Friday nite, June 25th, the Toronto Blue Jays host their first Gay Pride game: http://www.gaybaseballdays.com/

This is a big step for a conservative organization. All you guys from upstate NY, SE Michigan, northern Ohio, as well as everybody in Ontario and PQ that may not have heard about this event - here you go! Come on up to Toronto and kick off Pride Weekend with the Jays-Expos game.

Good post, Bulgin Bxrz! Actually, that website you link to was created by... me!

The Blue Jays have their own site for the event: www.bluejays.com/pride

Tickets will be available right up to game time at the SkyDome box office--quote code PRIDE04 for the Pride discount.

The Pride Day game on Friday June 25th will be nationally televised on Rogers Sportsnet. So if you can't make it to the game, watch it on TV and look for the gay community sections: field level, last 4 sections down the 3rd base line.

I'll be wearing a black Carlos Delgado (#25) Jays t-shirt, and grey Jays cap. Look for me!

[ June 22, 2004, 06:54 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

I wonder if this will get some coverage outside Canada?

The event has already been written up in at least 2 US publications that I am aware of, the Washington Blade and Artvoice (Buffalo, NY). I'm quoted in both!

Washington Blade

From Artvoice (Buffalo, NY)

I'll be wearing a Yankee t-shirt and a Yankees cap. Look for me too.

canmark, I'm so proud of you--what a great thing to do. good for you, and pat125 is coming up for the game. would he be visiting anyone we know?

I so wanted to be a part of the event that I just arranged to take the day off to travel to the game! (Canmark has done so much that I'm sure it will be a blast! I wonder if I'll get some friendly support when I'm cheering for nos amours, les Expos! )

Hopefully, I'll be able to secure a ticket within his vicinity!

I'll be watching for you guys on TV, although Pat's Yankees shirt and cap should be easier to spot than Canmark's Blue Jays apparel for obvious reasons! But even if Cattledog isn't there to boost the numbers, I suspect there were will be more fans wearing Yankees gear than Expos, since it seems hardly anyone cares about them anymore. (oops..edit note...sorry Ed, your post wasn't there when I started this, I guess there will be at least one Expos fan at the SkyDome!)

The game will be televised across Canada on Sportsnet. I see that Sharon Gless ('Queer as Folk') will be tossing the ceremonial first pitch, and my fellow 'homo-Calgarian' Mark Tewksbury (Olympic gold medal for swimming) will be there as well. I hope there is some mention of Gay Day during the telecast.

Speaking of ceremonial pitches, I see in tonight's Blue Jays loss to the Devil Rays, Conservative leader and PM-wannabe Stephen Harper did the honours. Now I wonder why he wasn't invited to throw out the first pitch at Gay Day instead? As it turns out, another Harper (Travis) was the winning pitcher for Tampa Bay tonight.

[ June 22, 2004, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Actually, I wish I could have gotten the time off to go this event in which Canmark has worked so hard. Alas, since I have the MLB package, I should get the Expos/Blue Jays game on my digital cable. Of course, since the Yankees will be playing that team from Flushing at the same time, I am just going to have to toggle between channels. But I will watch out for you guys. Have fun!

Thank you, shore and others. This event has been the best of times and (mostly) the worst of times for me. (Long story.)

I'm going to try and get some little rainbow flags and wave them to try and make us look more noticeable (pat125, Ed and I will all be sitting together... I'll try and cover up Pat's Yankee shirt with a flag ). Or maybe I should just take off my shirt, paint a big rainbow across my chest and dance around with my arms in the air during the "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" contest. eek!

The pitching matchup for Friday's game is Zach Day @ Josh Towers.

[ June 25, 2004, 04:47 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it up there. I need to save my vacation days for my big trip to Canada for the hockey World Cup. However, it seems I may be able to watch the game on the Internet, as Comcast has a promotion with MLB that you can sign up for MLBTV for a free 30-day subscription. You can watch out-of-town games on it. (The offer expires July 6th, so if you have Comcast high-speed internet, time's a-wasting.)

Right now I have the Devil Rays-Blue Jays broadcast on, so I assume it will be available Friday as well.

[ June 23, 2004, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

Wow, Mark, WAY TO GO! I wish the Padres or one of the other SoCal teams had something like that going on down here. "Tronno" has always been a favorite city of mine - along with every other Canadian city I've ever seen - and this makes me want to get back up North real soon! Have a good time and nice job putting this together!

I may have a problem with trying to see the pride game through MLBTV online -- we're supposed to have strong thunderstorms later this afternoon and tonight, so I won't be able to have my computer on. Grrrrrrrrr..... :mad:

UPDATE: The early storms passed quickly and weren't really too bad. I missed the early part of the game but have it on now. No mention of the Pride group as of yet. If anyone happened to see the early innings, did they say anything earlier?

And watching a live game over the Internet? Way cool.

[ June 25, 2004, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

The game is long over and I know the Blue Jays won, but I recorded it because it wasn't convenient to watch the game live. I've now watched six innings and will catch the rest tomorrow, as it's time for some Zeds. Thus far, there has been no mention whatsoever by Rob Faulds or John Cerutti (Rogers Sportsnet) of the Gay Pride event at SkyDome nor any visible signs of the celebrities and our Outsports fans. Yet they saw fit to point out to the TV audience that the themes for the weekend games are Coca Cola Float Day (Sat) and Carlos Delgado's Commemorative Bat Day (Sun)! Also no mention of Gay Pride on the Blue Jays' web page; perhaps there will be something in the Toronto Star tomorrow.

But in any case, I hope it was a successful and fun event for those of you who attended the game.

My MLB package did not get the Blue Jays/Expos game, and it oddly wasn't going to pick up the Yankees/Mets (which was rained out, anyway) either. However, based on Marc's account so far, it is sad that gay pride is about as relevant to the Canadian media as it is to the American. Nevertheless, I hope you guys enjoyed the event.

Speaking of the United States' neighbor to the north, Marc, I wish you would start a thread to educate us about the Canadian election. Yesterday's Toronto Globe and Mail said it was going to be very close.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Please continue the political discussion in The Canadian election and same-sex marriage . . . things fall apart? - Outsports moderator

[ June 26, 2004, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: m1 ]

The Blue Jays' Pride Community Day turned out to be more of a base hit up the middle than a home run.

While it's great that the team held and promoted the event, it was rather unspectacular, falling short of the event I had envisioned when I made a presentation to the Blue Jays last October. Given the lavishness of Toronto's Pride Week--culminating in today's parade--one would have hoped for more than men dressed as dancing fruit (who looked like the Fruit of the Loom guys) leading YMCA as the in-game entertainment. Still, it was a fun event for all, with no controversy whatsoever.

I will report more on this later.

The plus for me was getting a press pass (as an Outsports correspondent) which allowed me on the field and in the press box, and especially attending the game with some good friends: pat125, Ed13, and my friend Anita.

Also got to hang out (at Wayne Gretzky's bar/restaurant) with two guys from Buffalo, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell, who have a website, The Ultimate Sports Roadtrip. Avid sports fans, the went on a trip over 4 years where they saw 121 teams in 4 sports, at 105 venues in 49 cities. Their review of the Jays' Pride game (with pictures) is already up and running on their site(!) (canmark is operating on gay time; his article won't come out for a couple more days)

Happy Pride Everybody!

Getting a press pass is a definite plus. wink Glad it was a fun night. Too bad the Jays went and dulled everything down. Now hurry up and write your article! wink

Men dressed as dancing fruit leading the singing of YMCA sounds like something from a Christopher Guest parody--think "Best in Show" or "Waiting for Guffman"--but I look forward to reading your article (who cares that the Ultimate Sports RoadTrip guys beat you to it wink )

~Adam

I am back from my visit to Toronto. Thanks to canmark, who was a wonderful host as well as a great friend. I also had a great time with Ed13 and canmark's friend Anita who also attended the game. There were a substantial amount of gay people in our sections, but not sure how many tickets were sold on behalf of the gay community. The pregame activities were pretty good, the Jays did announce on the stadium that it was Out at the Jays game, and at a couple times during the game, the big screen showed people in our sections displaying rainbow flags, etc. Before the game, we were about ten feet away from what we thought was the Jays batboy, but it ended up being starting pitcher Josh Towers.

It is a shame that there was no mention of it by the TV announcers, although there were various mentions of it in news publications. I will probably say more about this in the future, but for now I want to say that the event was as successful as it was, because of canmark.

Congratulations Canmark. Although the day may have not been exactly what you envisioned when you approached the Blue Jays, remember this event wouldn't have happened without you.

Thank you for the comments pat, scottie, et. al. I'm proud of what I did and glad that those that are important to me know I did it, but darn I wish this hadn't been one of the biggest disappointments in my life.

Just noticed that there was minor mention of the event posted on the Blue Jays website the day after:

Interestingly, there is no mention of the number of of people attending the game. And despite e-mails to two different people in the Jays organization asking for the final count, I still don't know how many tickets were sold (it may be as low as 100-200... wouldn't it be embarrassing it we sold less than the Texas Rangers, who suffered all sorts of protests?... esp. considering the article touts our Pride celebration as the "third largest in the world"). I guess I'll have to call tomorrow so I can have the correct info for my article.

--------------------

Undaunted, when all this is done... I'm going to contact the Toronto Raptors about having a gay day with the Raptors. And if the Raptors do me in like the Blue Jays did, I'm killing myself. You heard it here folks. eek!

[ June 28, 2004, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

If that few tickets were sold, the Blue Jays have only themselves to blame. I wonder if they'd even consider it next year, if you or someone else doesn't ask them about it.

Good luck in dealing with the Raptors, but no matter what happens, please don't kill yourself. We need you here! The afterlife or heaven or whatever will just have to wait!

I'm told : "Our ticket and game security department estimate that just under one thousand people took part in Friday night's event."

So, that's pretty good. I wish they would have given me an exact number of tickets sold, as when I post some pictures shortly you'll see why it seemed like there were much less than a thousand. Of course, we were spread out over 4 seating sections so while not densely packed I suppose we were still there. The total attendance for the game was 16,484.



[ June 29, 2004, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

"Just under 1000 tickets" is a very good effort, especially for a first time event--and for a game that featured just 16484 paid attendance, to boot. I'm amazed & impressed at how well-behaved the group was--spread over four seating sections and you guys didn't move around to be closer together.

~Adam

Based upon your experience with the Blue Jays, I'm sure you have reason to question anything they tell you. I find it unbelievable they can't give you an exact # of tickets sold, as the Phillies are providing me with weekly updates on # of tickets sold for our gay day.

Well, you know how we Canadians are--so polite, we don't want to move around and disrupt anything.

And as for the count, I don't think that every person in our sections actually purchased a "gay ticket," and there were likely gay people sitting in other areas of the ballpark... and this perhaps is what led to the "under 1000" number. That they're including the "security department estimate" indicates that they're not going on raw numbers of tickets sold. And as you can see by the picture I posted above--the fans were really spread out. That particular section looks like it doesn't have any more than 75 people. (The last photo is Ed13, pat125, (my friend Anita), and me, canmark.)

---------------

Update: I'm now told that it was "over 600 tickets sold." I'd believe that, and am satisfied.

I'm also told that gay day was brought up on Monday's taping of Off The Record with Michael Landsburg on TSN. For those who haven't seen it, OTR is like Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (4 guests and a host talking about different issues), except it's about sports rather than politics.

[ June 29, 2004, 11:21 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Since some of the money is going to Pride Toronto, if it's a set amount per ticket they have to come up with an actual total to justify the money they turn over.

They were supposed to give Toronto Pride $1.25/ticket. But seeing as they gave them $1500.00, that works out to 1200 tickets sold. Likely, they bumped up the donation amount so it was a round (and more impressive-sounding) number... although the Pride ticket deal was actually applicable for the 3-game series.

Just thought I'd share this...I wrote to Rogers Sportsnet a few days ago and have received a reply:


Regarding the Expos @ Blue Jays game on Fri June 25 which was televised on Sportsnet West, I am disappointed that your commentators (John Cerutti and Rob Faulds) made no mention whatsoever of the fact that it was Gay Pride day at SkyDome. Usually they make a point of informing TV viewers of any special 'themes', in fact they said that Saturday would be 'Coca Cola Float Day' and Sunday would be 'Commemorative Bat Day'. Yet not a single word about gay and lesbian fans who turned out for the Friday game, nor the celebrities who showed their support. Am I to assume this was an 'oversight', or was the subject deliberately avoided because Sportsnet was afraid of 'controversy', or simply does not want to acknowledge that there are many gay sports fans? I would appreciate a response at your earliest convenience.


Hello Marc,

Thank you for your feedback. Rest assured this would have simply been an oversight and in no way some sort of political statement. Having said that, I have forwarded the details of your email to the producers of our baseball games for their review and recommendations.

Sincerely
Jim LaChapelle
Audience Relations
1-877-288-7767

I finally have a chance now to chime in on what a great job canmark did to get the Jays Pride Day off the ground!

When my brother heard that I was meeting some friends to watch the Jays/Expos game on Friday night, he mentioned to me that it was Pride Day and I should be seeing quite a number of gay fans at SkyDome! I was very impressed by the coverage Pride Day got - even local non-gay Torontonians were aware that it was a special night!

Anita, pat125, canmark and I had excellent seats four rows from the front. There were not that many gay fans sitting in our section, but I attribute it more to the fact that our fabulous tickets were a tad more expensive than tickets to the immediate left. There was a very significant gay group seated in this neighbouring section, and I would estimate over a hundred were in the front portion alone. In fact, during an early inning, the camera zoomed in on an announcer standing amongst the rainbow gang and I recognized someone I had met at a curling bonspiel in Montreal on the jumbotron!

canmark seemed to be busy the whole evening, often disappearing for innings at a time, taking advantage of his press pass, and chatting away with one of the many people he knew at the stadium!

It was my first time watching a ballgame at SkyDome, and I must say that the CN Tower rising majestically in the backdrop was a beautiful sight to behold! It's not as cosy as Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, but it's certainly a great experience to catch a ballgame here, especially when the roof is open.

Kudos to you, canmark, for making it all possible!

Excellent letter to Rogers Sportsnet, Marc, and while they can dismiss this as an oversight, I don't buy it. Maybe I am a bit cynical, but with the pictures that I saw posted on this thread, and the obvious presence of rainbow flags which was clearly near the the third base line, it would seem rather difficult for them to miss the gay pride presence at SkyDome, which I understand doesn't really fill up that much. I hope that other gay or open-minded straight Canadians that had the opportunity to watch the game on television (and knew about the event) would take the initiative (like Marc did) to state their disappointment to Rogers Sportsnet.

Nice letter, Marc. I hope the audience relations person does forward your criticisms to the producers involved; it's been my experience that they're very sensitive to audience input--especially when it's thought-out & well-presented.

~Adam

Given Toronto's average attendance, 600 tickets sold sounds pretty good for a first-time effort -- bet next year will be even better!

For comparison, the Oakland A's very tentatively waded into the "gay nite" pool 2 years ago. They didn't promote it officially, but set aside 600 tix for a Friday nite A's/Mariners game in September. They gave the tix to a gay community group/website to sell, and despite their best efforts, only about 150 were actually sold. This was pretty disappointing, and the A's haven't gone near the idea since.