White Sox could handle signing gay player-KW

[southsider2k5]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/major-l...y-player-021014

 

Chicago White Sox president Ken Williams, who previously was the first African-American general manager in Chicago sports history, said that if a team is unwilling to offer its full backing to an openly gay player, then it should not acquire him.

 

"Are you, as a leader of your organization, prepared to provide the young man the public and private support he will need along with controlling, to the extent you can, what the behavior is in the clubhouse/locker room?" Williams asked.

 

"If the answer is yes, then you have an opportunity to use what some see as a distraction and use it as an individual and team character-building opportunity along the lines of what Branch Rickey did for Jackie Robinson.

 

"If the answer is no, then it is unfair to select him because like it or not, this will be a daily media/fan event and will need to be managed to keep everyone's focus on the job at hand."

 

Williams' answer is yes. The answer of every executive I spoke with was yes.

[witesoxfan]

"The answer of every executive I spoke with was yes."

 

Proud to be a baseball fan today.

[LittleHurt05]

For all the talk about a gay player supposedly affecting locker room culture in the NFL, I could actually see it being an issue in MLB. That's simply because of all the players from Latin & South America. Most of these countries are way behind the US as far as gay rights go, and there seems to be a homophobic culture in some countries. It's just something that's part of the culture they were raised and as we have seen, it's not easy to change over night. There was a major leaguer recently who wrote a gay slur on his hat in Spanish, not thinking it would be a big deal.

[southsider2k5]

For all the talk about a gay player supposedly affecting locker room culture in the NFL, I could actually see it being an issue in MLB. That's simply because of all the players from Latin & South America. Most of these countries are way behind the US as far as gay rights go, and there seems to be a homophobic culture in some countries. It's just something that's part of the culture they were raised and as we have seen, it's not easy to change over night. There was a major leaguer recently who wrote a gay slur on his hat in Spanish, not thinking it would be a big deal.

 

That is the exact same demographic that powered through Prop 8 in California from what I read.

[witesoxfan]

For all the talk about a gay player supposedly affecting locker room culture in the NFL, I could actually see it being an issue in MLB. That's simply because of all the players from Latin & South America. Most of these countries are way behind the US as far as gay rights go, and there seems to be a homophobic culture in some countries. It's just something that's part of the culture they were raised and as we have seen, it's not easy to change over night. There was a major leaguer recently who wrote a gay slur on his hat in Spanish, not thinking it would be a big deal.

 

The Sox former manager called Jay Mariotti by a homophobic slur too.

[Quin]

The Sox former manager called Jay Mariotti by a homophobic slur too.

 

It was good for the team cause it wasn't boring!

[brian310]

I hope they would handle signing a gay player. Its not even a big deal.

[bmags]

For all the talk about a gay player supposedly affecting locker room culture in the NFL, I could actually see it being an issue in MLB. That's simply because of all the players from Latin & South America. Most of these countries are way behind the US as far as gay rights go, and there seems to be a homophobic culture in some countries. It's just something that's part of the culture they were raised and as we have seen, it's not easy to change over night. There was a major leaguer recently who wrote a gay slur on his hat in Spanish, not thinking it would be a big deal.

 

People from US really don't have much to talk down about gay rights in Latin/South America. Gay Marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico City. These are some of the most populous areas in the region.

 

3/4 are whole countries, not states like the US. How is this any different than NFL? Are they that much less accepting than Southern Baptists in NFL?

Edited February 11, 2014 by bmags

[shago]

For all the talk about a gay player supposedly affecting locker room culture in the NFL, I could actually see it being an issue in MLB. That's simply because of all the players from Latin & South America. Most of these countries are way behind the US as far as gay rights go, and there seems to be a homophobic culture in some countries. It's just something that's part of the culture they were raised and as we have seen, it's not easy to change over night. There was a major leaguer recently who wrote a gay slur on his hat in Spanish, not thinking it would be a big deal.

Never been an issue, just ask Brady Anderson. This is an overblown issue, players are cool with it, even the Latin players, so long as they're getting a paycheck. Unlike the NFL, baseball still an individual sport. You perform, you're accepted. You suck (Dunn) and no one respects or likes you.

[The Ultimate Champion]

Brady Anderson was gay?

 

I just checked google and yes, it appears there is a message board listing all gay players including some posters claiming to have had gay affairs. http://www.realjock.com/gayforums/26603?forumpage=1

 

All I want to know is that if someone who is gay is in the Sox locker room who does the "handling" heh hehe hehehhehe (Ross Gload witch laugh)

[The Ultimate Champion]

Brady Anderson was gay?

 

I just checked google and yes, it appears there is a message board listing all gay players including some posters claiming to have had gay affairs. http://www.realjock.com/gayforums/26603?forumpage=1

 

All I want to know is that if someone who is gay is in the Sox locker room who does the "handling" heh hehe hehehhehe (Ross Gload witch laugh)

http://www.realjock.com/gayforums/26603?forumpage=2

 

ClassyBoy04 thinks Brian Urlacher is gay! I believe it, football sucks.

[The Ultimate Champion]

So anyway I guess the point is who the f*** cares & why does it matter? It's all gossip anyway. I doubt a team with a gay player would want the extra attention anyway.

[lasttriptotulsa]

Brady Anderson was gay?

 

I just checked google and yes, it appears there is a message board listing all gay players including some posters claiming to have had gay affairs. http://www.realjock.com/gayforums/26603?forumpage=1

 

All I want to know is that if someone who is gay is in the Sox locker room who does the "handling" heh hehe hehehhehe (Ross Gload witch laugh)

 

So you found one thread on a gay message board of lists who a bunch of gay guys think/wish are gay and that is supposed to be evidence of something?

[LittleHurt05]

People from US really don't have much to talk down about gay rights in Latin/South America. Gay Marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico City. These are some of the most populous areas in the region.

 

3/4 are whole countries, not states like the US. How is this any different than NFL? Are they that much less accepting than Southern Baptists in NFL?

 

Gay marriage may be legal, but there are still homophobic murders in those countries nearly every day, so I wouldn't say it's better than in the US. Just because the big cities are very free and accepting, it doesn't represent the whole culture.

 

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/re...ic-killing-lgbt

 

And other than Rienzo, baseball players don't come from the first three countries you mentioned. They come from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, places where the culture is much less accepting.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Spring training and baseball can't come fast enough.

[kitekrazy]

Spring training and baseball can't come fast enough.

 

Agreed. This thread is lame. Post Super Bowl is down time for sports media. So this is what they had to come up with and people bite on it. I think people will get less interested in professional sports as more political doctrine enters the arena. This has happened to the NFL.

 

[witesoxfan]

Agreed. This thread is lame. Post Super Bowl is down time for sports media. So this is what they had to come up with and people bite on it. I think people will get less interested in professional sports as more political doctrine enters the arena. This has happened to the NFL.

 

Yes, people absolutely stopped coming to games once Jackie Robinson was allowed to play.

[ScottyDo]

I hate that people are so dismissive of this event, as though it means nothing. There's a reason there has never been an out player on a major team sport, and it's not because there aren't gay people throughout all four of them. It's really monumental that we've progressed to the point that a gay player can be who he is in such an historically intolerant arena.

 

You can say "what's the big deal?" because you don't care that the guy, personally, is gay. But that's akin to saying "who cares?" to Jackie Robinson because you don't care that he's black. Nobody has to care about the identifier of the person breaking the barrier, but it is ABSOLUTELY important that the barrier is being broken. It represents societal change, and change within the sport(s).

 

I'm very glad KW has vocalized the right position on the issue. It can't be expressed how important it is that organizational figureheads comment in support of Sam.

 

And it's not a political issue, it's a human issue.

[The Ultimate Champion]

I hate that people are so dismissive of this event, as though it means nothing. There's a reason there has never been an out player on a major team sport, and it's not because there aren't gay people throughout all four of them. It's really monumental that we've progressed to the point that a gay player can be who he is in such an historically intolerant arena.

 

You can say "what's the big deal?" because you don't care that the guy, personally, is gay. But that's akin to saying "who cares?" to Jackie Robinson because you don't care that he's black. Nobody has to care about the identifier of the person breaking the barrier, but it is ABSOLUTELY important that the barrier is being broken. It represents societal change, and change within the sport(s).

 

I'm very glad KW has vocalized the right position on the issue. It can't be expressed how important it is that organizational figureheads comment in support of Sam.

 

And it's not a political issue, it's a human issue.

I agree that comments like those made by Kenny Williams are great for gay people & gay rights. It's great for those who the issue is about but the resulting media circus is almost Dunn-like in its repulsiveness.

 

I get what you mean by the not caring part, but really, if you're not gay why should you care? I support gay rights, I have no problem with gay athletes or gay co-workers or whatever, but I don't march in parades, and when I see a gay person I just go on with my day. Not everything needs to become a circus and IMO it is impossible for something like that not to become a circus. In fact if you've heard one thing out of the corporate media these last several days you can pretty easily see one great reason why gay athletes don't want to come out.

[ScottyDo]

I agree that comments like those made by Kenny Williams are great for gay people & gay rights. It's great for those who the issue is about but the resulting media circus is almost Dunn-like in its repulsiveness.

 

I get what you mean by the not caring part, but really, if you're not gay why should you care? I support gay rights, I have no problem with gay athletes or gay co-workers or whatever, but I don't march in parades, and when I see a gay person I just go on with my day. Not everything needs to become a circus and IMO it is impossible for something like that not to become a circus. In fact if you've heard one thing out of the corporate media these last several days you can pretty easily see one great reason why gay athletes don't want to come out.

Because it's a barrier that you don't think should be there, and it's weakening, soon to break. That's why you should care. That's why you should care about Jackie Robinson, too, even if you're white.

[ScottyDo]

And of course there's a media circus. Because it's a significant event. The mark of ultimate success will be when there's no longer a circus when a player comes out, but it's a stepwise process. To ignore the breaking of a barrier would be a great disservice. They made a freaking movie about Jackie Robinson 60-something years later. The event is important and commemorated frequently. That's as it should be.

[The Ultimate Champion]

Because it's a barrier that you don't think should be there, and it's weakening, soon to break. That's why you should care. That's why you should care about Jackie Robinson, too, even if you're white.

I think it's already been broken, maybe not as publicly, but this Sam guy isn't going to be the first gay NFL player by a long shot. And I have no idea who else before him was gay, nor do I care to know, nor is it any of my business.

 

And I really don't like comparing this to Jackie Robinson either. There is no gay baseball league where hundreds of equally talented gay players are held back; there are probably at least a few gay players in MLB who would get signed anyway due to their talent level but choose not to speak out because they want to focus on the game, not be the centerpiece of a media circus.

 

Very few people, even the most ignorant ones, in this society are going to call for lynchings anymore. The gay issue is a religious issue, nothing else IMO, and the political hurdles gays face are a response to the thoughts of stupid religious voters who think about God's will when they cast a ballot. This is completely different from anything blacks had to endure here. Really, gays IMO have it probably easier than anyone, not that it has come easily, but blacks, native/indigenous peoples, Asians thrown in internment camps, women having no voice or voting rights and having to accept abusive husbands and live more or less as servants, etc. it's been really bad for them, and really no one got it worse than the natives here: forced off their land which they didn't even claim ownership of like we do, forced into one-sided treaties that were then broken, forced onto reservations, given no holidays except a completely historically inaccurate one called Thanksgiving which is a football holiday that teams like the Redskins play on which promotes gluttony and wastefulness. Gays for the most part have had to keep secrets. And I'm not diminishing the struggles they have had, and it's great that some things finally are changing, but let's not make the Jackie Robinson comps here please. And as long as there are morons who believe they should be able to control the intimate lives of other people through the political process there are still going to be problems.

Edited February 13, 2014 by The Ultimate Champion

[ScottyDo]

I think it's already been broken, maybe not as publicly, but this Sam guy isn't going to be the first gay NFL player by a long shot. And I have no idea who else before him was gay, nor do I care to know, nor is it any of my business.

 

And I really don't like comparing this to Jackie Robinson either. There is no gay baseball league where hundreds of equally talented gay players are held back; there are probably at least a few gay players in MLB who would get signed anyway due to their talent level but choose not to speak out because they want to focus on the game, not be the centerpiece of a media circus.

 

Very few people, even the most ignorant ones, in this society are going to call for lynchings anymore. The gay issue is a religious issue, nothing else IMO, and the political hurdles gays face are a response to the thoughts of stupid religious voters who think about God's will when they cast a ballot. This is completely different from anything blacks had to endure here. Really, gays IMO have it probably easier than anyone, not that it has come easily, but blacks, native/indigenous peoples, Asians thrown in internment camps, women having no voice or voting rights and having to accept abusive husbands and live more or less as servants, etc. it's been really bad for them, and really no one got it worse than the natives here: forced off their land which they didn't even claim ownership of like we do, forced into one-sided treaties that were then broken, forced onto reservations, given no holidays except a completely historically inaccurate one called Thanksgiving which is football holiday teams like the Redskins play on that promotes gluttony and wastefulness. Gays for the most part have had to keep secrets. And I'm not diminishing the struggles they have had, and it's great that some things finally are changing, but let's not make the Jackie Robinson comps here please. And as long as there are morons who believe they should be able to control the intimate lives of other people through the political process there are still going to be problems.

The comparison isn't exact, but it's definitely there. This hasn't happened in over a hundred years of major organized sports for a reason, not just because gay people are independently secretive. Because there has, historically, been active aggression against the group. Eventually, sentiments change and someone is the first person to definitively defy the ugly history of the sport. There is no denying the comparison in that respect. Jackie Robinson was certainly more momentous for the reasons you mentioned, but to deny the significance of this event is, in my personal opinion, terribly offensive.

[The Ultimate Champion]

The comparison isn't exact, but it's definitely there. This hasn't happened in over a hundred years of major organized sports for a reason, not just because gay people are independently secretive. Because there has, historically, been active aggression against the group. Eventually, sentiments change and someone is the first person to definitively defy the ugly history of the sport. There is no denying the comparison in that respect. Jackie Robinson was certainly more momentous for the reasons you mentioned, but to deny the significance of this event is, in my personal opinion, terribly offensive.

Hey personally I think it's great. I'm just sick of the media spin.

 

I think gay rights has come at a time in our history where so many people have had it rough that they can be more accepting, also, the loss of religion's grasp on a lot of people along with changing interpretations of what God really meant at this or that point has made things a lot easier. There's that play they do in colleges across the nation about the gay kid who IIRC was tied to a tree and beaten to death, there's a lot in the media, etc. there's a lot out there to try to diffuse hatred. But I just hate the media crap & don't pay attention to it. I hate these blowhard media cocksuckers who want to tell everyone how to think and act, and never shut up about it, kind of like posters here ATM who refuse to give Ervin Santana his just due.

 

I get that it's an historic moment for gay athletes but at the same time all the bulls*** talk about it just makes me want to kill people, not rejoice.

Edited February 13, 2014 by The Ultimate Champion

[ILMOU]

And of course there's a media circus. Because it's a significant event. The mark of ultimate success will be when there's no longer a circus when a player comes out, but it's a stepwise process. To ignore the breaking of a barrier would be a great disservice. They made a freaking movie about Jackie Robinson 60-something years later. The event is important and commemorated frequently. That's as it should be.

 

Yeah, it'll be a circus, but the circus will leave town soon, and it will be much less so for those that follow. As it should be.