Editor's note: For those
looking for the column ``How To Not Treat
Your Closeted Boyfriend,'' click
here
Updated:
June 27, 2001
TOP OF
THE WEEK TONY GWYNN
Tony Gwynn has announced his retirement after 20 years with the San Diego Padres. Gwynn, a certain Hall of Famer, was one of the classiest athletes anywhere, always accessible and down to earth. He was a great student of the game and he will be missed. He won eight NL batting titles and is 16th on the all-time hits list with 3,124. He has been hurt most of this season.
BOTTOM OF
THE WEEK JOHN ROCKER
The anti-Tony Gwynn is John Rocker, the homophobic, racist, xenophobe now polluting the mound in Cleveland. Rocker, who was traded from Atlanta this week, couldn't help get in some parting shots in a talk-radio interview. He had this to say about ex-teammate Chipper Jones: "Chip's white trash anyway. . . . He's never had much respect for me, so I don't have much respect for him." Responded Chipper: "I'm not going to allow anything he says to rile me up. That chapter is over with."
HIGHLIGHTS OF
THE WEEK
THE MEDIA AND
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
The media are doing a better job of covering sexual orientation in sports but still have a ways to go.
This was the consensus of a diverse panel at the Ethics & The Sports Media Conference last week at the University of Rhode Island. Hosted by the
Institute for International
Sport, the panel featured: Holly Woolard, sports editor of the Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal;
Dave
Lohse, associate director of athletic communications at the University of North Carolina; Joe Clark, a freelance writer who helped start the Village Voice sports section; Dan Woog, author, journalist and soccer coach; and Jim Buzinski from Outsports. It was moderated by New York Times columnist Robert Lipsyte.
The panelists decried a double-standard in much sports reporting. Wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends of athletes are prominently featured in profiles to drive home the athlete's heterosexuality. But many of these same reporters are uncomfortable delving into the private life of an athlete who might be gay. As Lipsyte noted, ``don't ask, don't tell'' is the rule of thumb.
Woolard talked about ``negative recruiting'' in women's sports, where coaches "are trotting out their husbands and babies and trying to discourage good athletes from going to 'lesbian schools.' " Openly gay, Woolard also faces a conundrum as closeted lesbian coaches often avoid her lest their secret be discovered.
The boundary of what is private and public about an athlete's life is fuzzier when dealing with issues of homosexuality, most panelists agreed. Clark said younger reporters can often get a sense of who is and isn't gay, while Buzinski said most media outlets would be uncomfortable writing about an athlete's homosexuality without that person's acknowledgement.
Woog urged the media to not play along with what might be spin. "For years rumors have followed Steve Young,'' Woog said. ``I don't know if Steve Young is gay, but a year ago an obviously spun story in Sports Illustrated said he couldn't find a wife because he was too old. The question for me is why these stories are still being written. Why not a story about 'What's wrong with being a gay athlete?' We assume all athletes are straight, and that isn't the case."
On the positive side, the recent coverage of the secret affair the editor of Out magazine said he is having with a gay baseball player has been generally positive, Buzinski said. One
encouraging aspect is that no one denies gay athletes are involved with male pro team sports.
The panelists also agreed that the best hope for an openly gay male athletes lies with younger people. Clark described the current crop of pro jocks as a ``lost cause,'' but saw younger athletes as being more comfortable with their sexuality. Changes can occur, Lohse said, when the public can see being gay as something beyond just a sexual act.
The panel was part of a three-day conference that also discussed the state of college sports; gender bias in the media; race in sports coverage; conflicts of interest and how to cover youth and amateur sports.
COLLEGE SPORTS
To anyone naive to think that big-time college sports are about education and not money, a report issued by the Knight Foundation on Intercollegiate Athletics puts that quaint notion to rest. The sweeping report found widespread academic fraud, low graduation rates and huge commercial influences. For example, just 48% of football players and 34% of men’s basketball players in Division I schools earn degrees.
GOLF
Karrie Webb became only the fifth woman to complete the Grand Slam of women's golf, and the youngest ever to do it, winning the LPGA Championship on Sunday at the age of 26. She won by a two shot advantage over Laura Diaz.