Ethics Alarms giveth and Ethics Alarms taketh away…
I was considering dropping this post, which has been on the runway in a holding pattern, but decided that I couldn’t let the Boston Red Sox get too full of themselves for doing the right thing.
Before its 10-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays a week ago, fans including families and children expecting an innocent night with the National Pastime entered the gates of Fenway Park to be confronted by a drag show. The Red Sox had a stage built in front of concessions stands so exhibitionist narcissists with various gender issues could pose and preen.
Huh. Now what does cross-dressing, transvestism and non-standard sexual proclivities have to do with baseball? The answer is absolutely nothing, except that baseball teams under MLB Comissioner Rob Manfred and the Red Sox longtime owner John Henry (who once dated Katie Couric, which is all you have to know) are cringingly woke. The Sox went so far as to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the outside of Fenway facing the Mass Pike in 2020, and more than half the team boycotted the traditional invitation to the White House after its last World Championship in 2018. (Racist Orange Hitler was President then too).
The featured drag queens and representative of various LGBTQ+ causes and organizations in Boston were welcomed onto the field before the game, with the Fenway announcer pimping for fans in attendance to applaud them, for existing, I guess.
“We know that visibility and inclusivity in sports not only affirm the right of everyone to participate and along, but also enrich the spirit of competition and camaraderie,” the park’s loudspeakers blared. “When teams, front offices, and fans come together to create welcoming environments, everyone can thrive and we prove that we are all better when we stand together.”
Oh gag me with a spoon.
There is no reason, sports, business, economic, ethical or municipal, for a baseball team to be having “Pride Nights.” This is silly virtue-signalling to mostly people who want their baseball unpolluted with such junk. Baseball still doesn’t have an openly gay player, nor is there any reason it should have. The sexual practices of athletes, as long as such practices don’t involve children or livestock, should never be in a baseball conversation at all: it’s a non-sequitur.
Back in the early and mid-Sixties, when the Boston Red Sox had been losing for over a decade and the team had trouble selling tickets, there were “nights” and “days” honoring all sorts of groups in the hopes that it might goose attendance. I remember “Ladies Day,” “Maine Day” (indeed special “days” for all the New England states), “Jimmy Fund Night,” “Italian Night,” even a “Nuns Day.” Then they had contrived special event days, like “Vic Wertz Day” (and if you know who he was, you’re a real baseball fan. Vic may be the only real player in history more famous for a single out he made than anything else he accomplished. Casey, as in “Casey at the Bat,” is the most famous fictional player in the same weird category. ) But the franchise hasn’t been hurting for attendance in over a half-century; there is literally no excuse for the Boston Red Sox holding a “Pride Night,” or any other team, for that matter. Only the Texas Rangers among the 30 MLB teams have had the guts to pass on the stunt.
I may have to become a Rangers fan….
Ethics Alarms 
In around 1974, Mrs. O.B.’s gay high school buddy excitedly invited us to Kowloon (not the island, the Chinese restaurant then on U.S. 1 as it roars through Saugus, Mass) to have Chinese dinner and see a drag show. To this day, I just do not “get” drag. It makes no sense. I’m sure it’s camp and all, but still, when it comes to a logical explanation … crickets. It’s evidently the height of fun and humor, but still.
I remember Kowloon!
I totally remember Kowloon.
I saw an article somewhere a few years ago that the younger generation wasn’t interested in running the restaurant and the property was going to be sold to an apartment developer. I think Frank Giafrieda’s steak house across the highway is gon as well. “Omaha Steakhouse?” With the huge fiberglass cow out front?
Of course, a drag show at Kowloon makes no more sense than one at Fenway.
Hilltop was the name of the steakhouse and yes, I believe that is gone as well.
And there was a giant cactus.
Route 1 was like a mini Las Vegas strip back in the day.
Correctamundo! “Hilltop” just popped into my brain. There were separate rooms named after various cow towns. People would be called into their room when their table was ready: “Smith party of four for Omaha!” And yes, it was a GIANT saguaro cactus with “Hilltop” emblazoned across it. Funny Mrs. OB and I ended up in Arizona among the saguaros. We even have a bunch in our yard.
The Rangers passed on having a Pride Night? Yay, team!
And they’ve just made it back to .500. The pitching leads the league in ERA, the batting has been last, but recently the bats have shown signs of awakening (especially Semien).
One of these years soon is going to be Eric Nadel’s last one. He’s cut back on the number of series he works, but still sounds great. And at least he got to be there for the World Series victory, his 45th year broadcasting the Rangers. However Eric’s cutting back does give them a chance to try out what I assume is their presumptive oncoming color guy.
Not on point, but a singer in LA sang the National Anthem in Spanish at a Dodgers game after being not to do so:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/singer-dodger-stadium-national-anthem-spanish-nezza-rcna213236
It seems to me that, if you have to have that conversation prior to the game, the correct action should have been, “thanks, but we are going in a different direction. Here’s your fee and a hotdog. Enjoy the game.”
jvb
It’s interesting when I am listening to the Rangers broadcast and they have one of the commercials in Spanish. I don’t actually know who the sponsor is — they have commercials both for here and the Metroplex, and other weird places some nights. I can recall hearing a night of ads for visiting Michigan, for companies in Minnesota and Ohio, maybe even New York. I’m talking local advertisers, not national companies, and one can only wonder — why?
The Wild Card race in the AL is going to be ridiculous this year.
It does look that way right now. 9 of the 12 non division leading teams I think have a legitimate shot at a wild card spot. The last of those, the Royals, are only 3 games back despite having lost their last 6.
I do believe that this is one thing that MLB got right from a fan interest perspective. Not only does it keep more fan bases engaged and interested longer in the season, but I suspect it cuts down on some of the fire sales that we have seen teams engage in.
If the team gives up at the trade deadline and sells off its talent — even though that team is still in wild card contention — it is going to leave a mark on their fans.
I have been through that situation with both the Rangers and Astros, and its discouraging. I’m sure you’ve experienced it with the Red Sox as well.
But anyway, here is hoping the race stays close through September.
Red Sox fans have been lucky: the front office never bailed on the season when there was a realistic chance of making the play-offs. Wht it did do under the last GM, Chaim Bloom, was be wishy-washy, not “go for it” but not have a fire sale either. That’s infuriating, and is why Bloom no longer works in Boston despite repairing the farm system with good draft choices and making some smart trades of aging players.
Yes, it can be tough as a fan in some of those situations. It also has to be tough as a player when your team is having a fire sale. If you are left behind, it likely means that management doesn’t think you’re good enough to be traded.
And even though fans may say, well the XX’s have given up on the season, that is actually only true (hopefully) of the management. The players are still there and are still trying as hard as they can. One incentive is that they have to believe that they are playing for their jobs. And even a journeyman at the MLB level is pretty darn good.
If gays can be proud to be homosexual then the rest of us can be proud to be heterosexual, so a large group of people during pride month wear t-shirts saying “Proud to be Heterosexual”.
Why not?
I may be proud of what I’ve DONE, but how can I be proud of what I AM?
I never saw much logic in watching a baseball game, with or without a drag show association. If I have to sit still that long, I’d rather just go to sleep.
That attitude is why people don’t learn anything in college either. Red Smith said “Baseball is dull to dull minds.” Don’t blame me, blame Red.