Saturday, April 04, 2015

Neither Heaven Nor Iowa (And For Sure Not Indiana).


LifeIsNotAWPKinsellaNovel
ButMaybeItShouldBeALittleMoreLikeOneVille


With spring training done, the non-players who work for baseball teams all over North America are getting their promotional packages ready for special event nights that will roll on all summer long.

One of those will be LGBT night at Oakland Alameda County 'And-Whatever-Else-The-Heck-They-Call-It-Now' Coliseum in June.

Which is no big deal, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, right?

Except that, surprise!, a whole bunch of season ticket holders, presumably those that sit in the steak and sushi seats, started making a fuss about how they were going to boycott the game.

Not governor of Indiana Mike Pence-like stuff to be sure, but still crappy.

And then the life partner of one of the A's relievers Eireann Dolan stepped in and wrote this on her blog:

...Many people don’t know this about me, but I have two moms. My biological mom Kathy and her partner Elise (who grew up in the Bay Area) are both die-hard A’s fans as well as super gay. Like, they’re so gay for each other that they’ve fostered a long-term loving relationship likely no different from any heterosexual loving relationships you’ve seen or been a part of.

My moms are transplant San Diegans living amongst all of the San Diego Padres fans. The team the Athletics will play (and beat) on Pride Night? The San Diego Padres. This night was made for them. In fact I’m starting to suspect that the Athletics focus-grouped this event idea with just my two moms and nobody else.

It couldn’t be any more perfectly tailored to my moms than if the team announced that NPR’s Terry Gross will also be throwing out the first pitch and there will be a free notepad giveaway on which my moms can write down all of the reasons I should have majored in something more practical in college...



In the ensuing few days Ms. Dolan and friends have raised more than $30,000 to buy the tickets from the curmudgeonly so that they can give then them to kids who hang out at LGBT youth centers, of which there are many in the Bay Area.

Which is really and truly great, and I'm sure that a good time will be had by all.

And heckfire, maybe some of those kids will get to go down on the field for a game of catch with their Dad.

Or maybe even their 2 Dads or 3 Moms and Grandad if that's what they want to do.


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And, for the record, I'm still mad as hell at Al Davis for what he did to the outfield bleachers at the Coliseum, which is the place Bigger (but then tiny) E. went to her second ball game, ever, in a pack on my back....The first game she got to sit in the left field bleachers just behind the old hurricane fence in Candlestick.
Looking for the best ever baseball movie you've never seen if you, like me, don't really give a hoot-in-heckfire about March Madness?...Try the life and times of Minnie Minoso, it won't let you down.


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4 comments:

West End Bob said...

Great story, RossK - Thanx ! ! ! !

RossK said...

Bob--

The Minnie Minoso doc is really something.

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scotty on denman said...

That's such a great story, Ross---Thanx a bunch!

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

It happens all too often. A nation at war coming to resemble more and more with each passing day the very nation(s) it is fighting with. Good to be reminded (and we do need reminding now and again) not everybody wants to go there.