Age: does it matter in the world of sports?

Personally, I can see why the age of consent should be lower than, say, the age we require… Personally, I can see why the age of consent should be lower than, say, the age we require for presidency, but I can’t see how a woman who could potentially bear children is not mature enough to hit a ball with a stick, should her skills be up to snuff.

Mr. Newby is right, however, in saying that a great majority of athletes are not ready for competition on the highest level by the time they are 18. He says that “Not everyone can be [LeBron] James or Amare Stoudamire.” I would note that not everyone can be Wayne Gretzky, who, having been born in 1961, would have been 17 for his inaugural season of professional hockey in 1978. He would have been 18 for the year of his first MVP season, which was, for Penn State fans, the year after his first one.

But just because these precocious athletes are few and far between doesn’t mean they should be excluded. Mr. Newby, apparently, would have kept Doogie Howser out of med school, and Doogie saved lives every week. And for what? Well, I guess you should be punished for maturing faster than your peers, either physically or mentally.

Mr. Newby cites Max Kellerman saying that golf can’t be a sport because 14-year-old girls can compete with the best men in the world. He asks us to name another sport where that is the case.

How about gymnastics? Figure skating? There are many sports where 14-year-old girls are dominant participants and can hold their own with any man. You don’t think it takes strength to hold your entire body in the air with one arm? You don’t think it takes power and agility to do a triple lutz? Not that I actually know what a triple lutz is.

But in women’s figure skating, if women could turn pro without sacrificing the chance at Olympic gold, they would turn pro at age 13. How old was Michelle Kwan when she turned pro because the highest level of competition — the Olympics — was no longer a viable option for her? Twenty, maybe? I mean, 18 is practically over the hill, here. And who’s the oldest Olympic female gymnast you’ve ever seen?

As far as golf is concerned, does basketball cease to be a sport when a player steps to the free-throw line and technique supersedes athleticism? Golf is not only a sport, it is a better sport, though surely not more fun to watch, than these other sports. Why? Because a 14-year-old girl can compete, if she works hard enough. How about a sport that doesn’t eliminate 95 percent of the world’s population as soon as they emerge from the womb? But basketball is a sport because 7-foot-tall men with absolutely no athletic talent whatsoever make $6 million per year?

In golf, you can have major champions like Corey Pavin or Justin Leonard, both of whom are, to borrow a phrase from “Rudy,” “5-foot-nothing, a hundred and nothing.” Golf is a sport accessible to people who are not born as freaks of nature. Golf merely eliminates … 95 percent of the world’s population because they can’t afford golf clubs. So nothing’s perfect.

But while we’re on golf, Mr. Newby says that “[Tiger Woods] didn’t take on the best in the world when he was 14 just to prove he could.” No, he took on the best when he was 16, in the Nissan Los Angeles Open, in 1992. And speaking from the standpoint of a golfer, Wie is more ready to play professional golf than Tiger was then. But the comparison is misguided anyway, because any player who “takes on the world’s best” in golf actually has to win to make any money. Meanwhile, a high school basketball player — say, Kwame Brown — can go pro and get $6 million a year to grab fewer rebounds than Tiger would.

Mr. Newby and Kellerman both seem to let their opinions of what constitutes a sport be dictated by the antiquated belief that girls can’t have game. If this wasn’t an issue of sexism, why did neither man realize that there are sports where the pinnacle of competition is among teen-age girls?