Tag: baseball

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2018 LGBT Pride Nights At Major League Baseball

As warm weather finally truly arrives in the month of May, sports fans know we are in the heat of baseball season.

And (most) LGBT baseball fans can look forward to at least one night out where their local team hosts an event just for them.

Outsports reports that 21 of the 30 MLB teams will be hosting some type of Pride event especially for their LGBT fans.

And if you’re a Chicago Cubs fan, you get two LGBT nights (Pride Day – June 10; Out at Wrigley – August 26).

For the most part, however, the events are scheduled to coincide with Pride Month in June.

The majority of these events are coordinated with the team and local organizations, although some, like the Kansas City Royals, have a grassroots-organized Pride Night.

Nine teams, unfortunately, do not have plans to hold any special night for LGBT fans. Those include the Miami Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and the Texas Rangers.

What’s

According to Outsports, only three teams have never had any type of Pride Night: Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds and the New York Yankees.

Click here for a complete list (at this writing) of Pride Night events hosted by MLB teams this season.

And even if you don’t understand the game all that well, remember there’s other reasons to take in a baseball game – like the players 🙂

A post shared by Bryce Harper (@bharper3407) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:51am PST

Plus, you never know who’s gonna get caught on the Kiss Cam:

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Why Did Trump Turn Down “First Pitch” For Washington Nationals?

MSNBC’s Joy Reid wonders aloud why President Trump turned down the Washington Nationals offer to throw the ceremonial first pitch.

According to a 2014 interview, Trump said he was “the best baseball player in New York” when he played back in high school.

Of course, that was the same time the New York Yankees won the World Series with folks like Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.

“Best player in New York?”

Says Reid, “Could it be, that Trump, clearly no Mariana Rivera, wants to avoid the potential boos and hisses that could greet him at the Nationals Park, given that a whopping 90% of DC voters chose Hillary Clinton over him? Trump may not be so popular with the players either. Close to 30% of the players on the rosters of MLB’s opening rosters were born outside the United States.”

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New York Mets To Announce First Ever LGBT Pride Night

Might be hearing some “Hey batta batta batta, swing batta batta” from a lot of LGBT New York Mets fans soon as the team is planning a press conference for Tuesday to announce their first ever LGBT Pride night at Citi Field this season.

From Page Six:

The Mets in the past have hosted events from Fiesta Latina night to Jewish Heritage Day. Other major league teams have hosted LGBT nights.

The Mets will unveil details (including the date) at a press conference Tuesday, with Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Rep. Steve Israel and LGBT Network CEO David Kilmnick.

“I’m proud to be making this announcement — one, as a lifelong Met fan, and two, we get to beat the Yankees on this,” Kilmnick joked to us.

He added that the team’s “making sure that everyone is welcomed and celebrated at Citi Field.”

Over 5,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender fans are expected at Pride Night, he said, and a portion of all ticket sales will go the LGBT Network’s anti-bullying programs.

The game will be NY Mets vs. San Diego Padres on August 13th – click here for tickets.

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Major League Baseball Mourns The Passing Of Yogi Berra

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Milwaukee Brewers Minor Leaguer David Denson Comes Out

David Denson, first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers’ minor league team in Helena, Montana, has come out to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The news-making announcement makes Denson the first openly gay player affiliated with Major League Baseball.

Benson explained that he actually came out to his teammates some weeks ago when one of his teammates jokingly called him a “fag,” and David answered:

“Be careful what you say. You never know.”

That led to a conversation that led to other players gathering around, and soon, Denson was out.

“Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them.

“They said, ‘You’re still our teammate. You’re still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You’re still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don’t treat you any different. We’ve got your back.’

“That was a giant relief for me. I never wanted to feel like I was forcing it on them. It just happened. The outcome was amazing. It was nice to know my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality.”

The Milwaukee Brewers organization issued this statement of support:

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Crowds Cheer Gay Couple On LA Dodgers “Kiss-Cam”

This is pretty amazing. Wow how times have changed.

From Deadspin:

Back in 2000, two women were kicked out of Dodger Stadium for kissing.

The team and the world have changed since then.

Between innings of Saturday’s game, the stadium’s Kiss Cam team found two men, not as a joke, but a couple. It’s cool that this wasn’t the still-prevalent homophobic gag of forcing two platonic male friends to awkwardly recoil at the thought of kissing another dude.

It’s also cool that the reaction from the crowd was a genuine cheer. Reader Steven, who was in the ballpark, says he was “proud of the loud, enthusiastic response from the crowd. Not one person around me groaned or made derogatory remarks, and seemed genuinely pleased with the moment.”

The Dodgers have held LGBT nights in recent years, and while it’s great to publicly announce that everyone’s welcome, there’s nothing quite like being normalized by dorky in-stadium entertainment to make everyone feel included.

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First Active Major League Baseball Umpire Comes Out

Outsports shares one of the best, yet surprisingly casual coming out stories ever.

Major League Baseball umpire Dale Scott – veteran of three World Series, three All-Star games and six league championship series – allowed himself to be profiled in a Referee Magazine interview this past October.

And while he’s always been out in his private life, he’s never made an issue of being gay at work.

However, when the profile was being written about him he thought it would off-key to not include his husband Mike, with whom he’s been with for 28 years, in some small way.

“My thought process was,” Scott told Outsports in his first interview on the subject, “is that there’s a story about my career and how I got started in umpiring and they’re talking to people I have known since junior high and it didn’t seem right to have a whole story and pictures without a picture of Mike and I, someone who’s been with me through this entire process. We met the October after my first year in the big leagues.

“Obviously, when I sent that picture to Jeff, I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn’t going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it’s not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do.”

Regarding his work with MLB, Scott says, “I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else.”

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Best sports mascot bit ever

Make sure you get to the 1:00 mark…

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