19 June 2012 / Team DC Night OUT at the Nationals tickets selling fast

A message from FGG member organization Team DC:

Night OUT at the Nationals - Tuesday, June 19 vs. Tampa Bay....now over 2,400 tickets already sold!

Do you have your tickets to the 8th Annual Night OUT at the Nationals? Tickets are available for $18 (normally $22 at the box office). The $18 seats will likely sell out (just like the $16 section did...we told you!), but here is how you can get yours:

• Go to Nellie's Sports Bar where tickets are on sale at the downstairs main bar.
• Go to www.nationals.com/nightout and get your tickets NOW. Online sales start at $18.

Better yet, join us TONIGHT, Monday, June 4 between 6-8 PM Nellie's Sports Bar for a special Ticket Night featuring CLINT, the Nationals own in-park Host and heartthrob to all Nats fans!

We are also pleased to announce that Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) will join us at the Night OUT on June 19 to throw out the First Pitch. Congressman Polis is a true fighter for our community and as one of only 4 openly gay Members of Congress, he is a great example of what can be accomplished when you are OUT....just like we all will be that night!

Be a part of the LARGEST LGBT Community Night in professional sports in the United States and see your first place Nats take on the first place Tampa Bay Rays.

San Francisco Giants 10th LGBT Night salutes Gay Games 30th Anniversary

The scene was electric. ATT Park, home field for Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants. A full house of 42,000 fans on hand for a divisional rivalry game with the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was also the 10th Annual LGBT Night game from this pioneering pro sports team. The crowd included 1,000 purchasers of a special LGBT ticket that included a private pre-game party and an exclusive rainbow-themed knit cap. For the second year in a row, these special LGBT tickets sold out weeks before the game.

Just before the Giants came to bat in the bottom of the 6th inning, the enormous scoreboard presented a wonderful video salute to two major anniversaries being celebrated in 2012: the 40th Anniversary of the San Francisco Gay Softball League, and the 30th Anniversary of Gay Games I. The ovation for this video must have inspired the team, since they promptly went out and scored to tie the game 1 - 1.



One inning later, a quintet of singers from the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco led the sold-out crowd in an a capella performance of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," also captured on video. This too must have inspired the home team since the Giants went on to score two more runs. They won the game 3 - 1, breaking the four year "curse" of losing on LGBT Night.

Staffing the informational table and promoting Gay Games 9
were (left to right) Martha from Team SF,
Mike from Team SF, and Tyler, co-chair of Team SF.
They're all wearing the knit cap given to the 1,000 purchasers
of the special LGBT Night game tickets.

Earlier in the game, several local LGBT organizations staffed an informational table at the Giants' "Community Clubhouse" area behind home plate. All the groups mentioned above were represented, and postcards and brochures for Gay Games 9 - Cleveland 2014 were distributed. Overhead, the recap DVD from the 2006 Chicago Gay Games showed on a large flat-screen monitor.

A portion of the proceeds from the 1,000 special LGBT tickets will be shared by several beneficiary organizations: the Federation of Gay Games, Team San Francisco, and the San Francisco Gay Softball League.

To the San Francisco Giants, for the 10th year in a row, the LGBT Community of the San Francisco Bay Area says "thank you" to the most generous and progressive of all professional sports organizations!

Will San Francisco Giants break the LGBT Night "curse"?

Note the rainbow caps!

We previously excerpted this article, and thank the Bay Area Reporter for permission to reprint it in full:

Baseball thrives on superstitions, from never speaking about no-hitters when they are in progress to coaches skipping over the third baseline when approaching the pitching mound. From playoff beards to victory thongs, players are reluctant to change anything after a win or to continue anything after a loss. Statistical coincidence is mentally morphed into a double-play combo of cause and effect.

Thus, I note that the past three LGBT Nights at AT&T Park, the San Francisco Giants lost. In 2009, Tim "Timmmmmmay!" Lincecum, on his way to his second consecutive Cy Young Award, started well but the defense collapsed in the late innings. In 2010, Jonathan Sanchez, who struck out 200 hitters that year and pitched the victory that put the Giants into the postseason and on their way to the World Series championship, pitched eight shutout innings, but the Colorado Rockies rallied in the ninth against ace closer Brian Wilson. Last year, Lincecum got bombed like a Haight-Ashbury junkie in a five-run seventh inning by the Chicago Cubs. (Yes, the Cubs!)

Had they won all three times, we'd probably see the players this year wearing the fabulous promotional rainbow-logo hats they gave away at last year's game.

For this year's LGBT Night Out on Tuesday, May 29, the G-men are taking no chances. They put Wilson on the disabled list, ostensibly for Tommy John elbow surgery, but no doubt just as a superstitious precaution. They traded away Sanchez for Melky Cabrera, who has provided lights-out hitting in right field. And Lincecum, who has struggled unfathomably this season, is not scheduled to start in the game. If the pitchers stay in their normal scheduled rotation, we'll see last year's surprise sensation Ryan Vogelsong, who led the team starters going into this week with a 2.27 ERA and a 2-2 record.

All 1,000 special LGBT Night tickets were sold out two weeks ago according to Doug Litwin, marketing officer for the Federation of Gay Games, who said partial funds raised by the ticket sales will go toward the scholarship funds of Team SF and the FGG as well as the San Francisco Gay Softball League.


"The SFGSL was added in 2012 in honor of their 40th anniversary," Litwin told the Bay Area Reporter.


Last year's beneficiaries were the FGG, Team SF, and the Gay Straight Alliance, who equally divided $3,700, Litwin said.


Several LGBT sports organizations will have informational tables. This year, the tables will be located in the Community Clubhouse area, which is on the Promenade Level (main field level), right behind home plate.


A retrospective tribute to the 40th anniversary of SFGSL and the 30th anniversary of the Gay Games are scheduled to be shown during the sixth inning, and the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco will lead the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.

The Giants are fresh off the first of their two Bay Area series interleague battles with the Oakland A's, who took the finale against Lincecum in his latest tortured outing Sunday. The teams are following bizarrely parallel courses this year, and the Bay Bridge Series is always a delightful torment for bi-bay fans.

Last year the teams promised high and delivered low. Many had them picked to win their divisions; both finished abysmally out of the running. Familiar faces from the vaunted pitching staffs were traded away and have been replaced by players who, when the planets are aligned just right, deliver improved offense. Both have been hobbled by crucial injuries and both have mucked around the .500 level all season.

But hope springs eternal, and for the first time in recent memory both teams have speed on the base paths. If they can survive the injuries that have beset them thus far, we may see them challenge the Dodgers and Rangers down the stretch.

If not, bring back the victory thongs and get Madonna to pitch in next year's LGBT Night.

Watch this blog for photos and videos from the LGBT Night Game on 29 May.

The Oakland As say "It Gets Better"

From the San Francisco Chronicle (h/t Outsports):

The [Oakland Athletics] became the latest sports team to post an "It Gets Better" video, two weeks after starter Brandon McCarthy decried homophobia at baseball stadiums via Twitter.

McCarthy, left-hander Dallas Braden and second baseman Jemile Weeks appear on the video, along with stadium in-game host Kara Tsuboi.

The It Gets Better Project supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens who are dealing with bullying, harassment and feelings of isolation, with many celebrities and athletes providing messages that there is a brighter future ahead.

"I'm glad the A's were on board in helping get this out there, because we definitely wanted to get this off the ground," McCarthy said.

In the video, Braden says, "We are speaking for the entire Oakland Athletics organization when we say there is no place in society for hatred and bullying against anyone."

On Friday, Weeks said he was happy to participate in the video because he thinks it's important to use any platform as a public figure to try to help those in need, including teens who feel like outsiders. "Everyone should feel comfortable being themselves," Weeks said. "So I wanted to tell kids to be confident and to know they have support."

McCarthy said he heard from many gay and lesbian A's fans after his antihomophobia tweet and his subsequent remarks to Gwen Knapp in The Chronicle, and he said, "It's good for teams to do things that are important to their communities."


View the video below, and visit our "It Gets Better" page HERE.

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