Monthly Archives: June 2022

With many cities kicking off their June Pride festivities this weekend, we thought we could take the time now to look back at some of the most important moments in Texas Pride History.

The June Pride month commemorates what is now known as the Stonewall uprising, an important moment in the history for LGBTQ liberation. After the Greenwich Village bar the Stonewall Inn was raided by the New York Police Department on June 28, 1969, LGBTQ patrons (many of whom were people of color) and their neighbors rioted for over six days.

In Texas, Pride events have been happening since the 1970s. Austin Monthly chronicles how organizations like the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Womens Liberation held events in 1970, a year after the Stonewall riots. Austin Mayor Jeff Friedman would declare a Gay Pride Celebration Week in June, 1976.

The first official Houston Pride parade occurred in 1979, but OutSmart Magazine gives a great overview of events that happened in the years prior that made an official parade possible. One person who marched in 1976 was Annise Parker, the activist turned mayor of Houston.

The following year in Houston in 1977, a seminal event occurred for the LGBTQ community in June: Anita Bryant came to town. Bryant, a moderately successful singer and a onetime Miss Oklahoma, found a second career as a hateful anti-gay rights activist. Houstonia provides a rundown of the boycott that took place outside the Hyatt Regency, where Bryant was performing. Over 10,000 showed up to the boycott, making it one of the largest public events in Houstons history at that time. In 1980, Florida Orange Juice officially canned Bryant as their spokesperson.

Dallas held its first official Pride parade in June 1980 (though there was an important and impromptu march from gay rights organizers that occurred in 1973). An organization of LGBTQ bars and nightclubs called the Tavern Guild took over the parade in 1983 and moved it to September to honor the court case Baker v. Wade, which overturned a Texas sodomy law (which would be later reversed by a court of appeals).

As the AIDS epidemic tragically escalated throughout the 1980s, many Pride events in Texas took on a more dire need. San Antonio held its first Pride Picnic in 1982. San Antonio Magazine notes that first event happened as a result of the activism of real estate developer and nightclub owner Arthur Hap Veltman.

Veltman died of complications from AIDS in 1988. A recent documentary from filmmaker Noi Mahoney examines his legacy on the San Antonio LGBTQ community. One of Veltmans colleagues, Gene Elder became the director of the Happy Foundation Archives, a resource named after Veltman to document gay and queer history in San Antonio and Texas. The University of Texas at San Antonio houses much of those archives.

Though not directly related to Pride, an important court case known as Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University was upheld in 1984. In 1976, Texas A&M refused to recognize the group Gay Student Services on the basis that homosexuality was illegal in Texas. A court of appeals sided with the student organization, and the Supreme Court declined to take the case, thereby upholding the court of appeals ruling. Texas A&M unveiled a new LGBTQ+ Pride Center last year.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton declared June Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. He issued the same proclamation in 2000, and President Obama continued the tradition when he took office in 2009. President Biden proclaimed this month as LGTBTQ Pride Month, while also noting the recent heinous attacks on the LGBTQ community.

In Texas, Beaumont hosted its first Pride Event in 2014. Hundreds attended the parade and block party that June. Later that year in August, 24-year-old Texas Tech student Kat Cade organized a pride event in Lubbock, which was covered by Texas Monthly.

Though many activists will point out that Pride Month has morphed into a strange corporation-fueled rainbow celebration with nebulous ties to the protests it once inspired, Texas has been the scene of many important events for the LGBTQ community. And the activism is important.

Texas was the site of numerous anti-LGBTQ bills during the last legislative session (and the subsequent special sessions that followed) including a transgender sports ban championed by that went into effect earlier this year. According to Equality Texas, there were 30 anti-LGBTQ bills filed in the Texas legislative session, an increase of 50 percent from 2019.

The Texas GOP has also backed investigations into the parents of trans children, as well as their medical allies. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has also indicated he wants to bring a bill similar to Floridas Dont Say Gay law to Texas for the next session.

Pride is a celebration, but it also commemorates a protest. Now more than ever, Texas will once again become the site of protests and activism against anti-LGBTQ laws.

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A Brief History of Pride in Texas - The Texas Signal

Sports are defined by moments of What If... Since the inevitable end to Utahs football and basketball seasons back in January and March, Ive been obsessed with watching ESPNs 30 for 30 documentaries or going on YouTube and watching NFL Films Top 10 What if moments as well as other sports documentaries.

After watching these it inspired me to apply those same theories to Utah sports and ask the what-if questions to a number of Utah Sports moments. For example, what if Urban Meyer stayed at Utah and didnt leave for the Florida job, Rick Majerus continued coaching at Utah, or what if Coach Whit left for another job.

Id like to start the series as soon as possible but I also wanted to open it up to our community and get your thoughts and insight. I dont plan on this being an intensive what-if scenario dissecting every potential fallout but more of my general thoughts as well as an open dialogue from all of you. Its also just a great way to kill time over the summer and get more excited for the return of Utah Football.

With that please post your comments about some potential What if moments in Utah Utes sports history and tune in to this thread over the summer.

See the rest here:

What If......? - Moments in University of Utah Sports History - Block U

Historian and TV presenter David Olusoga has said that rightwing newspapers characterise him as an activist and critical race theorist to delegitimise his voice, despite there being no basis for these claims.

Olusoga, whose work has explored black Britishness and the legacy of empire and slavery, said that people feel perfectly comfortable making these comments about me without being able to point to a single reference or footnote in my books. He said that in reality he is an old-fashioned empirical historian who fundamentally tells stories and tries to create empathy and a public understanding of history.

He told an audience at Hay festival: Why the need to describe me as a critical race theorist? Why the need to describe me as an activist rather than a historian? These are all about delegitimising peoples voices.

Olusoga was speaking as part of a debate on how cancel culture has become a blood sport, but said that the phrase did not capture his experience, since it is usually attributed to students, who he thinks are falsely accused of fomenting cancel culture, when in reality it reflects a growing intolerance in rightwing newspapers.

He was also asked for his views on the response to historian David Starkeys comments that slavery was not genocide. Starkey subsequently resigned from his post at the University of Cambridges Fitzwilliam College.

Olusoga said he was conflicted because while what Starkey had said was appalling and inaccurate, he felt its sad that somebody who is a great historian was getting into those debates.

He blamed Starkeys tone on the influence of the Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4s provocative show that has run since 1990, for elevating opinion over expertise. Its taken some who have great expertise away from that expertise and into that carnivalesque world of commentary, he said.

The panel was hosted by the editor of Prospect magazine, Alan Rusbridger. The former Guardian editor said he had observed during his six years as principal of Oxford Universitys Lady Margaret Hall how the increasingly polarised and vitriolic tone of public debate had resulted in a growing fear among academics that one misplaced word or tweet would lead to a pile-on.

Prof Jonathan Bate, who was also on the panel, said that how controversial issues are discussed varied in different countries. While in the UK there is a great deal of heat around trans issues, this is not so fiercely debated in the US, where he teaches at Arizona State University. The hot button in the States, for entirely understandable reasons, is race, he said.

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Speaking generally, he worried that history goes in cycles and an age of liberation is followed by an age of puritanism and that the current mood of polarisation was bringing us into a new puritanism.

Fellow panellist and comedian Shazia Mirza said that when she started out in comedy 15 years ago, death threats were considered serious but that social media had made them so commonplace that they were considered a badge of honour among comedians.

If you get a death threat or hate mail its considered that youre doing well, it means youre making people react, people are talking about you; youre having an effect on people, she said.

She added that although people say that comedians such as Jimmy Carr, Louis CK and Ricky Gervais have been cancelled, in reality its a myth. They are definitely not unemployed, they are still working, earning millions.

More here:

Cancel culture a reflection of rightwing papers intolerance, says David Olusoga - The Guardian

Red SoxThe Athletics, openly angling for either a new Oakland stadium or a move to Las Vegas, are drawing fewer than 8,000 fans per game in 2022. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

COMMENTARY

After Thursday night, the Red Sox are going to have a hard time making their latest series in Oakland notable beyond it happening around its competition across the bay.

Some Red Sox may have been at Game 1 of the NBA Finals; Alex Cora, in a bit of an eye-popper quote, said earlier in the week it was even cost prohibitive for his players. For those that were, itll be quite a 24-hour jump from the $1.4 billion Chase Center on the San Francisco waterfront to a place where the possums run wild and free.

What today is known as RingCentral Coliseum is a relic of a bygone baseball era, and wont be long for the majors if the Athletics bosses get their way. The sports fifth-oldest stadium only eight remain that pre-date Baltimores Camden Yards is almost universally maligned, with the possum story of a few weeks ago joining the feral cats, the sewage overflows, the intimacy tarps, and just the general aesthetic of the place since it was renovated in the mid-90s to win back the Raiders (for a couple decades).

The older of you may remember when the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was one of the sports jewels, the site of the 1987 All-Star Game right before the Athletics won three straight pennants behind the Bash Brothers, Rickey Henderson, and some long-haired Hall of Fame closer.

And almost all of you likely remember some sliver of Red Sox history in Oakland, because for a place theyve only visited once a year for most of the last two decades, theyve sure had a lot of memorable games there.

Thus, if I may take a moment to not lament the 2022 Red Sox bullpen, a few memories of afternoons and late nights gone by watching Boston spend part of a West Coast trip in the East Bay.

May 27, 1968 Why not salute the first? Especially when, with a crowd of just 6,875 announced for what months earlier was still the Kansas City As, the seats were about as depressingly empty as theyll probably be on Friday?

So, Boston really needs a stadium? They ought to parcel the new one out here into three U-Haul-It trucks and send it to home, quipped the Globes Clif Keane in the next days paper.

Playing the day after Oakland brawled with the Tigers, the reigning American League champs beat the As, 3-2, with reigning MVP Carl Yastrzemski smashing the longest home run in the brief history of the park. (The Oakland Tribune estimated it at 450 feet.)

Two additional notes: May 27 was a notable day in baseball history, as that same night the American League formally voted to split into divisions for the 1969 season, and the National League awarded expansion teams to Montreal and San Diego. (The NL wouldnt agree to divisional play until a month later.)

Also, Bostons second game in Oakland included the 1968 debut of 67 Cy Young winner Jim Lonborg, used in relief after hed torn up his knee skiing the previous Christmas. Though hed pitch parts of the next 12 seasons, at 26, his best days were already behind him.

Oct. 7, 1975 The Red Sox and Oakland have a relatively beefy playoff history. That aforementioned As dynasty of the late 1980s included a pair of championship-series sweeps of Boston, the 1990 version ending with Roger Clemens Ninja Turtles on his cleats, goatee on his face ejected in the second inning.

In 2003, the Red Sox completed a comeback from the Division Series brink in Oakland, Manny Ramirez crashing a game-winning home run and Derek Lowe closing it out with a celebratory crotch chop.

A shoutout, though, to their first postseason meeting, when the Red Sox ended the reign of the three-time World Series winners with an ALCS sweep of their own. Rico Petrocelli put the Sox up in the fourth, Dick Drago got a pivotal double play in the eighth, and Boston won, 5-3, to set up a World Series with the Big Red Machine.

June 7, 2007 The Red Sox and As have played nine 1-0 games at the Coliseum, the visitors winning six of them, none more notable than the one played 15 years ago Tuesday.

When Curt Schilling shook off Jason Varitek.

The big-money Sox were already up nine games in a division race they were never much challenged in on their way to a world championship, but were on a season-worst four-game losing streak that getaway Thursday. They had only four hits that day, but David Ortizs first-inning solo shot off Joe Blanton was enough as Schilling played the stopper, needing only 90 pitches to reach the ninth without allowing a hit.

You likely know the rest: After retiring current As manager Mark Kotsay and Jason Kendall on groundouts, Varitek called for a first-pitch slider to Shannon Stewart who, coincidentally, played his last major-league game exactly one year later on June 7, 2008.

Schilling wanted to throw a fastball. He did, and at 95 miles per hour, it was his fastest of the day. Stewart ripped it past a diving Alex Cora into right field.

I was sure [Stewart] was taking. Tek was sure he was swinging, Schilling told reporters after finishing his third and final one-hitter. I was wrong. . . . And Ive got the big what if for the rest of my life.

I think Eric Hinske said it best, Mike Lowell noted, when he said, Ive never seen our pitcher throw a shutout and we win, 1-0, and were all disappointed.

It was actually the second time a Red Sox pitcher lost a no-hitter in the ninth inning at Oakland Coliseum. Marty Pattin, whom the Red Sox got as part of the trade that sent Lonborg and George Scott out of town in 1971, tossed a one-hitter at the As on July 11, 1972. The only damage was a Reggie Jackson one-out single in the ninth.

No confirmation on whether Pattin, as Bill Lee wrote he frequently did in The Wrong Stuff, threw up after the first inning.

April 21, 2018 Cora, to be clear, had no chance at Stewarts single, but that didnt keep him from lamenting what might have been.

Have I been this close to being a part of [a no-hitter]? he told reporters that day. Not 10 feet.

Eleven years later, another trip to Oakland changed that . . . sort of. Sean Manaea no-hit his rampaging Red Sox, whod opened 17-2, outscoring opponents by nearly four runs per game. That included pounding what would become a 97-win As team in the Friday series opener.

Thats baseball. We talk about being humble and staying hungry, Cora told reporters that Saturday night. Well, we were humbled.

It was not without controversy. Sandy Len reached base in the fifth on a pop up that Marcus Semien, racing toward the outfield, got a glove on. (It was ruled it an error.) In the sixth, Andrew Benintendi appeared to have a hit when he beat out a swinging bunt up the first-base line, but was called out after an umpire huddle for leaving the base line.

In the moment, it was the start of a three-game losing streak, and the Red Sox dropped out of the first place about a month later when Manaea beat them again at Fenway. Their history, however, would not be denied.

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In likely one of Bostons last trips to Oakland Coliseum, a reminder of the Red Sox history there - Boston.com

ST. CLOUD The Alexandria baseball team is one win away from securing its fifth state tournament entry in program history and first since 2018, and the Cardinals have two chances to get that win.

Alexandria is the lone unbeaten team left in the Section 8-3A playoffs after beating Willmar (15-7) 8-1 at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud on Saturday afternoon. Willmar, Sauk Rapids-Rice and Rocori were all eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday.

The Cardinals (18-5) will play sixth-seeded Little Falls (12-11) at 4 p.m. on Wednesday back at the MAC in St. Cloud. Little Falls beat Rocori 2-1 on Saturday and would have to beat Alexandria twice on Wednesday to win the section. Alexandria beat Little Falls 4-0 on May 20.

We cant overthink it too much with us beating them last time, Alexandria senior infielder Reed Reisdorf said. They have nothing to lose. We still have to put all our stuff out there and throw our best game at them.

Alexandria jumped on Willmar early with a second-inning, solo home run from senior JD Hennen.

Brock Lerfald and Caleb Runge drove in third-inning runs with a single and double, respectively, to make it 3-0.

Alexandria then blew the game open in the top of the sixth with four runs. Nate Hammerback doubled to lead off that inning with his third hit of the game. Reisdorf drove in a run with a perfectly-placed squeeze bunt, and Lake Hagen then cleared the bases with a three-run double to make it 7-1. Reisdorf singled in the games final run in the seventh.

That felt good, Hagen said of his sixth-inning double. There was an altercation the last inning, and it felt good to put it in their faces a bit.

Willmar scored its only run in the bottom of the fifth on an overturned call at the plate. Mason Madsen, Jason Malmgren and Carter Schow all singled for Willmar to load the bases with one out.

It was the first time all game that Alexandria senior pitcher Parker Jendro had been challenged, and he got Cullen Gregory to fly out to Grady Anderson in right field for the second out. Willmar sent the runner from third as Andersons throw home brought Hagen a little bit up the third-base line as he caught the ball and placed the tag.

The runner was initially ruled out to end the threat. But both umpires talked things over and ultimately ruled that the runner was safe.

Alexandria head coach Jake Munsch vehemently disagreed with the overturned call as he talked with the umpires before both teams got back on the field. Jendro struck out Brandt Sunder in the next at-bat to get out of the inning with two Willmar runners left on.

They said I was guarding the plate, Hagen said of the play at home. I was playing the ball and it came right to me. He slid into my leg and the call was overturned.

That could have been a big moment in the game for Willmar. Instead, Alexandria came right back and put up the four runs in their next half inning to all but end it.

For sure (it motivated us), Hagen said. We came into the dugout, had a little talk. I think it did motivate us, yes.

Eric Morken / Alexandria Echo Press

The eight runs were plenty for Jendro on the mound. The senior right-hander was dialed in from the get-go as he did not allow a hit until the fourth inning when Ian Koosman singled.

All five of the base hits Jendro allowed were singles. He struck out five and pounded the strike zone without allowing Willmar to make much hard contact all game.

After being used primarily as a reliever on the mound in 2021, Jendro has stepped up as a starter and become a huge part of an Alexandria pitching staff that came into Saturday with a team ERA of 1.93.

Jendro has now throw a team-high 37 innings this season, striking out 34 with an ERA of about 2.50.

Hes a beast, Hagen, Alexandrias catcher, said. He paints corners. He was painting them all day. He made me look good. He did his job today.

Eric Morken / Alexandria Echo Press

The win puts Alexandria in a good spot heading into Wednesdays championship round. If Little Falls were to win game one, the two teams would play again right after that to determine the Section 8-3A champion.

Alexandria won the regular-season matchup with Little Falls, but it was a 1-0 game through five innings before the Cardinals struck for three runs in the sixth. Flyers senior Zachary Gwost threw six strong innings that day to keep his team close, but JD Hennen and Jendro combined to allow just one hit with 11 total strikeouts.

They had a pretty good pitcher, Reisdorf said of Gwost from that game. We struggled with him right away, but once we got going a little bit, our team is really good at rallying around each other. Once one person gets going, everyone gets going.

1/4:Alexandria first baseman Nate Hammerback tosses the ball to pitcher Parker Jendro as Jendro covers the first-base bag on a ground ball during Alexandria's win over Willmar in the Section 8-3A playoffs on June 4, 2022.

2/4:Alexandria first baseman Nate Hammerback makes the catch against Willmar on June 4, 2022 with second baseman Brock Lerfald backing him up.

3/4:Alexandria's Caleb Runge fires a ball to first base for a double play after making a catch in left field against Willmar on June 4, 2022.

4/4:Alexandria's Brock Lerfald slides safely into second with a stolen base as Willmar's Cayden Hansen leaves his feet to try to haul in the throw in the Section 8-3A playoffs at the MAC in St. Cloud on June 4, 2022.

Alexandrias state tournament appearances have come in 1972, 1975, 2017 and 2018. This group is motivated to add another section championship to the record books going into Wednesday.

Its a dream weve all wanted to do, Hagen said. I think this will be our year.

Link:

Baseball: Alexandria one win away from fifth section title in team history after rolling over Willmar - Alexandria Echo Press

Lane Thomas entered Fridays game against the Cincinnati Reds with three home runs on the season. He left it with twice as many.

The Nationals left fielder hit three long balls in Washingtons 8-5 victory, becoming just the seventh player to have a three-homer game for the club since it moved to D.C. in 2005. The other names on that list are known sluggers: Alfonso Soriano, Adam Dunn, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon and Kyle Schwarber.

Now, that list includes Thomas, who finished with four RBIs on the day as well.

He was very aggressive, which we like, Nationals manager Davey Martinez said in his postgame press conference, as aired on MASN. Hes a fastball hitter. When he gets the ball in the zone with fastballs/sliders, he hits the ball hard. Tonight is a perfect example.

Thomas was slumping hard prior to the game, having tallied just one hit in his last 22 at-bats (.046 average). Martinez continued to show confidence in him, however, batting him second in the lineup in front of Juan Soto for four of their last seven games including Friday.

His career platoon splits skewed heavily in favor of facing southpaws and he got the start Friday with Reds left-hander Mike Minor on the bump. After lining out in his first at-bat, Thomas took Minor deep to left on a 1-2 pitch that landed only a few rows up from the wall.

That ball only traveled 349 feet, but the homers got progressively longer from there. Thomas only saw right-handed pitchers the rest of the way. It didnt matter. He hit his second homer off Vladimir Gutirrez on a full count in the fifth, this time to the opposite field 383 feet away.

Home run No. 3 came off reliever Jeff Hoffman, who could only watch as Thomas golfed a 95-mph fastball down and in and sent it 396 feet to left. He hit the ball with an exit velocity of 104.8 mph, well above his season average of 87.7 mph.

He had a chance to go for a fourth homer in his fifth at-bat but flew out to center field. With his big day, Thomas raised his slash on the season to .211/.268/.406, leaving plenty of room for improvement the rest of the season.

But after the Nationals acquired him in exchange for two months of a struggling Jon Lester last summer, the production Thomas has provided to this point including an impressive 45-game stretch to close out the 2021 campaign has already made that move a win for Washington.

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Lane Thomas becomes 7th player in Nats history with 3-HR game - NBC Sports