There's No Sexual Slurs In Baseball!

Anti-gay tirade gets Edmonton manager suspended for season

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The Golden Baseball League announced late Friday night that Edmonton Capitals manager Brent Bowers is being suspended for the remainder of the season due to an anti-gay rant that he directed at an umpire last weekend in a game against the Orange County Flyers in Fullerton.

Bowers was initially suspended for his team's next two games this week as the league investigated the incident and worked with the Capitals on the consequences of the incident. Bowers and Edmonton Capitals president Patrick LaForge met with GBL commissioner Kevin Outcalt on Friday in San Francisco to complete the investigation.

According to a (since removed) Deadspin story: the exact slur was "I ought to kick your ass, you faggot." The ump that was the target of this classiness happens to be openly gay. And the original two-game suspension was only bumped up after the rest of the GBL's umpires protested.

So - good for the umps, bad for the league. Still don't know what possessed Bower to say that to someone who can boot you from the game for saying "Hi" in the wrong tone of voice...

Freezer wrote:

Anti-gay tirade gets Edmonton manager suspended for season

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The Golden Baseball League announced late Friday night that Edmonton Capitals manager Brent Bowers is being suspended for the remainder of the season due to an anti-gay rant that he directed at an umpire last weekend in a game against the Orange County Flyers in Fullerton.

Bowers was initially suspended for his team's next two games this week as the league investigated the incident and worked with the Capitals on the consequences of the incident. Bowers and Edmonton Capitals president Patrick LaForge met with GBL commissioner Kevin Outcalt on Friday in San Francisco to complete the investigation.

According to a (since removed) Deadspin story: the exact slur was "I ought to kick your ass, you faggot." The ump that was the target of this classiness happens to be openly gay. And the original two-game suspension was only bumped up after the rest of the GBL's umpires protested.

So - good for the umps, bad for the league. Still don't know what possessed Bower to say that to someone who can boot you from the game for saying "Hi" in the wrong tone of voice...

Fucking Canadians. This is why the Expos died.

Also, any manager afraid of getting thrown out doesn't deserve to be a manager. Seriously, most umps are sane enough not to throw someone out unless they ignore a couple of warnings to shut up and scram. The few faggots who DO throw people out for saying "Hi" in the wrong tone tend to just cause more trouble than would have normally occurred.

Bamp.

Jason Twitlock's take.

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What happened to Billy Van Raaphorst inside a tiny independent league
baseball stadium on July 31 was as despicable as anything Jackie
Robinson endured breaking into the majors 60 years ago.

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“You know what I heard?” Bowers screamed. “I heard you are a f---ing
(expletive). The rumor from several managers and people at the league
is that you are a (expletive) ... So what do you do you f---ing
(expletive)? Do you take it up the f---ing (expletive), you
(expletive)?”




As his verbal meltdown continued, Bowers, a second-round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1989, bent over and grabbed his ankles.

“Is that how you like it, you f---ing (expletive)?... I know he’s a
(expletive),’’ Bowers ranted. "I was told by Garry Templeton (a manager
in the league) and Kevin Outcalt (commissioner of the league) that he
is a f---ing (expletive).”

So it's pretty much the same spectacle that happens every time a manage and ump get into it?

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Van Raaphorst, a former 290-pound center at San Diego State, resisted the urge to defend himself.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t hit him,’" Van Raaphorst remembered. “I felt trapped. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.”

You could throw him out. Or yell back at him. Or pretty much anything else an umpire normally does when confronted by a lunatic manager.

Gays are such pussies. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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The Golden Baseball League initially suspended Bowers for two games and
fined him $500. The punishment did not satisfy Billy or common sense.
Umpires across the GBL rallied in support of Billy and threatened a
work stoppage.

Oh no. What are we do to if the umps quit?

Hire trained monkeys. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Oh no. What are we do to if the umps quit?

Maybe they'd finally get around to implementing instant-replay reviews in call challenges, bringing baseball out of the 19th century.

Fuck it, that's probably a good thing. They're setting an example that in 2010, homophobic slurs are no longer acceptable.

So Mikey, if a manager called a black umpire a n*****, he'd just have to take it?

Bowers went too far - you can jaw all you want, but when you start tossing slurs into the mix you deserve whatever is heaped upon you.

UPDATE: Here's the aforementioned Deadspin post on the subject.

Oh, and Bowers was told to leave or be thrown out turned in his resignation.

TheHermit wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Oh no. What are we do to if the umps quit?

Maybe they'd finally get around to implementing instant-replay reviews in call challenges, bringing baseball out of the 19th century.

No shit. They only really need two umps. One and home plate to call balls/strikes, and one sitting at home watching the SuperDuperTripleMegaSlowMo Replay.