Whitlock on the gay umpire

Yeah, but I didn't want to rain too heavily on the parade.

 

One assumes that this lays to rest the theory that JW is taking vakay from the Star to handle family issues. Apparently he's still free and clear to travel to San Diego and write columns for another outlet.

 

Gotta think that JW mess had something to do with sports editor's impending departure in K.C.

 

but if gay umpires are allowed won't that be the ruin of traditional umpiring?

 

What? You think they'll demand to wear pink outfits?

 

Perhaps The Star has a strict no profanity rule. If it were me, I would have likely written it as "[expletives]" or "[expletive] [expletive]", or I would have written around it by describing what he called the umpire.

The last thing any newspaper needs to do is pander to the lowest common denominator by printing profanity in that instance.

However, back when my former university's student government president and other SGA officials received racist hate mail (which received at least local attention), my student paper printed the letters verbatim. In that case, I supported the decision to do so. I don't think this necessarily fits the need test.

In other news about this instance, I saw a note on Outsports that the umpire has been overwhelmed with positive messages on Facebook from people all over the place. The Edmonton Capitals invited him to umpire a couple of games for them some time after the incident, and in his next games after the incident, several players -- including former Cubs wunderkind Mark Prior -- came up to him to wish him well.

In the interest of full disclosure, I sent him a brief message of encouragement after I saw the Outsports piece via Facebook. A few minutes later, he friended me.

 

I don't know who does the evaluations to determine who gets to keep moving up the umpiring ranks, but it's always struck me as pretty clubby with a lot of second and third generations finding their way to the MLB. Hard to believe a top rated grad from the Wendlestadt school hit a wall at Double A. Did he have a problem calling the breaking pitches?

 

I'm sure the guy's a damn sight better than C.B. Bucknor or Cowboy Joe West.

 

We need to protect the sanctity of umpires.

Next thing you know, they're going to be putting gay umpires in textbooks at school. Oh, the humanity!