THE ATHLETIC's Salvian & Strang noted despite more than 200 women's hockey players announcing last week that they would boycott the upcoming NWHL season, there "remains a sizeable contingent of players who did not sign on for the call to action." Those who "opted not" to sit out the season still "largely support that broader goal of achieving better pay, infrastructure, insurance and overall support." But their "chief concern" is "how quickly this movement developed and the lack of clarity provided on key questions." Several players said that they "had only a matter of days between being contacted by a representative appointed to speak to them and making a decision whether to be on board" (THEATHLETIC.com, 5/7).
FEDERATION PLANET: YAHOO SPORTS' Leander Schaerlaeckens writes the U.S. Soccer Federation's "persistence with this self-inflicted public relations nightmare is baffling" after the NGB this week "pushed back" against a lawsuit filed against it by the USWNT. The USSF "willingly frames itself as the penny-pinching overlord pitted against one of the nation's most popular teams." The federation "continues to focus on revenue," and that is "where its argument falls flat." As a nonprofit, the USSF "really has no standing to reduce a moral quandary to money" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 5/8).
JUICE CLEANSE: In S.F., Scott Ostler wrote in an "age in which sports fans demand more action," MLB "offers less." The recent trend to "homerball results in more whiffs, fewer hits, less action." The league "could reverse that trend simply by squeezing some of the juice out of the ball." MLB has "long insisted it does not alter the balls, that they've been exactly the same for years," though some "pitchers and hitters say otherwise" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/7).
