The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

In an interview, Major League umpire Dale Scott recently revealed that he's gay. Scott didn't make a big deal about this, as he's been with his partner for 28 years, and said the following on the matter: "I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else. ... Obviously, when I sent that picture (to the magazine, of he and his partner), I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn't going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it's not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do. I realized that it could open a Pandora's Box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for. It's not a surprise to the umpire staff." Commissioner Bud Selig responded to the interview with the following statement: "For 29 years, Dale Scott has been an ou...

Am I missing something with this Jason Collins debate? Unfortunately, I stumbled across a Nate Beeler cartoon today (thanks Columbus Dispatch and Facebook), which showcased a picture of Collins on the left, saying, "I'm a 34-year old NBA center, I'm black, and I'm gay." Six people can be seen enthusiastically calling Mr. Collins a hero. On the right is a picture of a a guy at a coffee-shop, who says, "I'm a 24-year old barista, I'm white, and I'm gay." He takes an order from a middle-aged woman who responds with, "Venti, no-whip, skinny mocha latte, please." Since when did race have anything to do with this? The big story wasn't about Jason Collins being the first black homosexual athlete of a major team sport to announce he was gay. It was about him being the first homosexual athlete of a major team sport to announce he was gay. If the cartoon wanted to suggest that a person, regardless of their profession, should keep the...

Like most other people who have heard about the story, Howard Kurtz has an opinion on NBA player Jason Collins coming out via an article in Sports Illustrated . Unlike most other people, however, Kurtz writes for The Daily Beast , and unfortunately for him, it appears as if he didn't read the entire Sports Illustrated article before commenting on it. In his "piece," Kurtz wrote: "He has always struggled with being gay, the NBA player said to Sports Illustrated and George Stephanaopoulos, drawing rave reviews for his candor and a congratulatory call from President Obama. Except that he left out one detail. He was engaged. To be married. To a woman." Obviously, Mr, Kurtz left out one detail from his "piece" - he didn't read the entire article before writing about it. In the Sports Illustrated article, Collins wrote: "When I was younger, I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to ...