No Gay Slurs Used In Major League Baseball Field This Season
Major league baseball ended its regular season and for the first time since the 2016 season, there were no players involved in any recorded, on-field anti-gay controversies.
It should be noted that the season was 102 games shorter than normal and the playoffs are still to go.
The only incident came in August, when Cincinnati Reds announced Thom Brennaman used a gay slur over a hot mic. The slur got Brennaman suspended and it also cost him his NFL announcing gig. It also showed that several Reds players and manager David Bell had no tolerance for homophobia and was a positive sign of growth in the sport toward gay players.
As ‘Out Sports’ reports, relief pitchers Matt Bowen and Amir Garrett immediately took to Twitter to denounce the remarks and support the LGBT+ community, with Garrett tweeting: “To the LGBTQ community just know I am with you, and whoever is against you, is against me. I’m sorry for what was said today.”
Longtime Reds star Joey Votto stated that “I was saddened by it. Certainly, that’s something that was associated with our organization, and it’s a bummer. It’s too bad that there are people out there that have been held down and oppressed and had terrible experiences in their lives in association with that word, because of that word.
“From our perspective, and I’m always wary of speaking on things like this because I’m not a perfect person and nobody inside of our workspace is, but it’s important that it’s acknowledged that is wrong, and lots of people probably felt the pain that they’ve experienced in the past reignited when they heard that word over just a ballgame. They were just trying to tune in to watch a ballgame, support their local team, or support a team that they … they just wanted to watch a baseball game, and something like that was brought up.”
In a deep-dive in The Athletic, titled ‘We’ve been here before’: Examining MLB’s relationship with the LGBT+ community’, reporters Brittany Ghiroli and C. Trent Rosecrans use the Brennaman incident to examine how MLB treats LGBT+ issues and whether the sport is ready for an openly gay player (there has never been an out active bi or gay MLB player). Bowman and Garrett discussed in greater detail why they reacted so quickly to the slur.
“A lot of people, they feel like they can’t be themselves around others. They feel like they’re not wanted in sports, either,” said Garrett, who has also been active in speaking up in the Black Lives Matter movement. “I’d be a hypocrite to fight for one belief and not fight for them, because they want to be comfortable in their own skin as well. So I just felt like, [I] have to speak up for them, [and] I would have to apologize to them, as well.”
Bowman admitted he might not have said anything had he played for another team, but felt it was important since Brennaman was the public voice of the Reds.
“It seemed very alienating, so I thought that someone else who is from the Reds organization and who people are closely associated with the Reds could say something supportive just to let everyone know that this is not representative of the organization,” Bowman said.
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