Hello and welcome to On Deck Circle for today, Friday, March 12, 2021. Yeah, we’re back! Sorry, we were absent yesterday. Shit happens, you know?
Your need to read time today is 2 minutes.
Today’s LGBTQ Sports History Highlight:
On this day in 1903, the American League approved a new baseball team for New York City that, like all A.L. teams at that time, would be known as the Americans, with the added nomenclature of their hometown. Owners Joseph Gordon, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery bought the defunct Baltimore franchise for $18,000 in January of 1903, and moved the team to a new ballpark in Upper Manhattan, just a few blocks from the Polo Grounds.
The hastily constructed, all-wood park at 168th Street and Broadway in Washington Heights, now home to the New York Presbyterian Columbia Irving Medical Center, featured a swamp in right field. One of the highest spots in Manhattan, their home field soon became known as “Hilltop Park” and soon the New York Americans were renamed “the Highlanders.”
How did the Highlanders become the Yankees? Jim Price, a newspaper sports editor, coined the unofficial nickname, “Yanks” in 1904, because he said it was easier to fit in headlines. So, next time you tweet at a Yankees fan, tell him or her or them their ballclub owes its name to a journalist who couldn’t work with an abundance of 11-characters. The Yankees launched a scholarship initiative in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.
Today’s Outsports Headlines:
Tennessee businesses sign open letter opposing state’s anti-trans athlete bill
Mississippi gov. signs law banning transgender athletes from playing women’s sports
Pro wrestler Aiden Aggro comes out as pansexual
Natasha Cloud and Aleshia Ocasio got married
A mother’s letter to her daughter
Other LGBTQ Sports stories making news…
How Some States Are Moving to Restrict Transgender Women in Sports
States seek curbs on transgender girls in sports, inflaming U.S. culture war
New Michigan bill: Divide high school teams based on biological sex
GOP Senators tried to add a trans girls sports ban to the COVID bill. It nearly passed
Today’s SB Nation’s top stories…
Patriots re-sign Cam Newton to a one-year contract
Patrick Ewing was ‘stopped and accosted’ at Madison Square Garden during Big East tournament
Top LGBTQ News…
Demi Lovato Feels ‘Too Queer’ to Date a Cis Man
This Project Maps 25 Years of New York’s Lesbian Nightlife
Grassroots online efforts are forming a new queer network of care
Today’s OutShout:
Our friend Jon Holmes of Sky Sports and Sports Media LGBT+ let us know about a new blog from Edward Kandel at LGBTQ+ in Sport over there in the U.K. It’s a new grassroots collective of people young at heart across Great Britain, working towards making sport inclusive for all. The blog also highlights their TikTok launch, which you can watch here:
@lgbtqsport Our team and mission 🏳️🌈🚀 #lgbt #sport #lgbtqsport #team #diversity #pride @sportsequalityfdn
♬ Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz
Subscribe to the TikTok account by clicking here.
If you’re an LGBTQ person in sports looking to connect with others in the community, head over to GO! SPACE to meet and interact with other LGBTQ athletes, or to Equality Coaching Alliance to find other coaches, administrators and other non-athletes in sports.
Social Media Spotlight:
As Mary Emily O’Hara wrote in the latest edition of their aweesome substack, Outsourced: Michelle Obama visited with Zaya Wade and then “stopped by to visit celesbianism’s hottest couple Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger. It all took place on Instagram, but she may as well have strolled into The Abbey and stuck a dollar in a go-go boy’s thong! Welcome to the gayborhood, Mrs. President! Marie Claire covered Zaya’s adorable nervousness, and I couldn’t find a single piece of news coverage of Obama’s visit with soccer’s leading lesbians. But here’s the whole video from Ashlyn’s Insta:”
Click here to subscribe to Outsourced.
If you want your social media post to be included here, or to share one showcasing LGBTQ sports, email us the link at [email protected] or tag @Outsports on Instagram or Twitter!
Today’s Outsports Podcast:
Nearly every day of the week, Outsports has a new podcast for your enjoyment. Today, Ken Schultz will bring us a new episode of 3 Strikes You’re Out for your Spring Training fix.
This and all Outsports podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and on every platform where you find Outsports!
Today’s Sports Calendar:
MLB Spring Training:
Exhibition games are underway! Click here for MLB’s guide to your favorite teams’ schedules.
NHL:
Click here for ESPN’s schedule of men’s pro hockey action today.
NBA:
Click here for ESPN’s schedule of men’s pro basketball action today.
NCAAM:
Click here for ESPN’s schedule of men’s college basketball action today.
NCAAW:
Click here for ESPN’s schedule of women’s college basketball action today.
SOCCER:
Click here for ESPN’s schedule of soccer action today.
Share your thoughts in the comments below or email us at [email protected]
A new On Deck Circle posts every weekday morning on Outsports.com
