Brave New World

While I'm sure news of this is already fairly common knowledge, it bears mentioning here anyways.

Jason Collins, a center for the Washington Wizards, has announced that he is gay.

Cover of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands May 6

Collins is the first active NBA player to announce that he is gay, and the first in any major team sport.  (God I'd kill for footnotes here, but here goes.  Yes, the WNBA has had gay players for years, but as far as draw, revenue, relevance, etc, it doesn't count as a "major" team sport.  Yes this term is subjective, and I really hate to diminish the entire sport, but it simply doesn't have the national - or cultural - impact that it's male equivalent does.)  Collins is the first NBA player since former center John Amaechi announced that he was gay in 2007, four years after his retirement from the league.

What does this mean?

Collins is making a very brave step.  He's 34, and not a superstar, so his career may have already been over when this season ended anyways.  There is no way his announcement won't impact how NBA general managers address signing him, they are going to have to factor in how his being an openly gay man will impact their team on and off the court.  Collins loves basketball.  He wants to still play.  But as an unrestricted free agent, and now a known gay man, his career may be over.

But that isn't all Collins has to look at.  His announcement should be the foundation for other athletes to come out and be open with their sexuality.  There is simply no way that there are no other gay athletes across the sports spectrum.  The math simply doesn't work out that way.  His brave announcement, which has so far been met by overwhelming support, will open the closet for many other gay athletes who want to be honest with themselves. 

President Clinton, who knows Collins personally from his daughter's time at Stanford, made this statement:

"I have known Jason Collins since he was Chelsea's classmate and friend at Stanford. Jason's announcement today is an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT community. It is also the straightforward statement of a good man who wants no more than what so many of us seek: to be able to be who we are; to do our work; to build families and to contribute to our communities. For so many members of the LGBT community, these simple goals remain elusive. I hope that everyone, particularly Jason's colleagues in the NBA, the media and his many fans extend to him their support and the respect he has earned."

But it doesn't end with just Collins announcement and the overwhelming love he has received.  For years now, Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has been a vocal activist for LGBT rights, and wrote a pretty nasty letter to Emmet Burns, a state delegate from Maryland, when Burns came out and said that the Ravens should discipline Brendon Ayanbadejo for speaking out for LGBT rights.  Here's the link to the letter.  It's pretty harshly worded, but you get the point.

Yeah, he's a punter, but he's not afraid to speak his mind.

Anyways, Kluwe and Ayanbadejo, who are both straight, have been hinting for a while that they are working with a group of gay NFL players to arrange them coming out as a group.  I wish I could find a reference for this, but all I can say is trust me, I read this in more then one place, I know it to be true.

With Collins announcement, I wonder if we will see other announcements like his in other sports.  Like the NFL.  As our country tries to be more and more accepting, we still stereotype gay men pretty badly, with them being viewed as very effeminate and weak.  It will be hard to maintain that stereotype when (yes, when, not if) NFL players begin coming out.

Hopefully Collins being willing to come forward and make this announcement will be the first step towards making other athletes feel comfortable and safe with being open about their own sexuality.  We'll see if the reaction to Collins' announcement remains positive in the days to come, but one thing is for sure, is that the sports world has been irrevocably changed by Collins' announcement.

And as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing.

The basketball... oh God the basketball!

 A little recap on what's been happening this week to explain what I feel is a bit long of a delay in my next post

So after my last post I did exactly what I said I would and donated blood.  I went on post to the blood center there because I knew where it was and donated.  The original idea was to donate so hopefully it would support those in need in Boston, but when you donate on an Army post, odds are your blood will go to help a wounded soldier, which I felt is also a noble cause.

Then Wednesday night happened.  The plant explosion in West Texas was about an hour and change from me.  I received a few text messages and phone calls from friends and family about whether or not I was ok, and rest assured the wife and I were more then safe.

I then learned that the blood bank I donated to was sending blood to West, which made me really glad I donated there.

Then, in case you don't remember, I work for the local paper, and along with the everything happening in West I was the guy who had to cover down on everything here.  Needless to say, it led to a long, long week.

And I'll begin the sports ranting by explaining how I ended my weekend.

For a while the wife and I have talked about going to a Mariners or Seahawks game down here in Texas, wearing our team gear and rooting for our team.  Lots of fun.  So Friday, which my wife had off, we drive up to Arlington, which is a little under 3 hours away to go to the Mariners/Rangers game.  I was super excited to see Yu Darvish pitch too.

When we get there, I realize I only have one Mariners hat in my car.  I give it to my wife, and I pull out a different hat from my trunk, breaking one of my cardinal rules of sports.  I was going to wear a different team's hat with my Mariners jersey.

I grabbed my green Boston Red Sox hat that happened to be in my trunk.

As we approached the stadium, we see all of the people holding collections for the victims of the explosion in West, and a couple of other people wearing Boston gear.

During the third inning, we hear the news that the bombing suspect was in custody.  Sweet Caroline is quickly played over the stadium PA, and every single fan in attendance is standing and singing.  Louder then when they sang Take me out to the ballgame.  Louder then they sang God Bless America.  Louder then they sang Deep in the Heart of Texas.  It was truly beautiful.

This great moment helped make up for the 7-0 shellacking the Mariners received.

And honestly, I wasn't that impressed with Darvish.  His ability to change speeds was phenomenal, that I was blown away by.  His control though was meh at best, which made me realize how much potential this guy has.  He appeared to me to not quite yet be a pitcher, but a thrower, and a few more years of improvement will make him a very scary dude to face.

On a side note, I have now been to 2 Mariners games in away stadiums.  This game here, and a game in May of 2008 at the old Yankees Stadium before it was torn down. 

IN BOTH GAMES RAUL IBANEZ DID SOMETHING STUPID.

Yeah, that look about sums up how I felt.

In the New York game, he went to throw the ball in and it went about 5 feet and just hit the ground in front of him.  At the Rangers game, he slipped and had a ball go past him in the outfield, turning a single into a triple.

That's not even the craziest thing about it.  In between 2008 and now, Ibanez played for at least 2 other teams.  The M's resigned him this year.  Yay...

Lots of other sports things have happened too.  Like the WNBA draft.  Yes, I'm mentioning this, but only because I caught a brief little blurb on SportsCenter about it, and I was getting ready to change to the channel when I saw her...

Homina homina homina...

Elena Delle Donne.

Holy crap monkeys.  She is HOT.  Most women's basketball players are... well, they're this:

 

Ok, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.  Which reminds me of another funny story that I will tell another time.  But hey, I got to post Don Imus, that's always... something.

But while we're on the subject of the WNBA, I want to touch on something I planned on writing about last week.  I do not like Gino Auriemma.  Never have.  He's kinda a douche bag, and he ended the Tennessee/UConn game that happened every year because UConn couldn't count it as an auto win.  Prior to my last post, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban commented that he would consider drafting Brittney Griner in the second round of the NBA draft, and that if he didn't, she would be welcome to try out for the Mavs summer league team.  Well, Geno decided to come out and say this before the draft.

"Mark Cuban is a genius. He’s done an awful lot for basketball. But his genius would take a huge hit if he drafted her, it would be a public relations thing, a sham. To think a woman could compete to the level of [NBA players] is ludicrous."

I can't do this.  Can you?

 Is Auriemma right?  Maybe, but shit man, to slam a player like that and say (essentially) that women do not belong in the NBA is a dick move.   For Christ's sake, this guy coaches a WOMEN'S basketball team.  There is no way his players liked him saying that.  I do believe that we will see a woman crack into the NBA someday.  I don't think Griner is the one, but I do believe she is closer then any other player has been.  To dismiss even the possibility of her being able to play is pretty callous, and gives me yet another reason to not like Auriemma.

 

And finally, I'll stick to the world of basketball to comment on something that just happened that I find completely hilarious.  I am, of course, talking about the many wonders that are Kobe Bryant.

I like to play the ballbasket

I'm not going to talk about his injury, that sucks.  Arguably the greatest player of his era may have had his career ended on a freak injury.  I've seen that drive several times, he just cuts like he always has, and then he'd down on the ground.  Pop.  No Achilles anymore.  I think Kobe is a tool, as evidenced by the photo I chose for him, but here's the thing I want to talk about.

Kobe "coaching" the team from his couch.

I'm not a fan of twitter, I find most tweets (especially those from athletes) to be... moronic at best.  But to know that Kobe Bryant is watching the game from home and tweeting coaching advice is HYSTERICAL!  There are lots of ways he could have shared this information.  He could have called the Lakers and be like "Yo, you need to tell coach D'Antoni to feed Gasol down low.  Bryant out."  But nope, he went to a public media tool and "told" his coach by sharing with the world what he thought of the coaching scheme.  His dislike of D'Antoni would have been less obvious if he was sitting on the bench with a sign that says "D'Antoni sucks."

Kobe has always been a me me me kind of guy.  It took him a very long time to win without Shaq, but he did, so I can't hold that over him anymore.  He's the closest thing to being a clubhouse cancer without actually being one, and the only reason I can't call him that is he is without a doubt the most competitive guy in the NBA.  He is the only reason Lebron tries harder now.  Their work together for the Olympics in 2008 made LeBron look at himself and go "Damn, if he's trying that hard, I have to really step things up to beat him."

But now we get to see what a frustrated Kobe who can't vent on the floor every night looks like.  Something tells me that even though he has said he won't tweet for the next game, we haven't heard the last of this.

Please help Boston

I was planning on writing about what it means to be a sport after covering a paintball event for the local paper yesterday, but I find instead the sports world, and this entire nation, reeling from the tragedy that happened today in Boston.  There is simply no other way to describe this event other then what it is, a tragedy.

Not only did this happen at an event with thousands of people crowding the streets, it happened on Patriot's Day, a day that commemorates the begninng of the American Revolutionary War, and indeed the beginning of our nation.  You don't need to be much of a historian to know how important Boston was to the founding of our great nation.  We may not be the best country in the world, but we are definitely among the best, and this holiday is meant to celebrate that.

So while people gathered to celebrate what is essentially the beginning of our nation, we have to sift through the aftermath of a horrible incident that yet again clearly targeted innocent civilians.  There is not much that your average person can do outside of the greater Boston area to help, but there is one major thing that we can do.

We can give blood.

Organizations routinely spring up quickly to raise funds to help out after tragedies like this, but money is not what these people need.  Based on early reports, there are scores of amputation injuries and tales of blood loss.  With over 100 people injured, the blood banks in the Boston area are sure to run low as the medical professionals in the area continue to do everything in their power to insure that there is no more loss of life.  If you give blood, it may not go to Boston, but it will help any area blood banks replenish their stocks as they are sure to help out in some way if at all possible.

There is plenty of money to aid in emergencies.  There is never enough blood.

I have never given blood due to my massive needle phobia, but after today, I plan on donating as soon as I can.  Please do this if you are able.  Worst case scenario, you will help someone fight another day.

Eye for an eye

I was planning on posting about women's basketball after the shellacking UConn gave Louisville on Tuesday night, ranting about how there is no parody in women's basketball, the problems with Geno Auriemma, the list goes on.  But instead something happened last night that harks back to a problem I've had with sports for a long time.

This happened.

Now, I'm not a big fan of baseball brawls.  They're usually pretty stupid, everybody just stands around, and then the bullpens come running out to stand around, it's very, very stupid.  But the reason this particular brawl is important is because of the sheer violence of it.  On the surface it doesn't look any worse then any other bench clearing brawl, but when you watch the video, the moment the batter (Carlos Quentin) makes contact with the pitcher (Zack Grienke), Grienke's collarbone breaks. 

His damn collarbone breaks.

In this instance, I definitely think it was more of a fluke then anything, but it brings me back to something I thought of a long time ago when fights break out in sports, or when extremely flagrant fouls/penalties result in a serious injury.

The offending player should not be allowed to play until the injured player returns. 

The first time I thought of this was in 2004, after what I consider one of the worst cheap shots in sports history.

After this cheap punch from behind, Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for the rest of the season, and Steve Moore never played again.

Steve Moore had three broken vertebrae in his neck.

Bertuzzi missed a total of 20 games for his infraction, which also was not ruled a penalty on the ice when it happened.  He was ejected from the game, but because of the actions that happened AFTER he hit Moore.  Bertuzzi is still active in the league today.

There are numerous other incidents like this that happen in sports, but not all are as blatantly intentional as these ones here.  Baseball mound charges are not a part of the game.  The purpose of them is to injure the pitcher.  That is the ONLY reason they happen.  What MLB needs to do is what the NBA does when fights occur.

The NBA suspends EVREY.  SINGLE.  PLAYER.  That comes off of the bench in a fight.  No exceptions.  Your buddy could be lying motionless on the floor, if you charge off of the bench, even to assist him, you are ejected and suspended.  This system is a little flawed, as seen in 2007 when Robert Horry hockey checks Steve Nash into the sidelines.

As Steve Nash goes flying, his teammates Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw leap up from the bench and head over to Nash's side.  They did absolutely nothing to escalate the situation, but the iron-shod rule of the NBA called for them to both be suspended for the next game.

Oh, did I mention this was the playoffs?  Game 4?  Western Conference Semi Finals?  Yeah, it swung the entire series.  Robert Horry won that playoff series for the Spurs by, well, by cheating.

Good thing he's Canadian and knows how to take a hit

Crap like this is a BIG problem in sports.  Incidental injuries happen.  Hell, Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theisman's leg in HALF on a perfectly legal hit.  But when players go out of their way to intentionally injure their opponent, they need to be dealt with in the harshest possible manner.  Ricky Williams got kicked out of the NFL for a year for smoking pot.  He didn't ruin anyone else's career.  Bill Romanowski punched Marcus Williams during the preseason and BROKE HIS ORBITAL SOCKET.  Williams was forced to retire.  Romo was suspended from one practice.  He played the entire season.

The major sports leagues need to learn how to police this properly.  Carlos Quentin should be out as long as Grienke is.  He wanted to hurt Grienke, and he did.

The messed up part of this whole thing too isn't just the fact of what happened on the field.  After the game was over, Matt Kemp, a teammate of Grienke's, hunted down Quentin and berated him for quite some time.  Thank GOD he had the good sense to do nothing else.  Where is the line here?  When does this become assault?  It's not in the damn rules to attack other players.  If I had a coworker tackle me and break my collarbone, you can bet your ass I would have him arrested.  Ugh, this whole thing just infuriates me.

Oh, so I guess baseball season has started.  Go Mariners.

A chance at redemption

I sit down to write this the day of the NCAA championship game, and I may be right back here tomorrow recanting some things I might say here.  Bear with me.

This title game is a tough one for me.

I'm not a Michigan fan, by any stretch of the imagination.  Growing up in the greater Seattle area I rooted for the UW Huskies in many a Rose Bowl, and who was their most common opponent?  That's right, Michigan.  Needless to say, my dislike of Michigan began at a very early age.  But now, as an adult, I have friends who attended Michigan, and there are people I like, so yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing them happy.  There's the Michigan dilemma.

Then we have Louisville, whom I have no vested interest in, just that I've always liked Rick Pitino and this Andrew Ware injury has made the entire country root for them.  I include myself in that, seeing that kid get hurt the way he did was just rough. 

So on the surface, it seems to be a no brainer, I should root for Louisville, right?

Not quite.

The Fab Five, from left to right, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Ray Jackson, Juwan Howard.

The factor I didn't mention in the Michigan spiel is the Fab Five factor.  Jalen Rose is pushing for everyone to be there at the Final Four, and at the title game, and rightfully so.  He feels that it's important for them to be there, to support this generation of Michigan players, who are the first team from Michigan to go this far since... the Fab Five.  But, as it always has in the past, this reunion will not be complete because of Chris Webber.  Webber, the guy who broke up the Fab Five early, Webber the guy who infamously called a time out when his team had none and cost Michigan a title, Webber who's actions ultimately led the NCAA to stripping Michigan of all awards earned during the Fab Five's reign.  While it was ultimately Webber's transgressions that led to Michigan being investigated, he was not the sole culprit, so laying blame solely on him is wrong, but he still is deserving of the lion's share of that burden.

The Fab Five factor has me wanting to root for Michigan because of the simple case for redemption.  Those five kids, who are now adults, are still shadowed by their time at Michigan, and the case is stronger for Webber, who will never escape from the shadow of the Fab Five.  However, if Michigan were to win the title tonight, I won't say that Webber will be forgiven, but something tells me that a massive sense of relief will be granted to him and all his team mates from those Michigan teams.

Webber has never been part of anything to do with the University of Michigan since he left the program to go pro in 1993.  Jalen Rose has been pleading for Webber to appear for quite some time now, and the 30 for 30 documentary about the program (titled "The Fab Five") was noticeably missing Webber.  I'm not saying that if Michigan wins tonight he will suddenly break his apparent vow of silence on the subject, but part of me does think that if Michigan does win, he would at least be willing to consider it.

And I suppose that's something.