Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Baseball, 2003. Jim and I used to say that we had two coming outs: The first was coming out to our friends and family as gay; The second was coming out to our gay friends as sports fans. In 2003, saying [...]
Posts under ‘Baseball’
Phillies to say “It Gets Better” (finally)
In the end, it seems DeSean Jackson’s stupidity helped do some good after all. I was pleased to see that MLB teams began to create their own “It Gets Better” videos to help combat bullying. The San Francisco Giants were the first to complete theirs, followed by the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox. In [...]
Moment #76: San Francisco Giants become first pro team to release ‘It Gets Better’ video
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Baseball, 2011: The “It Gets Better” project started last September as a response to a spate of suicides by gay and lesbian young people. Since then, more than 10,ooo videos have been produced and viewed a collective 35 million times. Sports [...]
Baseball at the All-Star break: Time to get serious!
The Major League Baseball All-Stars have been announced so that means if you wear Yankee pinstripes then you are going to the game whether you deserve it or not. More importantly, the All-Star game marks the halfway point of the season so what better time to evaluate the league and highlight some of the good [...]
Mets players split 50-50 on gay marriage
In the wake of New York state legalizing same-sex marriage, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News decided to see what players on the Mets thought. Mets players were reluctant to speak publicly about the issue. Still, the news from Albany led to considerable clubhouse discussion, and one player who supports same-sex marriage estimated [...]
Minor league baseball team’s gay night is not an official gay night
While gay fans will be in the stands, the Inland Empire 66ers Minor League Baseball team now say they are not sponsoring Friday’s “Out at the Ballpark” event. They say the news two days ago was because of an overzealous employee. From the Riverside Press-Enterprise: The Inland Empire 66ers were doing damage control Thursday when [...]
Minor league baseball’s Inland Empire 66ers to hold gay night
The minor league baseball team the Inland Empire 66ers in Southern California will hold their first gay pride night Friday. The team, an affiliate of the Angels, says more than half of the promotional discounted tickets have been sold. It hopes to make “Out at the Ballpark” an annual event. Share on Facebook
Baseball announcer Ray Knight apologizes for saying ‘sissy’ on the air
Ray Knight, a color analyst for the Washington Nationals and former Major League Baseball player and manager, apologized for using the word “sissy” during a June 5 telecast, the Washington Blade reported. Knight said this when discussing hitters being hit by pitchers who throw inside: “So you don’t go up there playing the game like [...]
Boston Red Sox, prodded by 12-year-old boy, to produce an ‘It Gets Better’ video
The Boston Red Sox have announced they will produce an anti-bullying “It Gets Better” video. The Red Sox will be the third Major League Baseball team to do so; the San Francisco Giants released theirs last week and the Chicago Cubs announced Friday they will produce one. The Red Sox were inspired by a petition [...]
Outsports classic: Is Barry Zito gay?
After seeing San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito appear in the team’s It Gets Better video, I was reminded of the great cartoon Dylan Edwards did for us back in 2002 when Zito was with the Oakland As. I thought the cartoon perfectly captured the stereotypes gays and straights have about sexual orientation and figured [...]
Gay San Francisco Giants fan convinces team to film an “It Gets Better” video
Hats off to Sean Chapin, an openly gay man and fan of the San Francisco Giants, who convinced the World Series champs to film a video for the “It Gets Better” project. The team responded to Chapin’s video (view below) and a petition by Change.org signed by 6,500 people and announced the move. From the [...]
Baseball: Joe in Philly picks the Phillies
Our good friend Joe Guckin posts his 2011 baseball predictions on his terrific The Joe in Philly Experience blog. And, shocker, he picks his hometown Philadelphia Phillies to win the National League East. So do I and most experts I’ve seen (I am decidedly not a baseball expert). It’s hard not to pick a team [...]
Should Garrett Wittels be able to play?
Florida International shortstop Garrett Wittels is accused of raping a woman in the Bahamas in December. He’s also three games shy of breaking Robin Ventura’s NCAA record for consecutive games with a hit. The University announced yesterday that Wittles will be allowed to play in his team’s season-opener this Friday. Some argue he hasn’t been [...]
School president called ‘queer’ for softball
Longtime Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman said Marshall University’s president must be “queer for softball,” saying he favored the sport over the school’s baseball team. Brennaman now says he could have used a better choice of words. From the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia: On Saturday night during Marshall University’s preseason baseball banquet and [...]
Does Baba Booey think gays can’t pitch?
Forgive me for not writing about this earlier. I heard it on the Howard Stern Show on Monday and forgot about it…until today. Howard’s producer Gary Dell’Abate, aka Baba Booey, threw out an historically terrible opening pitch at a New York Mets game. Gary even put a photo of it on the back of his [...]