Editor's note: For those
looking for the column ``How To Not Treat
Your Closeted Boyfriend,'' click
here
Updated: May
23, 2001
TOP OF
THE WEEK JIM ROME
There has been a lot of hoopla in the press in the last week over the revelation that the editor of Out Magazine is having an affair with a baseball player. But no sports figures have been as supportive as radio talk show host Jim Rome. While his target audience certainly is not of the liberal variety, he has taken a somewhat unpopular position that it’s OK to be gay and play sports. And, while he does say that it’d be hard for a ballplayer to come out, no one would disagree with
that. As a listener posted on his message board, "anyone who has listened to Rome for any period of time knows that he will always take a stand against bigotry." Thanks for having our back, Rome. Out.
BOTTOM OF
THE WEEK
ERIC DAVIS, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
When asked on The Jim Rome Show about his feelings on the gay baseball player, Eric Davis went off. Sounding like he just got off a bus from the Ozarks, Davis spewed for several minutes about how coming out would be wrong and how it would make him feel uncomfortable to shower with a gay guy because he’d be looking at him. Uh, Davis, you HAVE showered with gay
guys and, gosh, they obviously somehow controlled themselves so well that you didn’t even know it. Get a grip and come into the 21st Century.
HIGHLIGHTS OF
THE WEEK
THE MEDIA DISCOVERS GAYS AND SPORTS
Lesbian basketball fans and gay Major League Baseball players have been all the rage in the sports media the past two weeks. This alone is unprecedented.
The mainstream media barely acknowledges the existence of gay athletes or fans. Having the issue raised in, among others, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Internet discussion boards and sports talk radio is all to the good. Even better is that, overall, the coverage was balanced, informative and non-homophobic.
First up were the women. The Los Angeles Times (in the interests of full disclosure, the place where I work but not in sports) broke the story of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and their direct marketing to lesbians.
The original story ran on a Friday and by that afternoon something unthinkable was happening on sports talk radio in Los Angeles: Two heterosexual male hosts on the local ESPN radio affiliate, Doug Krikorian and Joe McDonnell, were discussing women's pro basketball. In May. With the Lakers and Kings still alive in the playoffs. Perhaps more remarkable was their hour-long discussion with callers that was largely positive and supportive and minus snide asides this issue would have elicited five or 10 years ago. A ``live and let live'' attitude prevailed.
Times sports columnist Diane Pucin wrote a terrific piece two days later after her visit to a lesbian bar that hosted some Sparks players.
``They brought pennants, notebooks and basketballs to be signed by players from the Sparks,'' Pucin wrote. ``They grabbed free key chains and some signed up for season-ticket packages, which was the point. No women's sports team has ever partnered with a lesbian organization to attract fans. But Friday night the Sparks came to The Factory in West Hollywood to ask lesbians for support. Good for the Sparks.''
The Sparks' story had a brief run and was only the appetizer for an even bigger homosexual dish for the media: The column in the May issue of Out Magazine, where editor-in-chief Brendan Lemon wrote about his affair with an unnamed major league player (``from a major-league East Coast franchise, not his team's biggest star but a very recognizable media figure all the same") and his desire to have the athlete come out.
The magazine hit the newsstands in late April and was immediately Topic A on the Outsports.com discussion board, generating more comment than other issue during the past year. The story, however, remained under the radar and may have died a quiet death if not for MediaNews.
Jim Romenesko's Web site, the de facto discussion board of the media, posted a link to Lemon's column and immediately catapulted the issue to national attention. We've counted stories about the column in the New York Post, Newsday, New York Daily News, Hartford Courant, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Times, Providence Journal, Sports Illustrated and the San Francisco Chronicle.
ESPM.com devoted four articles to the issue and it received an hour on CNN's ``Talk Back Live.'' At one point last week all three Los Angeles sports talk radio stations were talking about the issue simultaneously.
Much of the coverage was straightforward, with comments from Lemon and, in many cases, from Billy Bean, a former major leaguer who is now openly gay. Bean was highly critical of what Lemon wrote, as were letter writers on MediaNews, contributors to discussion boards and talk radio. The editor was taken to task for appearing insensitive and self-serving (look at me, I'm dating a ballplayer).
In reading Lemon's column it strongly appeared as if the player did not know it was going to be published. The editor also struck an off note by writing: ``At some level, I am writing about this relationship because I want the ballplayer to come out and make my life easier'' His life easier? How about the player's?
Lemon has since gone into full damage-control mode. He has stated that the ballplayer was fully aware the column was going to be published and was highly supportive. And he seemed to back off a little in wanting the jock to come out.
The tenor on talk radio (at least when I was listening) was not as Neanderthal as one might have expected. Jim Rome has been very enlightened on the gay issue, saying it's nobody's business, while at the same time acknowledging the difficulties an out athlete might face. He gave his ``huge e-mail of the day'' May 18, usually reserved for the snarkiest of comments, to ``Mike from San Gabriel,'' who wrote:
``Eric Davis is perhaps the quintessential baseball player / human being who has overcome tremendous odds in battling and overcoming cancer and physical challenges. He's faced and battled a disease that strikes fear into the heart, and understands that life must be taken a day at a time.
``Yet, despite this brush with death and the clarity in some areas that it brings, Eric's reaction to your question regarding baseball players' reactions to knowing that a teammate is gay spoke volumes, and none of it particularly heartening. Eric's fear (speaking for the average baseball player, that is) that a gay player may be checking him out in the shower is representative of the stereotypes foisted upon homosexuals in our society, and in baseball in particular. I find it a little sad and ironic that an African-American player would espouse a viewpoint - fear, ignorance and intolerance - that for much of baseball's history had kept some of the best players in history - African-Americans - out of the Major Leagues.
``Perhaps, though, baseball may play a progressive role in our society once again. Like it did in helping to erase the "color" barrier in the 1950's, so too it may be able to play a part in fostering tolerance and acceptance in society today. I think it's going to take someone the stature of a Jackie Robinson from the gay community to help allay the fears of baseball players, and in turn our society, before progress can be made.
``Until then, gay baseball players will be relegated to a shadowy world of fear and intolerance once reserved for African-Americans and other minorities.''
``Mike's'' well-written e-mail was representative of much of the coverage: gay-positive but despairing of the perceived reactions to an athlete coming out. Arthur Martrone, sports editor of the Providence Journal, was notable (along with Johnette Howard of Newsday) for saying what needed to be said: It would be good for society for an athlete to come out.
``No matter how anyone feels, personally, about homosexuality, it's time to stop the pretense that sports is a gay-free zone,'' Martrone wrote. ``Our athletic arenas, so noble in so many ways, are -- sadly -- a place where age-old prejudices and stereotypes still exist . . . below the surface, perhaps, but there nonetheless. It's time to kick them out. …
``(Lemon's) friend, in fact, may become a Jackie Robinson or a Curt Flood: Someone whose suffering smoothes the road for those that follow.
``But I think he would smooth the road, especially if he's as good a player as Lemon hints. He would show that homosexuals can play a sport, and play it well, and the republic won't crumble. And if certain segments of society -- segments currently inclined to be judgmental regarding sexual preference -- can begin to accept gays on our fields and courts and ice surfaces, they may begin to accept them in the workplaces and supermarkets and shopping malls, as well.
``We can hope, anyway.''
GOLF After trailing for the first three days of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open, Tiger Woods put together a Sunday that gave him a commanding four-stroke victory. It included an eagle-2 on thirteen as his 175 yard approach shot found the hole.
NBA It's a sweep for the Philadelphia 76ers. Not only did they rack up the Eastern Conference's best record; see their star win the League's MVP; their center, Dikembe Mutombo, win the Defensive Player of the Year Award; and Aaron McKie win the Sixth Man Award; but on Wednesday the League will announce that 76ers coach LArry Brown is this year's Coach of the Year.
NHL Huh? What? Oh yeah, hockey. The NHL is in big trouble. With series sweeps leaving the same-old-teams in the Conference Finals, and much of America just not caring about the League, the NHL is quickly sinking to the far back of the pack of the
four major pro sports Leagues. Just ask a couple of your friends if they know who’s in the Stanley Cup Finals. Chances are, most won’t. (Hint: It's Colorado vs. New Jersey)
BASEBALL NL: After 19 months without a start, John Smoltz was more than a little rusty. The Atlanta Braves pitched three innings, giving up five runs en route to an 8-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies. It was Smoltz's first game since having elbow surgery in 1999.
AL: In Wednesday's game against the Yankees' most hated rival, the Red Sox, Derek Jeter did something he
had never done before: produce five hits in a game. Those hits led New York to a 7-3 victory.