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Withers: Ten random thoughts

James Withers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:51:16 +0000

1. Yes Gavin Newsom is a hero when it comes to marriage equality, but did anyone really think he had a shot leading California?

2. The New York 23rd District special election is nutty, confusing, and has turned into a battle ground for national GOP politics. You know it’s bad when “G.O.P. Stalinists” appears in a subject heading. Nate Silver crunches the numbers and even he isn’t sure who is going to win.

3. Here in NYC, I’m not sure anyone realizes there is a race for mayor. Looks like it’s going to be an easy night for Michael Bloomberg.

4. Queerty announces The Advocate is dead. The Advocate says not so fast. Could be the truth is somewhere in the middle. Essentially the changing media landscape impacts gay news but I’m not sure people realize that.

5. Are American runners ready to compete again in the marathon?

6. Has god created a sports fan with more arrogance and hubris than those who root for the Yankees?

7. One more Silver shout out. He looks at Maine and thinks team Yes is a 5-2 underdog. What do our Maine readers say?

8. Anyone watch Wanda Sykes’ new show?

9. Reason 336 why I love this country: some child gets sent home for wearing blackface and lovers of minstrelsy will quickly throw out the PC charge!

10. Will someone please explain why the love life of Anderson Cooper is of any interest.

Withers: Ten random thoughts

James Withers — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:19:31 +0000

1. I’m behind the curve on this one, but I’m not getting the whole Twilight thing. But that’s good, no?

2. Any opinions on the couple, Aiyi-nah Ford and Torian Brown, that were kicked out of a diner for too much PDA? No fan of PDA but have you ever heard of a straight couple being asked to leave for holding each other?

3. For those convinced Henry Gates was arrogant and got what he deserved, what do you say about this video? Did the woman get her comeuppance? Will you defend the police? Or wonder what this story has to do with a gay news site? Nothing at all. Nothing at all.

4. I have a new boyfriend. He just doesn’t know it yet. That’s something I need to work on. None of my former boyfriends knew we were going out.

5. Anyone who throws a sex toy at an Adam Lambert concert is an idiot.

6. If you are going to go on a show and spread disinformation about death panels, at least have the decency to have the page marked.

7. I want to visit Buenos Aires, the city of Jorge Luis Borges.

8. Happy 100th birthday Lester Young.

9. Guess who is blogging now? Beau, baby? Why do you never call?

10. An unassisted triple play!? The Mets season is now officially over. 2010 baby!

Withers: Ten random thoughts

James Withers — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:10:52 +0000

1. I’m no expert (yet), but panhandling strikes me as a profession that requires a soft sell.

2. Do all Oklahoma politicians dance with the crazy?

3. Is it a good idea to keep allies from joining the federal lawsuit for gay marriage?

4. A Merlose Place redux? The first one stank. What TV executive green lighted this wreck?

5. Israeli Army soldier Shmuel Freimark’s lawyer needs to come up with a better excuse for his client’s madness. Threats to kill because your tribe is getting bad press is a dumb tactic.

6. The initial TABC report shows what most knew. The authorities had no business raiding the Rainbow Lounge this past June.

7. Are most baseball fans by nature nostalgic and anti-modernity?

8. For the first time in awhile I was able to go to my local bar this weekend, and not feign interest for a conversation.

9. Never liked any film by John Hughes (RIP). For some reason they never resonated. I did however, have a serious crush on Anthony Michael Hall. Always have love for the nerds.

10. This story shows it’s time for us old-heads to change up our views on sexuality.

Withers: Ten random thoughts

James Withers — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:52:03 +0000

1. I understand the death of Michael Jackson is big news, but worthy enough to push Iran under the fold?

2. My neighbor is mad because the Mets were swept by the Yankees. Hopefully marching in Pride as part of the Gotham Knights Rugby Club will diminish his pique.

3. This story shows why we need to keep groups like AVP well funded. A hate crime beating during Pride? Imagine if this guy didn’t have friends in the media?

4. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is 20 years old? Roll call baby!

5. This song is ridiculous.

6. This one sublime.

7. Poor Gov. David Paterson. He was hoping he could be the grand marshal of the city’s Pride parade with a marriage bill signed and delivered. State senators had a different agenda. Problem is no one knows what their agenda is.

8. When I was younger, I loved parades; especially the one held on July Fourth in Piermont, New York (lived there the first 10 years of my life). Despise them now.

9. Last thought about Piermont: the town’s public library back in the day was the type of place Alberto Manguel would go crazy over.

10. If there is no tape, sex scandals bore. But add VHS acting and they are worthy of water cooler talk.

Neff: Batter up!

Jennifer Vanasco — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:08:44 +0000

Maybe you’ve got an itch to finger the seams of a hardball, to punch the pocket of a glove.

Maybe you’ve got an urge to test the weight of a Louisville Slugger or sing, “Ay batter, batter, batter.”

Maybe you’ve been looking in the mirror, trying to decide whether, with your current haircut, your baseball cap looks best facing forward, like an I-mean-business fastball pitcher or backward, like a spunky let’s-go-team catcher.

Baseball season has arrived.

Spring training has wound down.

Opening night is April 5, with the Phillies hosting the Braves.

Opening day is April 6, with games coast to coast.

Baseball.

Think it again — baseball.

Probably just saying the word brings a smile, your lips curling up with the “ball.”

“I see great things in baseball. It’s our game — America’s game,” wrote Walt Whitman.

If you like to watch a quarterback throw a bomb, don’t you love to watch a left-fielder throw home to the plate?

If you like to watch a forward swoosh a three-pointer, don’t you love to watch a batter hit a dinger over the center field wall?

If you like to watch a soccer players trying to win the ball, don’t you love to watch a base-runner steal second?

Baseball.

The game has it all.

I know of a pitcher whose wind-up is similar to that of the bull in a bullfight and I know of a batter whose stance is not unlike a matador.

Baseball.

It’s a great game.

It’s our game.

And I think I’d like to see an openly gay big leaguer tip his hat to fans more than I’d like to see a gay or lesbian take the presidential oath of office.

I’ve always found inspiration in ballplayers. I’ve looked to the diamond for heroes, and I’ve found them. Some became heroes because of the game they played. Some became heroes because of the lives they led. Some became heroes for both their game and their lives.

“I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give,” said Roberto Clemente, who is remembered just as he wanted.

I was thinking of Clemente the other day while driving through Bradenton, Fla., where the Pittsburgh Pirates train in March.

The team’s training facility is on Roberto Clemente Memorial Drive in honor of the late hall of famer. But when Clemente was in spring training in Florida, there were no roads named in memory of a ballplayer of color. Segregation still existed in Jim Crow Florida. Non-white teammates lived apart from white teammates and, on road trips, they sat on the bus while white teammates dined. Because of the color of his skin, Clemente could not gather with his white teammates in a local theater — miles from the current site of Roberto Clemente Memorial Drive — to watch a film premiere of their 1960 World Series victory.

Still, Clemente, whose first bat was made from a guava tree, played and gave all he had to give.

Baseball changed his life. He changed baseball. And the lives of so many fans — from Pittsburgh to Puerto Rico and over so many generations — were transformed.

When I think of Clemente, I think of a black-and-white Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photograph of him in the outfield, “Pirates” across his chest and the now-retired No. 21 below. He’s tipping his hat and wearing a look that is both serious and proud.

How proud I’d be to someday see an openly gay ballplayer tip his hat to the crowd, to see an openly gay ballplayer give all he had to give, to come out to the world and to come out on the field to play America’s game with courage and passion and pride.

Baseball.

“I see great things in baseball. It’s our game — America’s game.”

Softball vs. Baseball

Jennifer Vanasco — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:19:27 +0000

I might be venturing into dangerous territory with the lesbian league, like going for a homer when the coach signals for a bunt.
But I’ve got to take the swing.
I’m for the abolition of softball, because it allows for continued discrimination against girls and women. I think the situation compares to our marriage fight — if we settle for less than marriage, we get less. If we settle for softball, we get a bigger ball but a lesser game.
There, whew, I’ve expressed what I’ve been stewing about for 30 years.
Now I need to explain why I daydream about winning a Lotto jackpot and funding a nonprofit agency with the dual goals of abolishing softball and encouraging girls to play baseball.
First, before we get into a cyberspace version of an empty-the-dugouts brawl over my disparaging softball, I’ll acknowledge that some great athletes play softball, the game can be highly competitive and the sport thrives in the GLBT community.
I’ll acknowledge too that baseball and softball are not technically or legally alternate versions of the same sport. The Women’s Sports Foundation points out that baseball and softball are governed by separate national bodies in the United States, that the Olympic Committee recognizes baseball and softball as different sports, with different rules and different equipment. These points are vital Title IX legal arguments on behalf of girls fighting for a spot on a baseball team against school districts that maintain “but we offer softball.”
I’ll also acknowledge that in some regions of the country, women’s baseball organizations do exist and the play is fantastically fierce. I lived for a few years in a city with a women’s baseball league and enjoyed a glorious “girls of summer” era.
But let’s be honest: Women, by and large, are observant fans not players of our national pastime and older girls get directed to second-rate softball diamonds while older boys get honored for their hardball heroics.
With coed tee-ball and Little League opportunities, a lot of little girls start out in hardball. But no one can dispute that many female tee-ball titans and hardball all-stars get channeled into softball at the end of their Little League careers because of discriminatory set-ups in school systems and park districts. Too many high school softball players would prefer to play baseball.
But holy cow, what’s the rationale for girl’s softball instead of girl’s baseball?
I asked a dozen coaches to explain why high school girls generally play softball, not baseball. “It’s a good game,” most said, defending softball. “Girls can play baseball if they want.”
“If softball isn’t viewed by the general population as a game for girls, why don’t boys play softball in high school?” I asked.
“Why would they?” the coaches answered.
Why would they indeed?
Ask a 10-year-old kid, girl or boy, the difference between softball and baseball and that kid will tell you one game is for girls and one game is for boys.
I remember hearing that answer quite a bit about 30 years ago. I had dedicated myself to seven years in the girl’s Ponytail League park district baseball program and then faced three options in high school — play girl’s softball, fight to play boy’s baseball or don’t play at all.
I joined the girl’s softball team my frosh year. I hated every day of the season. I didn’t like the size of the softball, which felt all wrong in my hand. I didn’t like the bounce the ball took off the aluminum bat. A good hit in hardball goes “crack” off a wooden bat. I didn’t like the underhanded pitching — no matter how fast the ball traveled. I didn’t like that I couldn’t relate what I was doing on the softball field to what was taking place in the Major Leagues. I didn’t like that the crowds were in the stands at the other diamond, the baseball diamond, cheering for the boys. And I didn’t like that I was now an observer rather than a player of our great pastime.
Still, I played two years of softball. I tried to fit in and be a sport. But trying to like softball was like trying to date boys. Yuck.
So, junior year in high school I went with the third option and didn’t play.
Today I still get the fever to play baseball. I put on my Sox hat. I break out my glove, my baseball and my Al Kaline bat and I look for someone to coax into a game of 500 or even a backyard catch.
The other day, in the third week of spring-training season here in Florida and with my baseball fever running hot, I tried to get my 6-year-old niece to play.
“Oh Lisa,” she said, “that’s for boys.”
And that’s when I decided to announce my eagerness to abolish softball. Ban the big ball.
By the way, Major League regular season play begins this week — March 30 is opening night and March 31 is opening day.
As the late great Harry Caray said often, “Hey everybody, it’s a beautiful day for baseball.”