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San Diego's Gay Sports Reporting Pioneer Travis Bone has been the sports editor of the Gay & Lesbian Times since the start of the section By Cyd
Zeigler jr.
Outsports recently caught up with Bone. What are your earliest recollections of sports? Sports have literally always been a part of my life. I would have to say my earliest recollections would be going back to when I was a kid and going to my dad's men's league softball games, my mom's women's league softball games, and the games for the coed team that they played on together. My parents played on the same coed team for over 25 years, and my mom missed the first season playing with them because she was pregnant with me... so I guess you could say I started going to games even before I was born. What is your favorite sports moment as a fan? That's hard to narrow down. As a fan, I grew up around Fresno State's baseball program and I love college baseball, always have, always will. It's just guys playing for the love of the game and some may have a future in the majors while others are doing it purely for the fun and the experience. With that said, I will never forget when Fresno State went to the College World Series
for the first time in over 30 years in 1988. They hosted the regional playoffs in Fresno that year, and the championship game
was between Fresno State and USC. I have never seen so much excitement at a
game. Kenny Baker was the winning pitcher for Fresno State, and he hadn't
pitched more that 3 innings in a game all season. He came in and held
USC for a good five innings and Fresno beat them. I was only 13 years old at
the time and I looked up to a lot of those guys on the team like brothers
because they would come to my family's house for dinner and I would play
video games and stuff with them. I was living vicariously through them when
they won and it felt great. What is your favorite sports moment as a participant? I play in the gay softball league here in San Diego and last year my team, The Center Starz took second place in our annual Autumn Classic tournament. To most people second place may not sound like much, but our team was playing up a level competitively and we were solid the entire tournament. The best part though was our team spirit. No one can beat us there and even if we don't have the strongest players in a game, we work as a team, we communicate and that's how we win. Oh yeah, and we have two straight girls on our team who taught us all of those little softball cheers that the little girls teams do and we annoy the hell out of the other teams.
I actually responded to an ad in the paper that they were looking for a freelance sports reporter. Later on I learned that they ran the ad for three weeks and I was the only person who responded and they were developing the sports page as a way of getting health and fitness related advertisers into the paper, you know, like gyms, and health food stores. I came in knowing the softball league inside and out because I had played in
it for four years. Also, a lot of the softball players were involved in
other sports like basketball and soccer, so it provided me with the perfect
network for getting started. What have been some of the difficulties in developing the sports section? Communication or a lack there of has been the biggest problem with developing the sports section, especially in terms of the local sports leagues. Sometimes leagues can't get scores and standings in on time, or they are not accurate. I end up getting phone calls and e-mails from people who are upset with it. For the most part, a lot of these teams are eager to have their stories told and it really is a great way for the paper to showcase a part of our community that isn't always noticed because it takes place outside of the bar scene, but I think that's what makes the gay sports leagues so great. They are an outlet and an opportunity to build community. If I could give any advice to any sports teams or leagues. Put someone in charge of publicity. I am always looking for sports stories, especially during the off season when the leagues aren't playing. Here in San Diego, the soccer team, softball league and basketball league are very organized and they do a pretty good job of getting the word out, but even individual teams should make a point of emailing or calling in names and highlights from games because there is no way I can see everything that happens.
Definitely going on the field before a Padres game last year to do some on the field interviews about how a team like the Padres might react to learning that one of their teammates was gay. It was probably also one of the toughest sports stories I have ever done too because I got shot down by nine players for interviews on the topic before Ryan Klesko finally let me interview him, and he did a great job representing himself and the team. A female sportscaster from one of the local news stations that I had interned with was also there before the game doing interviews and she even told me it took a lot of guts to do what I was doing, going up, identifying what paper I was with, and then asking for interviews. Aside from that, doing interviews with Billy Bean and Esera Tuaolo have been exciting for me, and I did a story about an openly gay tennis player from San Diego State last year that I am really proud of.
I have a couple of goals, first of all, to educate the gay and lesbian community that there is this world of sport out there that they can be a part of and really feel like they belong to a community. So many gay men grew up being afraid of sports for whatever reason, and these leagues that welcome players of all skill levels give them a second chance to get in there and be one of the guys. Then there are the people who may have grown up playing sports, especially young people, who are just coming out and may not identify with the club scene that there is such a focus on. Any athlete who played organized sports in school and who was closeted can find a new level of enjoyment by playing on a team that is not only competitive, but it's also okay to check out the guys on the other team and all of that kind of stuff.
I love to write, and I get a real satisfaction out of writing about my community the way I do. I started out just covering sports for the paper, but it has become a fulltime job and I cover all sorts of news stories and write features. I would love to expand my audience and readership though, so writing for a national magazine or even mainstream sports and news would be a goal, but I won't forget my roots in whatever I do. I will always try to make sure that the gay community is well represented in what I do, whether it's in my professional life as an openly gay journalist and who I interact with or in the stories I write for the public.
I am not the editor, I am the reporter... but if they want to give me a boost in my title, I will take it. Seriously though, the biggest perk is the number of people I have met and been exposed to over the years. Meeting people like Billy Bean and Esera Tuaolo are very inspirational to me and if you ever told me when I took this job that I would be on the field at a Padres game, I would have said you were nuts. Overall, it's been a great opportunity for me to meet people and do things I never thought I would get to do. Now I am just waiting for a field pass for the Chargers.
Yes, I play softball in our gay league. When the softball season ends, I go back to playing grass court volleyball in the park. |
Travis Bone
What has been your favorite story that you’ve done for
the paper?