The good news is it’s actually listed on the schedule page at the Riversharks’ website — even the Phillies haven’t done this. The bad news is the insert says the game is on Thursday, July 13th…which is actually a Tuesday. At any rate, here are the details from the insert:

LGBTA NIGHT WITH THE RIVERSHARKS! July 13 at 7:05 pm

The Riversharks are officially making baseball an LGBTA sport and we want you to join us! Come on out to Campbell’s Field on July 13th as we celebrate our pride with the Philadelphia and South Jersey LGBTA communities!

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Poorya Nayerahmadi:
(856) 583-0035 (direct)
Poorya@riversharks.com

I am proud of the fact that so many of these gay nights have been in Philadelphia, thanks in huge measure to Larry Felzer. March 1st saw the second such event at a 76ers game; this coming Thursday will be the first-ever gay community night at the Flyers (I’ll be there, and there are still a few tickets available, according to their Facebook page); and, of course, Phillies gay night number EIGHT will take place in August. Now it’s spreading to nearby teams as well.

By the way, on the website for that “Take Me Out” production, it states that on March 14th there was a bonus: a “post-show talkback” with the Riversharks’ pitching coach, Jeff Scott. That might have been interesting.

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I was contacted by someone who works for the Sixers and the Flyers, and I had really wanted to do the Flyers night before but it wasn’t able to happen, so I thought that if we could do it with both these teams this year, that’d be really great. … They know their fans come in all races, all backgrounds, and it is nice to actually be contacted by them about setting this up instead of the other way around.

The Sixers game is this Monday, March 1, against the Orlando Magic; the Flyers game is March 25 against the Minnesota Wild. To purchase tickets, call Oldsey at (215) 952-5280. Tickets to the 76ers game are $20, and tix to the Flyers are $30.

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And then there was the pathetic display at the Wachovia Center last night, with the Orlando Magic finishing off the Philadelphia 76ers in six games with a 114-89 rout. Before the game all the talk was about how the absence of Dwight Howard (one-game suspension due to an elbowing incident) and Courtney Lee (injured by another Howard elbow, albeit not on purpose) would give the Sixers a strong chance to force a game 7. And then the game started.

(Permit me a little comic book geek interlude here. If Dwight Howard is Superman, the Sixers weren’t exactly Lex Luthor or General Zod, as in “Kneel before…” and they had no kryptonite. They were more like Mr. Myxzptlk, the imp from the fifth dimension who was always tricked into saying his name backwards, thus triggering his return to his own dimension. But in this case, instead of Superman, the Sixers were defeated by a bunch of Jimmy Olsens. Okay, end of geek interlude.)

Meanwhile, check out what 76er Andre Iguodala had to say after the game…

As the Sixers’ spokesman, its face, Andre Iguodala figures he should have input.

As the team’s general manager, Ed Stefanski better get ready to listen.

“We could have been a 50-win team,” Iguodala said last night after the Sixers lost Game 6, 114-89, and their Eastern Conference quarterfinal to the Magic, their second six-game, first-round playoff loss in as many seasons.

His solution?

“Moves. It’s going to be a busy summer,” Iguodala said. “I’m going to sit down with Ed and discuss what I think will get us over the [hump].”

Again, I have to provide the disclaimer that I’m not really a fan of the NBA, but from what I’ve casually observed, if Andre Iguodala has some thoughts, he should really look in the mirror first. He’s one of the most overrated and way overpaid players in the league. Why the Sixers signed him to a huge contract extension is beyond comprehension. And now he wants to play GM? We’re not talking Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson here.

This is a prime example of exactly what’s wrong with the NBA now. The huge contracts given Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert (another waste of money) and Elton Brand (who barely showed up before a shoulder injury ended his season, and even when he played he didn’t do much) ruin the team salary cap-wise, even after finally getting some cap room by ridding themselves of the likes of Allen Iverson and Chris Webber. How can they make this team much stronger without signing free agents or getting lottery picks? A team that hovers around .500 and squeaks into the playoffs, only to be easily dismissed in the opening round, is no fun if there’s no hope for future improvement.

All I can say is I’m glad I’m not a big basketball fan and was watching other stuff instead last night. Those people who are hardcore Sixers fans are pretty apoplectic — about the game, the players, the coach, the GM, everything. I’ve mentioned in the past how attendance has been dropping in the post-Iverson era. Three 2009 playoff games — no sellouts. The fans who stayed to the end last night reportedly booed their lungs out. If the 76ers think they had trouble selling tickets this season, just wait.

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Matt Hennie recently blogged here about the NFL’s recent announcement of layoffs and the WNBA’s Houston Comets going under, but the recession is taking a toll on many sports. Major League Baseball’s Internet operation, the NBA and NASCAR have all laid off workers recently, and the NHL is in a hiring freeze.

The AFL plans to restructure their business, hoping to improve the league’s economic health, but I can’t help but wonder if the league will ever return. For that matter, what will happen to the WNBA? The Comets were one of the league’s original franchises and won the first four WNBA championships. If a team gets off to that great a start and still is out of business after 12 seasons, how can the rest of the league survive? How long before the NBA cuts off its subsidies due to the poor economy?

I’m also still wondering about ticket sales. I’ve written about the troubles the Philadelphia 76ers are having selling tickets. Well, they drew only 15,000-plus for a game last week against Cleveland and LeBron James. In the past the Sixers have sold out (or at least come close) when superstars such as LeBron and Kobe came to town, but they fell some 5,000 short of capacity this time. And today, tickets went on sale for their one-time-only return to the Spectrum, which will soon be torn down. The Flyers played a preseason game — an exhibition — and it sold out almost instantly. As of now, there are still seats available for the Sixers’ regular season Spectrum finale. Ticket prices may have something to do with it. Except for seats at the very top level being sold for $19.67, a nod to the year the Spectrum opened — and those cheap seats were sold out when I checked the website — the lowest ticket price available is $75.00. It may well sell out, but I think the fact that it wasn’t sold out when I checked earlier is telling.

Back to the Arena Football League for a moment. The conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but wonder if their cancellation of the 2009 season was a plot conceived by anti-Philadelphia forces to keep the Philadelphia Soul from defending its championship.If baseball makes a similar announcement about its upcoming season, it’ll confirm my suspicions!

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With so many people in the sports complex for the finish of the Phillies’ parade, the 76ers came up with a promotion: anyone showing up at the box office wearing Phillies gear could buy tickets to tonight’s game for just $10. The team said they sold about 2,000 tickets through this promotion. The tickets I bought had a face value of $54. (I wonder if Rollins paid $10 for his courtside seats?)

However, the announced attendance was just 11,717 — in an arena that holds over 20,000 for basketball. Although their home opener on Wednesday against Toronto drew just 15,750, tonight’s crowd still surprised me. The Sixers made a late-season run and surprised everyone by getting into the playoffs and giving Detroit a run for its money in the first round. They then made a big free-agent signing, picking up Elton Brand in the off-season. All of this was supposed to generate excitement and, presumably, ticket sales.

So why was the building half-empty? It can’t be because the team isn’t living up to expectations. This was only the second game of the season. They haven’t had a chance to disappoint yet. Are people too obsessed with the Phillies right now to be into the other teams? The Flyers had 18,227 for their game last night. Are the Knicks a lousy opponent, interest-wise? Well, yes. Right now, at least, the Knicks are going nowhere as the 76ers rolled to a 116-87 win.

Is this a sign that the economic meltdown is going to take its toll on sporting attendance? Again, the Flyers nearly had a full building. And from what I’ve read, people were willing to spend top dollar on World Series tickets from scalpers such as StubHub — even for Game 5 tickets that were already used on Monday, before the rain put a halt to the proceedings, and were needed for re-admission for the resumption of the game on Wednesday. People were paying hundreds of dollars to see 3 innings of baseball.

The 76ers’ opponents for their home games in November: Sacramento, Utah, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State, Orlando and Chicago. I’m not anticipating huge crowds for any of these games.

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Drought update: The Phillies’ 3-2 win over the LA Dodgers gives them a 1-0 lead in the National League Championship Series. This is the 18th time since the 76ers won the NBA title in May 1983 that a Philadelphia team has gotten to the “final four” in a particular league. Of the prior 17, 7 teams made it to the finals before losing. This is the 3rd time in the final four for the Phils; the previous 2 times (1983, 1993) they got to the World Series. By far the most successful (relatively speaking) has been the Flyers, who have 8 semifinal appearances (including last season) and 3 Stanley Cup finals during this time. The Eagles have their 4 NFC title games and 1 Super Bowl appearance. The 76ers have only made it to the final four twice during this span, with one big run to the NBA finals in 2001.

Idiots: Fox analyst Mark Grace in the pre-game show last night warned the Dodgers to beware of the Philadelphia fans because “they throw things at you.” You should be so lucky, Mark. And I’m hearing on the radio that Eagle Trent Cole said something critical about the fans, though I can’t find out exactly what he said. Considering his subpar performance this year and the team’s ugly showing the last two weeks, Trent has other things to worry about.

Phillies vs. Eagles: The scheduling of the Phils-Brewers game on Sunday for the same time as the Redskins-Eagles game, and a post-game Cole Hamels comment that “hopefully (the Phils win over the Brewers will) turn the city red more than it is green,” has reignited the debate about whether this is a baseball or a footbal town. It’s easy to say that football rules, but it’s not entirely accurate. The Eagles game won in the local TV ratings on Sunday but right now the talk on the radio is almost non-stop Phillies. In the day or two after the Eagles’ disgusting loss on Sunday, though, it was reversed, despite the Phils’ success. A possible explanation comes from WIP radio host Al Morganti, who’s commented in the past that talk radio is “the complaint department of life.” When things are going badly people want to vent. When things are okay people don’t have the same urgency to call. In the end, Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino said it best: “It doesn’t matter who wins a championship. I think we’re playing for Philadelphia. We’re not trying to outdo the Eagles. We’re not trying to outdo the 76ers. We’re not trying to outdo the Flyers…We’re focused on our goal and what we have ahead of us. We’re not trying to make this a red town.”

Sports film fest: If you want to overdose on sports movies, come to town October 23-26 for the first-ever U.S. Sports Film Festival. Let me guess…lots of showings of “Rocky” and “Invincible”?

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