Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
9/11/13
Read this great piece on Glenn Burke, the first pro baseball player to come out in the locker room in the 70s. He's the creator of the high five
I enjoyed this article from the LA Times:
Glenn Burke was just doing what came naturally.
Dusty Baker's home run blast to left field on the last day of the regular season, Oct. 2, 1977, was history-making. It was his 30th, meaning the Dodgers became the first team to have four players hit 30 home runs in a season.
As Baker rounded third to the roar of the Dodger Stadium crowd, Burke, a rookie outfielder, ran from the on-deck circle, jumped up and gave Baker an over-the-head hand-slap in celebration.
And, the high-five was born.
Most people don't remember Burke for that moment — or, frankly, any other moment — during his two years with the Dodgers. The onetime Oakland prep basketball star would be gone from the Dodgers a year later. Two years after that, he was out of baseball.
Burke was mostly forgotten as a ballplayer. But, it was also forgotten that he was a trailblazer for something far more significant than the high-five.
NBA player Jason Collins recently came out as being the first active U.S. professional male athlete in a major team sport to announce he was gay. But Collins was not even the first athlete with Los Angeles ties to deal with this issue.
In thanking all the people who came before him, Collins never mentioned Burke, who never held a news conference to say he was gay. He neither hid it nor advertised it. He spent his playing career as a guy who could keep the clubhouse light, make teammates laugh and make friendships that would last...
...Yet Burke's Dodgers teammates seemed to know, accept and understand him.
Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday, who started in center field when Burke was with the Dodgers, described a moment in 1977 when the team was playing in Philadelphia during the National League playoffs.
"I remember a championship [series] game in Philly," Monday said.
"It was cold and rainy and he put on an overcoat and hat and had the entire locker room rolling on the floor laughing. He could take any moment in time and make it fun. There was no better guy in the clubhouse, I'll tell you that. There was no one who didn't love having Glenn around."
12/9/11
The game isn't over, but the anti-gay forces are losing everywhere. The NBA just added sexual orientation protections to players contracts
The NBA has followed the recent example of Major League Baseball and National Football League and added sexual orientation protections to their players agreement.
Read about it here.
12/4/11
9/12/11
7/27/11
7/21/11
Tiger, flailing, fires long-time caddie
This line from today's SF Chronicle captures the pain of Tiger:
"In the 20 months since Woods was caught having multiple extramarital affairs, he has lost four major sponsors, changed swing coaches, was divorced from his wife and now has cut loose his caddie."
What a fall from grace.
7/19/11
7/17/11
7/15/11
Good-bye to Friday Night Lights, a TV show that will continue to live in my heart
Tonight's finale did not disappoint. There were wonderful surprises, endings and beginnings. Again, Tammy and Eric showed why they are best example of a loving couple on TV. This show deserves to sweep this year's Emmy awards...it was that consistently good. The music, the writing, and the acting really moved me.
With tears in my eyes, good-bye FNL!
7/11/11
5/18/11
3/28/11
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