This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
LA Dodgers defeat Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2. The Dodgers sent a press release this afternoon that summarized Clayton Kershaw’s Cy Young season. With 21 wins, 2.28 ERA and 248 strikeouts, Kershaw will most likely become the third Dodger pitcher to win the Triple Crown with Dazzy Vance (1924) and Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965, 1966).
Unfortunately for MVP candidate Matt Kemp, his hopes for a Triple Crown seem to be dwindling. Kemp went 1-for-4 lowering his batting average down to .324. Ryan Braun as a pinch-hitter went 1-for-1 for the Brewers upping his average to .334.
However Kemp did lower the boom on a changeup from Daniel Hudson that stayed in the middle of the plate in the first inning that went over 420 feet dead center field to give the Dodgers the 3-0 lead. For Kemp that gave him the sole lead for homers in the National League with 38 and extended him RBI lead to 123.
With two more games to get two more homers with his 40 stolen bases, Kemp could still have a 40-40 season so all is not lost.
By the way at 81-78 the Dodgers not only are three games over .500 for the first time since Sept. 10, 2010, but they ensure they will have a winning season.
Texas Rangers defeat LA Angels 4-3. It’s done. It’s over. The last holdouts have nothing more to hope for. The Angels lost, and with it they are mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
Bitch, Please!. Oh Wayne Simmonds. Days after he proved to the world how classy he responds to absolute idiotic displays of racism, he showed that in the face of Sean Avery that classiness was not so present.
During a preseason game in Philadelphia between the Flyers and the New York Rangers, Avery got underneath Simmonds’ skin to the point that Simmonds appears to have called him a, “fucking faggot.”
It pains me to admonish Simmonds since I do like him. In a season and a half I’ve covered the Kings, Simmonds had always been pleasant to my annoying postgame (and occasional post-practice) queries. But I’m not going to pretend like I know the type of guy he is.
And since I never covered Sean Avery, I’m not going to pretend like I know how he is either although I do commend him on his support of the gay community.
I’m not going to pretend like each time I hear the term “faggot” I take it as the speaker trying to denigrate gay people. But each time I hear that term uttered in anger by a heterosexual, I want to punch them in the throat. The speaker innately believes that I am subhuman and that I am an object of ridicule. My writing might be an object of insults. My lack of ability in playing actual sports (except for tennis, how gay!) might be an object of derision. But the fact I innately desire to sleep with men should not be.
Watching Simmonds play on the ice in person for a year and a half, I know he’s an emotional player. He will probably be fined by the NHL. He will probably be contrite about using the word and genuinely feel bad. But somehow, someway we need to eradicate this word from the lips of athletes.
It Doesn’t Always Get Better. I’ve been on the fence about this ad campaign from the very beginning. I’m not a big fan of Dan Savage, and I don’t believe it’s all right to delude young gay kids to think it will get better. Sometimes it doesn’t, and all of these videos are outright lies. Ask any queer runaway hustler strung out on meth whose family kicked them out of the house.
But I get a different feeling when sports teams do it. It’s not really what they’re saying that I’m focused in on. It’s the fact that they think that I am human after all, not some monster that needs to be legislated into a re-education camp. I know I have a few strikes against me in the humanity department. I’m gay. I write about sports. I’m an atheist. But it’s nice to feel human every now and again.
So I smiled when I got the press release that the Dodgers made an “It Gets Better” video. It features Don Mattingly, James Loney, A.J. Ellis, Matt Guerrier, Jamey Carroll, Rod Barajas and Hiroku Kuroda. If their humanization of my queer brothers and sisters prevents another untimely suicide, then I’m all for it.
TONIGHT’S ACTION
LA Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks. 6:40 p.m. KCAL9, AM 790 KABC.
Texas Rangers at LA Angels. 7:05 p.m. FSWest, AM 830 KLAA.
