Sports still waiting for active gay player
Basketball Betting Lines
02/08/2007 -
A pro athlete who waits until his career is over to declare he's gay, the way John Amaechi just did in a new book, is yesterday's news.
He has something to sell, little to lose and does less to advance the cause he's fighting for - helping sports get over its homophobia - than he might have. There's no dishonor in that. It's what happens when you work within the system: you spark debate, maybe change some minds over the long haul and pick up a few bucks for baring your pain.
So no disrespect to John Amaechi.
But it's been done before.
Homosexuality has been one of sports' little morality plays since the ancient Greeks made contests of running, jumping and boxing, then gossiped about them afterward. Long and loud as the discussion has been at times, nobody from any of the big team sports has gone on the record while still playing the game. Not much will change until he does.
But you better find a seat. Something tells me the final act of ``Waiting for Gaydot,'' could start any minute.
``It's a shame all gay people can't turn green for just one day, so everybody's jaw would drop, and then maybe we could move past a lot of this stuff,'' said Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports.com. ``Until then, we'll take another small step forward. It's always a positive, and I applaud John for what he did. In terms of encouraging others, everybody knows their own circumstances and deals with it. ...
``I think the fears are overblown,'' he added, ``but until the first person comes out, we won't really know.''
No.
Even so, it's getting easier to make an educated guess. It's difficult to imagine too many owners balking at the idea of an openly gay athlete on their team, unlike Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier, back in the day. Most, in fact, would line up with their wallets out for the opportunity to market him.
Though his players weren't uniformly enthusiastic, commissioner David Stern said about Amaechi's book: ``We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always 'Have you got game?' That's it, end of inquiry.''
A call to NFL headquarters produced a similar response. ``Society is more open and tolerant than it's ever been. I don't think anybody would care,'' spokesman Greg Aiello said, ``other than how he was performing.''
Last June, the NFL flew in former defensive lineman Esera Tuaolo - who like Amaechi came out after retiring - to speak to the incoming rookie class about sexual orientation. That was after Tuaolo talked to the league staff about the same topic in New York a few months earlier.
Considering how little the NFL likes being surprised, Aiello was asked whether he could imagine a football player coming out any time soon. ``I'm sure it will happen someday,'' he said. ``I don't see why not.''
You could have come up with a thousand reasons why as recently as four years ago, when an online and print rumor campaign prompted Mike Piazza, who was playing for the Mets at the time, to deny he was gay.
Almost everybody still was fleeing the stigma attached, convinced it could spell the end of a career. Even former major leaguer Billy Bean - who, like Amaechi, waited until he retired to come out - was convinced it would take a player as special as Jackie Robinson in every way to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality.
The bar is considerably lower now. There are more teammates, coaches, sponsors, lawyers, security guards and even fans willing to stand alongside him than Robinson dared dream of.
To be sure, as Amaechi's book will make clear, there's still some resistance at every level. A player as special as LeBron James said there's issues of trust to be resolved, and he still doubted an openly gay person could survive in the league.
``I don't think so,'' James said.
But he's in the minority. Thousands of ball players have worked, traveled, showered and dressed in the same locker room together for more than a century. Most understand now it's a numbers game, although something then-Phillies manager Larry Bowa said about numbers during the Piazza episode still applies.
``All I know,'' Bowa said, ``is that if he hits .340, it probably would be easier than if he hits .220.''
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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org
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MySportsbook.com Posts Heisman Trophy Odds
With 3,919 passing yards, 32 touchdowns and a mere seven interceptions last season, combined with a powerful South Bend Heisman legacy, odds makers at MySportsbook.com have given Notre Dame senior quarterback Brady Quinn the best Heisman Trophy odds at 5-2.
Quinn isn’t the only big man on campus this season. Oklahoma junior running back and 2004 Heisman runner-up Adrian Peterson, listed at 7-2, rushed for a combined 3,033 yards in his first two years as a college player and will give Quinn a run for his money.
This online sportsbook has also listed Troy Smith, Ohio State senior quarterback, as another strong favorite to win the 72nd Heisman Trophy. A 7-1 bet, Smith threw for 2,282 yards last season and also led the Buckeyes to a convincing 34-20 victory over Quinn and the Fighting Irish in last season’s Fiesta Bowl.
Current betting odds Heisman trophy are:
| Brady Quinn (QB, Notre Dame) Adrian Peterson (RB, Oklahoma) Troy Smith (QB, Ohio State) Michael Bush (RB, Louisville) Steve Slaton (RB, West Virginia) Brian Brohm (QB, Louisville) Chris Leak (QB, Florida) Mike Hart (RB, Michigan) Ted Ginn (WR, Ohio State) Darius Walker (RB, Notre Dame) Drew Tate (QB, Iowa) Marshawn Lynch (RB, Cal) Kenny Irons (RB, Auburn) Chad Henne (QB, Michigan) Kyle Wright (QB, Miami) Drew Stanton (QB, Michigan State) Kenneth Darby (RB, Alabama) JaMarcus Russell (QB, LSU) Drew Weatherford (QB, Florida State) Blake Mitchell (QB, South Carolina) Reggie Ball (QB, Georgia Tech) |
5-2 7-2 7-1 10-1 10-1 12-1 12-1 18-1 18-1 20-1 30-1 35-1 35-1 40-1 50-1 50-1 60-1 60-1 60-1 60-1 60-1 |
For complete NCAA Football odds visit MySportsbook.com.
SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.