Whitlock on the gay umpire

I am not the world's biggest Jason Whitlock fan, but he nailed it with this one. The ending is superb.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/gay-umpires-ordeal-shows-sad-state-of-sports-081310

 

I enjoyed the meat of the story, getting to know who Van Raaphorst is and how he came to be where he is.

But the ending didn't really move me.

 

Good column. Glad he brought himself into it.

I guess I'm stunned that being a gay umpire would even be an issue. I hope the guy gets another break.

 

That was better than anything Whitlock has written for the Star in years. I know that's not saying much, but I thoroughly enjoyed that column. Good stuff. Props to Whitlock.

 

My only quibble was the lack of sourcing of the quotes. It made me pause. To be fair, this was the first I had heard of the story, so I didn't realize the quotes from the rant were out there.

But, like I said, it was only a pause. That was a great, great column.

 

Agreed. Good story, but the ending didn't work for me at all.

 

FYI: Jeff Pearlman did a piece for SI on the same incident -- which was posted a couple of hours before Whitlock's, according to the website timestamps. He sources quotes to Outsports.com and the Edmonton Journal.

 

I'm interested in what people think. While I prefer the sourcing of Pearlman, I like more the tone from Whitlock, even while, politically, for full disclosure, I am solidly on the left, pro gay-marriage, in-military, it's the last bastion of legal bigotry, etc. etc. The way Whitlock wrapped it up reminded me (not to equalize the two statements, but …) of Obama's speech on race during the campaign. Bowers offered himself up at his very, very worst. He deserves what he got. But it's probably not all he is, either. Maybe we couldn't all become Bowers in a regrettable moment, as Whitlock says, but we all have character flaws that can be exposed when presented with the right (wrong) circumstances.

 

I think both pieces work very well, save for Whitlock's ending. Interesting that one took it almost entirely from the ump's viewpoint and the other from the manager's.

The sourcing wasn't an issue for me, particularly since Bowers didn't dispute it.

 

Both were right on target. Good to see that some can bury the axes long enough to acknowledge quality.

 

Bowers comment about having a gay cousin is just so lame. It honestly reminds me of the racist guy that claims he's not really racist for saying inappropriate things because he has "black friends."

 

I thought this thread was going to be about something else...





Jokes aside, great column. The Star got their moneysworth on this one.