I am very excited to announce at this year's Gay Community Night at the Phillies, the opening pitch will be thrown by our very own Cyd Zeigler (co-founder and co-owner of Outsports.com). This means we'll be able to watch Cyd throw out the opening pitch both on the field and on the largest LED video display board in the National League!

The game is Thursday August 18th vs. Washington Nationals. Hopefully some of our Outsports family from NY and DC will be able to come and see the game.

We've set up a website with pics and news clippings from prior games, along with ticket order information. Gay Community Night at the Phillies

[ August 20, 2005, 12:11 PM: Message edited by: scottie ]

Did you deliberately go away from the board until this was finalized so you could make this your 1000th post?

Wow, great news!

Now, if Cyd is the pitcher... who will be the catcher? wink

Here's a hint: he'll be big and hairy.

Huh.

Cyd pitching ... I would have never thought of that. Oh well. wink

Pat Burrell? Or that green guy with the horn-shaped snout?

The latter. I probably should've written "wide and hairy" so you wouldn't have thought of Pat. wink

Bwah-hahahahahahahaha!

Were Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes second choice? wink

~Adam

So I get this magazine sent to me 4 times a year. It's called "Visions Today" and contains "news of gay and lesbian life." Covering PA, NJ & DE. I don't know why they send it to me. I never asked for it. Each issue has a wraparound cover with a form for a subscription. I don't subscribe yet they keep sending it to me anyway. Sooooo this issue has various articles, and one of them is "Playing for the same team: LGBT athletes find camaraderie through local sports groups" -- hmmmmm...so I'm reading about the local softball league and the local soccer club and a guy who's putting together a gay hockey team, etc., and there it is: a mention of the upcoming Gay Day at the Phillies! And wherever there's Gay Day at the Phillies, you just know who's going to be making an appearance! I'll have to type this out since they don't seem to put their articles online:

Once again he does us proud!

Okay, sooooooo...is there going to be an Outsports group sitting together for this game or what?

I'll be coming down and hopefully staying the night in NYC. I'd love to see some Outsporters after the game!!

Update - Phila. Gay Mens Chorus will be doing national anthem.

You better be coming down - without the opening pitch, the game can't start! wink

Why not stay the night in PHL? Just grab a microphone and announce to the crowd that you need a room for the night. You might get a few offers. wink

BTW -- was this message to the Inquirer's Phillies writer, posted on the Q&A forum at philly.com, from anyone we know???

I'm trying to gather a group of people from the Big Apple Softball League to road-trip from NYC to Philly for the game. I'll be surprised if there are fewer than four of us.

Cheers,
Joe McCombs.

Doh - that's what I meant. Spending the night in Philly, hopefully.

For anyone traveling from NY/DC areas and not driving, Amtrak is having a special - buy 2 fares at full price, rest of your party (up to 4 additional people) pays 90% off full fare.

So if 6 of you are traveling together from NY to Philly, one way fare ends up being $18 each. Great deal.

For details, visit amtrak.com and go to "hot deals" page.
Amtrak web site

[ July 13, 2005, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: scottie ]

I do not mean to cause any trouble or offense, but I am curious as to how Cyd's comments in today's Jock Talk, square with him throwing out the first pitch at the Philly's game.

Cyd was asked a few months ago if he would throw out the opening pitch. He was invited to do this by the organizers of Gay Community Night, not by anyone who works for the Philadelphia Phillies. The opening pitch is not only recognizing and honoring Cyd personally but Outsports.com

It hasn't been a total self-banishment by Cyd anyway -- he was at our Outsports Convention game last year, and was part of the gay group attending the Mets game last year.

Of course, I have no way of knowing who paid for his ticket in either case, so it may not have been his hard-earned money going into the pockets of the greedy players and owners. wink

Meanwhile...for anyone from out of town who might want to come here a day early (or for anyone in general), I have two tickets for the game the night before, Wed. 8/17, from my season ticket plan. Anyone who's interested in either one or both tickets for that game, let me know. I don't really need to go because I'm already going the two nights before, so if you're a couple, you can have both tickets.

Please let us know if Cyd throws like a girl.

...and who bought the beer/sodas and cheesesteaks? wink

That observation will not leave the ballpark and the video will be burned. You'll have to come and see for yourself!

The Jock Talk may have been a little strongly worded - but, you got the picture. I certainly paid for that ticket and tickets to gay events the Dodgers and Mets have had in the last few years. For the cause, I'm more than willing to support any gay event at any sport.

I took a pitching lesson last week (insert joke here). I did throw like a girl before the lesson - now I don't

Huh. Cyd pitching ... It still boggles me.

Pitching lesson... *snicker*. Cyd, you could always make the bold statement of throwing it like a women's softball pitcher a la Jenny Finch. I would DIE! Die, die, DIE!

Just wanted to know if people going to the game plan on sitting together as a group, or is everyone just getting their own tickets and sitting wherever.

I was wondering about that myself. I don't see why we can't all sit together. I also wonder how ticket sales are going?

Ticket sales are a little slow, but are starting to pick up. There is an ad in today's PGN for the game. We've sold a lot of tickets in the 2 weeks before the game in the past 2 years, so it is impossible to predict where we'll end up. I already bought my ticket (not that I'll be sitting in any one seat for most of the game) so if you buy a block of Outsports.com seats, I don't need a ticket.

Does Cyd have his ticket also? wink

If anyone wants to take the lead on putting together an Outsports group to get tickets and sit together that night, feel free. I'm out of town the week before the game so I think it would be better for someone else to handle it.

I believe Cyd does not have a ticket yet, he might also be coming down with some other New Yorkers to see him "pitch". wink

[ July 22, 2005, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: scottie ]

I really want to sit with other Outsporters. How can we make that happen?

I'll be out of town next week but will be back the first week of August, so I can coordinate this.

If you want to sit with the Outsports.com group, please PM me or e-mail me (e-mail address is on my profile) and let me know how many tickets you want and give me your mailing address so I can mail you your tickets. Tickets are $18/each. Deadline to let me know is Thursday August 4th.

[ July 22, 2005, 11:10 AM: Message edited by: scottie ]

I've placed my order. wink Thanks for doing this!

Thanks Scottie, I just placed my order.

We need someone to videotape Cyd throwing out the first pitch. Perhaps a volunteer can coordinate with Scottie; they would have to have a good vantage point.

Ask the Phillies for a press/photographer pass for Outsports, and then someone can go on the field and take video/pictures.

Maybe this could be a trial segment for a potential Outsports show for Logo-TV: coverage of Phillies gay day.

It should be shown on the big video screen. Perhaps scottie can check with the Phils to see if they could supply him with a tape?

I had hoped to bring other members of the Big Apple Softball League, but alas, it's just me coming in from NYC for the day. So I wanted to ask:
* Is anyone else making a day-trip from NYC to Philly & would like to carpool? (I don't drive.)
OR
* If I take one of the Chinatown buses from NYC to Philly, it lets me off at 55 or 121 N 11th St. Anyone know how far that is from the ballpark?

Thanks to Scottie for coordinating my ticket purchase; I'll look forward to meeting many of you soon!

Joe McCombs

Joe - Thanks for coming down from New York. I responded to your question about the bus terminal and proximity to the ballpark in an e-mail to you today.

If you wanted tickets (Joe, Cyd, JIP and Phillyrunner) I'll be mailing you the tickets this week.

If you still want to attend the game, you can still purchase tickets directly from the Phillies.

Cyd, don't let on to the Phillies staff that you actually know how to pitch correctly—maybe you can wrangle hands-on training from one of the pitchers!

(Pity they're not giving you the option of providing Left Field coverage for the first inning... that's where the real fun lesson would come from.)

Wow....About an hour ago, I posted the link for gay days site about the Phillie's on their message board on phillies.com for any to see....It's been deleted!!!!

That sux

Fun article in the Philadelphia Gay News about this event written by my dear friend, Marco Baker. Wish I knew how to link so everyone could read Cyd's jokes (I think they were jokes) about Philly Fans and batteries.

I'm under the impression the word "gay" is not allowed to be used on MLB.com message boards, as it is assumed it is being used in a derogatory way.

Yeah, that comes up as "objectionable" so whenver the word has come up on the redsox board it's changed to qay, or g.ay, etc...to get by the "censor" and it stays there. I'm wondering if someone reported it?

Yeah, it's ironic that you can't use "gay" in any sense, just because they suspect that it may be used in a negative sense. You can use things like "g*y" or whatever, and you can use "lesbian."

Anyhoo... I started a thread on the Blue Jays message board (on MLB.com) last year for Blue Jays Pride Night, and it held up OK. There were plenty of ignorant comments, and I think I did report one post, but I think it's good that all opinions (pro and con) stand as they are. It might people realize what gay people have to face on a regular basis. (And there were supportive comments, too.)

You might also try posting on the message board baseball-fever.com They already have an interesting thread on gay baseball which I've posted on.

Pride Community Day with the Blue Jays thread on the official Blue Jays website started (by me) on June 7, 2004.

Pat125 and I will be going to the game Thursday night, and we are also staying Friday night as well. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express
1305-11 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. I'm not sure where we are sitting, but you can always find us because people will probably be throwing things at the two guys wearing Yankee jerseys wink .

Great - I'm sure I'll see both of you (I know you are seating in one of the community night sections). We'll probably be headed out to Woody's or Bike Stop after the game, so we can all hang out after the game.

I have to work Thursday night. I'm not happy.

I'm NOT working Wednesday night, of course. Anybody going to the game that night? I could tag along.

Hope I can catch you all another time.

[ August 15, 2005, 05:11 PM: Message edited by: Ted P ]

It's easy to link, really! wink However, I believe PGN doesn't archive its articles so this won't be up after Thursday.

I got my ticket in the mail -- thanks, scottie! Now I just hope I don't have to stay home with my ailing kitty. I already skipped tonight, and I'm supposed to go tomorrow and Wednesday as well. But assuming the vet takes good care of her, I will bring my copy of the magazine featuring the nude photos of Billy Bean, as discussed here.

[ August 15, 2005, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]