OUTSPORTS: The Site for Gay Sports Fans and Athletes

Updated: April 19, 2000
TOP OF THE WEEK
CHARLES BARKLEY

Four months after rupturing a knee tendon in, of all places, Philadelphia, Charles Barkley will return to the court for one more game - to go out the right way.

In the Houston Rockets' regular season finale against the Vancouver Grizzlies on Wednesday, Barkley will suit up for his last (and this time, he's serious) NBA game.

Barkley will, of course, leave the NBA without that coveted championship ring which he sought in leaving Philadelphia for Phoenix, and then leaving Phoenix for Houston.

"Charles doesn't have to prove anything," Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich
said. "The guy's one of the greatest players to ever play the game. We love what he's done for us. To me what makes sense is to have one final tribute at home."

Florida's Mike Miller, UCLA's JaRon Rush, and DePaul's Quentin Richardson will announce this week that they each plan to leave college early for the NBA. This continues a trend that has escalated dramatically in the '90s of underclassmen leaving college to chase money. Not only does it hurt the ranks of college basketball, but it sends the wrong message to other student-athletes.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

HE'S BAAACK ... JOHN ROCKER STILL CLUELESS

John Rocker, fresh from a suspension by baseball for anti-gay, anti-foreigner and racist comments, made his first appearance on the mound Tuesday in Philadelphia. Rocker pitched a scoreless inning and left to a standing ovation. That's right, a standing ovation. Not boos, not silence but support.

The reaction of the fans in Atlanta shouldn't be too surprising. With the hyper-media coverage of any controversy today a backlash often grows in reaction and the perpetrator gets recast by many as the victim. Several people interviewed at the game blamed Sports Illustrated for taking advantage of Rocker. Shoot the messenger.

The sad part is that Rocker seems to have learned nothing from his experience except to keep his mouth shut. His few apologies have seem scripted and insincere and his comments to TBS before the game point that out.

As written by AP Sports columnist Jim Litke: ``Rocker said then that the ovations told him the media got the story wrong, that fans had forgiven him for splattering venom over minorities, gays, immigrants, teammates and the buttoned-down Atlanta organization. He repeated that in an interview taped before the game with Braves broadcaster Joe Simpson for TBS, which just happens to belong to the same company that owns the Atlanta club.

``It's not a big deal,'' Rocker said. ``I think when the team starts winning and we get the ball rolling, all that will be forgotten.''

Rocker's probably right. Billy Bean, the former big-leaguer who came out last year, told a panel in San Francisco last month that what Rocker said is heard daily in clubhouses and anywhere else players gather.
TURKISH OIL WRESTLING

Somehow we overlooked this item that came across the transom April 7. Our friend Brent had a good take on it:
Let's see-burly oiled musclemen in leather pants get to wrestle each other in front of audiences, but homo's are banned? Thank goodness someone is keeping this Turkey morally pure: the way they dealt with the Kurds and now this.

As reported by Reuters:
Turkey's oil wrestlers-burly men who cover themselves in olive oil and grapple with each other wearing leather trousers-are trying to stop a group of homosexuals coming to watch.

The group calling themselves Bears of Turkey is advertising on the Internet (www.ayilar.net) for a tour to watch the 639th Kirkpinar oil wrestling championships to be held on July 1 and 2 near Turkey's northwestern city of Edirne.

``It's immoral,'' Anatolian news agency quoted Traditional Sports Federation Chairman Alper Yazoglu as saying. ``We are trying every way to have this stopped...We shall pass this matter on to the interior, foreign and other ministries to ask for this disgusting business to be stopped.''

The sport of oil wrestling dates back to the Turks' exodus from Central Asia in the middle ages.

The often mustachioed wrestlers, their muscles rippling in olive oil under the hot sun, try to pin each other to the ground. Putting a hand down the opponent's trousers to get a better grip is a common tactic.

Homosexuality is not banned in overwhelmingly Moslem Turkey, and several big cities have thriving gay scenes, but police harassment is frequent and the issue is generally considered taboo.

Gays have always looked at sports films in a different way than their straight counterparts. We much more enjoy the male-bonding scenes than the love scenes; but the impact of a well-done movie is universal.

Phil Walsh wrote an insightful commentary on his Top 10 sports films of all time for Outsports (www.outsports.com). A snippet about his favorite film, one most have never heard of:

``This ... low-budget pre-"Bull Durham" tale of a fictional minor-league team in Florida in the 1950’s, electrified me in such a way that I felt as though I was watching the best, most unabashedly homoerotic sports flick I’d ever seen.''

Martina Navratilova, one of the few openly lesbian professional athletes (or, former athletes) in the world, is coming out of retirement.

The nine-time Wimbledon champion will partner with Mariaan de Swardt in a tournament in Eastbourne,
England in June. The doubles team has been given a wild card.

GOLF

How much would you pay to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods?

Two weeks of online bidding through UltimateBid.com ended Friday with the four winners each paying $51,000 to play with Woods at his home course of Isleworth in Windermere, Fla.-a total of $204,000. The names of the winners were not announced, but two are from New York, one is from New Jersey, and one is from Pebble Beach.

Next up, maybe UltimateBid will be offering dates with some of these players. What kinds of stipulations would they try to put on THAT?

NHL

In strange irony, the Sabres were again the victims of the bad eyesight of a referee.

In game 2 of the series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Sabres were up 1-0 in the second period
when John LeClair scored a goal to tie the game. Or, did he?

Replay showed that the puck hadn't gone through the posts, but had sailed through a hole in the side of the net. Despite protests from Buffalo players, the referee refused to overturn the goal.

In last year's Stanley Cup, the Sabres were beaten in Game 6 when Dallas' Brett Hull scored a controversial goal while his foot was in the crease-against the rules in hockey. As of Wednesday, the Flyers led the series, 3-1.

MARATHON

The nationals from Kenya didn't just win the Boston Marathon, they swept it. Elijah Lagat won the closest finish ever on the men's side, crossing the line with the same time as second place. Catherine Ndereba won on the women's side in not nearly as dramatic fashion.

Of course, leave it to the guys to draw out the drama.