals in their last 5 games. He broke up with her a week later because, as he put it, “I could never make out with her again. She threw out that stat, and all of a sudden, this hot woman was just one of the guys.”

That completely blew me away. I was always aware that liking sports made me different, but I had never heard it spoken that liking sports made women unattractive.

And I'm not sure where this fits in, but there's another variable that interests me. Message boards have brought this to my attention, but it's the same in conversation. As soon as a woman mentions that an athlete is attractive, she ceases to be a knowledgeable sports mind, in the eyes of most men. “Oh, you're THAT kind of sports fan,” they say. But just because someone has a vagina doesn't mean she can't define ‘ground rule double.’

I guess I want two things from this discussion. This subject fascinates me, and I’d love to have a better understanding of what men think. What is your first impression of a woman who clearly knows just as much about sports as you do? What don't you like about the idea of having an in-depth discussion with your girlfriend about the Flyers' goaltending situation?

I'd also like to talk to women that have gone through similar things. Because let's face it, I enjoy talking sports with guys, but sometimes it's nice to be able to talk about how amazing Billy Mueller's 9th inning homerun off Mariano Rivera was, as well as how good he looked running the bases.