The man slouching in a beat-up camping chair is Kansas City Royals catcher John Buck, one of the “cover men” of the 2008 Royals charity calendar. It looks like he was shot on the loading dock of a Wal-Mart and the photographer was a Wal-Mart greeter. Makes you want to rush out and buy 100.
This is one of the more lame sports calendars I have seen. It has all the sex appeal of spending a morning buying drywall at a Home Depot and I can’t see what the target audience is. Some of the Royals are rather handsome (there are outtake galleries here) but they are so de-sexed that few straight women or gay men would find them hot. Where’s the beef(cake)?
Imagine the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues with the women in Hillary Clinton pantsuits instead of micro-bikinis. The calendar even makes the ultra good-looking Alex Gordon appear rather bland, not an easy trick. Contrast this with the smoking shots of the charity “Gods of Sport” calendar featuring Australian pro athletes. In the latter, the rule was the fewer articles of clothing the better.
This perfectly illustrates how most American jocks are loath to show any skin in their promotional ventures (Terrell Owens being one exception). I think it is mostly the fear of appearing too homoerotic and having to defend their sexuality. There are no Americans like English rugby star Ben Cohen, straight jocks who appeal to their gay fans (or female fans who like to see the result of all that hard training). Instead, we get the Royals, dressing their athletes in clothes right out of a JC Penney “Big and Tall” catalog from 1990, with lousy lighting and bad camera angles. If New York City firefighters can strip without fear of losing their masculinity, what stops athletes? –Jim Buzinski
Hat tip to Rich Rodriguez of Gay.com.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Some of us are able to find a man sexy without him being in some state of undress. A state of undress is always nice but not necessary.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
How dare they wear clothes! Goddamn homophobes!
And I’m not even gay and I’ve known Terrell Owens to be a closeted homosexual for the last six years. Get with it.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Yeah, I’m sorry… I don’t get the issue. I don’t get the issue of American athletes being conservative. Just because they’re athletes doesn’t mean that they owe it to their fans to strip down. Obviously I don’t complain about athletes who decide they want to show off their body, but I don’t care for the “how dare they!” attitude of this commentary.
But it’s not the first time I’ve disagreed… and probably not the last… and i still love Outsports, so keep on keepin’ on.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
“It has all the sex appeal of spending a morning buying drywall at a Home Depot…”
Obviously the writer is not a lesbian. I KID, I KID! But if you really want a calendar, the men of Aussie Rules Football and I believe the French Rugby Team have put out a couple good ones.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
“I’ve known Terrell Owens to be a closeted homosexual for the last six years.”
The thought NEVER crossed my mind.
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I have no problems with the way the guys are dressed, actually, but I do have a problem with the amateurish quality of the photos. You mean to tell me that the Royals couldn’t have found some professional photographer to volunteer a few hours to help with a charity calendar? And you mean to tell me that there aren’t more scenic locations to shoot than gray cinder block walls in the basement of Kauffman Stadium? Heck, how hard would it have been to shoot these in the dugout at least?
on Apr 7th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
This is why Derek Jeter is afraid to come out of the closet. He will remain in because he’s afraid of what fans would think. He likes to be know as Mr. Perfect and can do no wrong , but the guy even took his best mail friend on his vacation with Jessica Biel and always want to be linked with the hottest female celebrity out there. The dude tries to hard to prove he’s straight. However, you can see that he tries hard to prove he’s not gay and like throughing sports writers off by brining up girls or trying to throw hints as if he’s looking for a pretty girl
on Apr 8th, 2008 at 1:07 am
White Sox fan:
That is a great point. Fully clothed would have been fine if they had shown any effort in clothing, lighting etc.
on Apr 8th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Does Jeter have a best FedEx and UPS friend too?
on Apr 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Think about this. It’s the Royals…the greatest organization in baseball. Right?
on Apr 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
The outtakes look like mug shots, especially with that beautiful concrete wall behind them.
on Jun 13th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
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