Outsports Jock Talk Blog

Number twenty-eight in a series.

Broadcast: Oakland A’s on Comcast Sportsnet-Bay Area, A’s at Minnesota, 8/18/08; Announcers: Glen Kuiper (play-by-play), Ray Fosse (analyst)

Perhaps it had to do with the collapse of the A’s season — they’re currently 19 1/2 games behind the Angels in the AL West and have traded away three pitchers who were in the starting rotation at the beginning of the season — but this was a pretty low-key broadcast. So, as you’ve probably figured out by now, I rather enjoyed it. This was another game where I didn’t have to write down a whole lot of notes.

Glen Kuiper (brother of the Giants’ Duane Kuiper, by the way) and Ray Fosse for the most part kept the focus on the game. While they joked around some, none of it made me cringe.

Fosse also had some good observations. In the first inning he noticed early on that A’s starter Justin Duchscherer was flexing or shaking his right leg from time to time as if he were hurt. Duchscherer ended up leaving the game during the bottom of the third with a right hip injury.

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In August 1988 the Phillies and Cubs nearly made history by playing the first night game at Wrigley in major league baseball history. However, after 3 1/2 innings the game was rained out, and the Cubs’ game against the Mets the next night became the first official night game at Wrigley.

Twenty years later, the Phils and Cubs have another shot at history: tonight’s game at Wrigley is the first game being played with the possibility of instant replay reversing a call. The three weekend series beginning tonight (Phils-Cubs, Twins-A’s and Rangers-Angels) are the first to fall under the new replay process. Starting tomorrow, every game is subject to replay review.

Only home run “boundary” calls — fair or foul,  over the fence or not, or if fan interference is involved — can be reviewed by the umpires. Video from each game will be compiled at what MLB calls its Network Operations Center in New York (not as good a name as the NHL’s “War Room” in Toronto), and technicians can zoom in and speed up or down the video to help the umpires.

Baseball is the last of the four major sports leagues to use replay review in some form. Right now they insist that it will never be expanded to review plays other than homers. We’ll see if they hold to that after a controversial call in a postseason game.

What seems unfair to me is that they’re starting this in midseason (or late season, to be precise). I can understand that they didn’t want to use the system for the first time in the playoffs. However, some teams have more games left than others, so the reversal of calls may benefit those teams. Changing rules when so many games have already been played isn’t right. – Joe Guckin

There’s nothing quite like getting your day started munching on some Wheaties and staring at the orange box featuring decathlete Bryan Clay, who’s ripples and bulges tranfixed many a gay Olympic fan this month. Starting in September, you’ll get just that chance.

General Mills, maker of the crispy flakes, announced that Clay and gymnast Nastia Liukin will get their own special edition Wheaties boxes. Liukin won five gold medals in Beijing and helped the U.S. win silver in the competition. Clay was the first American to win the decathlon since Dan O’Brien did so in 1996. Michael Phelps, by the way, is heading to General Mills rival Kellogg. Check out the box covers after the jump. –Matt Hennie

Matt Hennie blogs on Atlanta’s sports scene at Gaytlsports.com.

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With college football season approaching, I figured we’d revisit a couple fun pics from May of 2007, in which some college football players getting touchy-feely with other guys, including Tim Tebow. Yep, that’s apparently the Florida quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner going to lick the ear of some other guy. Tebow’s been caught on camera all smoochy smoochy with another guy before, namely last September during a game. Could Tebow actually have some Romosexual tendencies, or is he just a metrosexual guy who isn’t afraid to lick another guy’s face?

Then there are the photos (one after the jump) of Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford spooning a guy at Talladega last year. Gotta love these crazy kids showing each other some love! -Cyd Zeigler jr.

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Fantasy football season has been underway with drafts for a couple weeks now. Someone in a league that Jim and I are in sent us a link to a Web site that highlights some of the best and most popular fantasy team names this year. Atop their list: Romosexual Tendencies. Some of the others are just great: Laveranues & Shirley, Ki-Jana Monologues, Me So Zorny. Classic. -Cyd Zeigler jr.

Hat tip to Dean L.

Michael Phelps’ bank account just got fatter. The Olympian, fresh off his record-setting haul of eight gold medals in Beijing, inked a deal with the Free Press imprint of Simon & Schuster for a $1.6 million advance on a book to be called “Built to Succeed.” And nearly as fast as Phelps himself, the book will hit stores in December. He’s already picked up a $1 million bonus from Speedo and is expected to take about $10 million by year’s end.

In the book, which is being called an “inspirational memoir,” the publisher said that Phelps will reveal the secrets of his success, and give a behind-the-scenes look at his approach to training, competition and winning. The narrative thread is expected to be the eight final swims of the 2008 games.

The media juggernaut that is Phelps also appeared on the Aug. 25 issue of Sports Illustrated with his eight golds draped across his bare chest, a remake of the Mark Spitz cover in 1972. But true to form, Phelps has outdistanced Spitz there, too. He’s snagged five SI covers to three for Spitz. –Matt Hennie

Matt Hennie blogs on Atlanta’s sports scene at Gaytlsports.com.

Battles on the court at the U.S. Open, which started today, always provide athletic entertainment. But off the court, the fashion wars are heating up.

Nike is remaking Rafael Nadal, long known for packing his muscular frame into sleeveless shirts and capris, while Andy Roddick and James Blake are tripping over one another for the title of Best Dressed Metrosexual.

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Just a quick note to let everyone know about a panel I’m hosting Saturday morning at the NLGJA Convention in Washington, D.C. The discussion will revolve around gay issues in the sports media: Gay reporters in the locker room, asking the gay question of athletes, etc…. We’ve got a great panel with ESPN’s LZ Granderson, AP’s Bill Konigsberg, XM Radio’s Maggie Linton, and GLAAD’s Ted Rybka. If you’re at the convention, please do stop by and say hi.

You can listen to a podcast interview about the panel here. -Cyd Zeigler jr.

Number twenty-seven in a series.

Broadcast: Florida Marlins on Sun Sports, Chicago Cubs at Marlins, 8/16/08; Announcers: Rich Waltz (play-by-play), Tommy Hutton (analyst), Craig Minervini (reporter)

Of the many, many, many game elements or graphics featuring a commercial sponsor — the Coors Light 6th Inning, the AFLAC trivia question, the Aspen Dental Play That Made You Smile — the single worst one I’ve come across has to be the Maroone Call to the Bullpen. When there’s a pitching change in the middle of an inning of a Marlins telecast, before they go to commercial we’re treated to this jingle, sung to the tune of the Ray Parker Jr. “Ghostbusters” theme:

When you need a car
Truck or van
Who you gonna call?
Ma-Roo-Neeeee!

Three times my ears were subjected to this. It was three times too many. No, make that about twelve. I want credit for having seen it other times.

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Does Tony Romo have a hankering for an old flame? The Cowboys quarterback’s ex-girlfriend, singer Carrie Underwood, told Allure magazine in its September issue that he still calls her. “The phone will ring and it’ll be him, and I’ll maybe not answer.”

This drew a response from his current girlfriend, Jessica “Yoko Romo” Simpson, who told a Nashville radio station that it isn’t true. because “I looked at his call log.”

“Tony and I both laughed at that,” Simpson said. “We got a chuckle out of it.” Well, I know I’m laughing, but we need to hear from the person who has a more important role in Romo’s life. How does Terrell Owens feel about this? — Joe Guckin

Way back in March of this year, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was arrested after allegedly punching a college student and breaking his car window with a beer bottle. It was Henry’s fifth arrest, and he was one of ten Bengals arrested in a 14-month span.

The Bengals released him after that arrest, and owner Mike Brown’s commented at the time: ”His conduct can no longer be tolerated…the Bengals tried for an extended period of time to support Chris and his potentially bright career. We had hoped to guide him toward an appropriate standard of personal responsibility that this community would support and that would allow him to play in the NFL…but those efforts end today, as we move on with what is best for our team.”

Flash-forward to now, and the Bengals’ receiver corps is hurting. Chad Johnson suffered a shoulder injury in an exhibition game and T.J. Houshmandzadeh hasn’t even been able to work out due to a hamstring injury. So guess who’s back with the Bengals? That’s right. They re-signed Chris Henry, even though he has to serve a four-game suspension, by which time they theoretically would have both Johnson and Houshmandzadeh back.

Ah, once again the smell of hypocrisy is in the air. No wonder this team, so often overrated by pundits at the start of each year, continues to be a perennial failure. – Joe Guckin

My football team headed to New York Giants camp in Albany last Saturday for a little team retreat. Pat Hanlon of the Giants has been incredibly good to me for years and he set us up with VIP passes; he’s very gay-friendly and has helped set a gay-friendly tone with the Giants.

I took a lot away from watching the defending Super Bowl champions practice (that’s lineman Shaun O’Hara to the right). It was all business. There was a set schedule and coach Tom Coughlin held them to the schedule to the minute. There was intensity and fire out there; it seemed no one, except maybe Plaxico Burress who simply stood on the sidelines and watched, was taking last year’s playoff success for granted. It was cool to see.

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Tennis superstar Rafeal Nadal, now the world’s top player, likes to be ogled. Or at least fashion writers (and the rest of us) like to ogle him.

And now here’s Nadal. His has been called a “pirate” look, but the interesting thing about Nadal’s style is that it’s so feminine—a thinner, less physical player could not pull off those clothes. Maybe that’s why he’s been greeted with the kind of moral outrage—“Abominable!” “Infernal!”—usually reserved for the latest female player to show too much skin. Debate over the pants in particular, and Nadal’s habit of reaching back to loosen them between points, has trespassed on the familiar terrain of comfort versus sex appeal. Are they too tight? Is it one of his many elaborate on-court rituals (Nadal’s own explanation)? Or are his butt muscles just too big?

Read the rest of the piece on Nadal in the New York Times Fall Fashion ‘08 section. There’s a gallery of photos, too. –Matt Hennie

Matt Hennie blogs on Atlanta’s sports scene at Gaytlsports.com.

A surprising thing happened tonight at Citizens Bank Park. It was Gay Community Night at the Phillies.

That’s not the shocking thing. Tonight’s event was the 6th such event.

I had a brief word with Larry Felzer, one of the organizers of the event and longtime friend of Outsports,  who informed me that they sold 837 tickets, an amount which surpassed the number of seats originally alloted.

That’s not the shocking thing. It’s been successful every year. I don’t think they’ve ever sold fewer than 700 tickets.

No, what was shocking was that, for the first time on a Gay Community Night, the Phils actually won the game.

Of course, they only beat a minor league team masquerading as the Washington Nationals, a team with the worst record in the majors that has now lost 11 in a row. And they trailed 4-1 and only had 7 hits the entire game, but shoddy Nats defense helped the Phils tie the game, and Jayson Werth’s 8th-inning homer provided the winning run.

I’m not sure if the local right-wing protest group showed up outside the gates, as they have in previous years (I’m not even going to mention the group’s name — why give them any more exposure?) but no longer can they celebrate the fact that the Phils have always lost on Gay Community Night. Sucks to be them, huh? – Joe Guckin

Number twenty-six in a series.

Broadcast: Texas Rangers on FSN Southwest, Tampa Bay at Rangers, 8/15/08; Announcers: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tom Grieve (analyst), Jim Knox (reporter)

With a few hours until the deadline for signing draft picks (a team that didn’t sign a drafted player lost the rights to that player, who goes back into the draft next year), it was fortunate that the Rangers’ analyst is their former general manager as well as a former player. That allowed for Tom Grieve to give some insight into what happens when the deadline nears and a high draft pick still hasn’t come to terms.

Of course, he also called Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton “Justin” a number of times. Justin is B.J.’s brother. Not only that, he didn’t want to go out on a limb as to whether Upton’s benching in the 6th inning was a disciplinary move on the part of Rays’ manager Joe Maddon. If you read my report on the Rays’ broadcast the other day, you may remember that the subject of Upton’s work ethic came up in that broadcast as well.

In this game, Upton hit a ground ball to short that was turned into a surprisingly easy double play. He went out to center for the bottom of the 6th, and then was called back and replaced by Justin Ruggiano. A replay showing what happened with Upton was not forthcoming — a big flaw under the circumstances — so I hit rewind (I love my DVR, by the way) and watched the play again. Read the rest of this entry »