The following is a column I wrote concerning the Piazza-Is-Gay rumors that the Post refused to run because it was critical of Neil Travis' deplorable journalism in Monday's paper. I always knew the paper had no integrity. Now we know it has no balls, either. [Following is an excerpt.]
Valentine's comments to Details sparked an irresponsible "blind" item in Monday's Post, in which a gossip columnist reprinted a scurrilous rumor concerning an unnamed Met.
The gossip columnist then acknowledged he was unable to substantiate any part of the rumor.
He printed it anyway.
The Mets' reaction, and Piazza's statements avowing his heterosexuality, were in direct response to that item.
But in truth, there was no reason to respond to the item and even less reason to print it.
Whose business is it, anyway, what a player does off the field, or who he sleeps with, or what kind of car he drives or what kind of dog he owns?
Aside from criminality, the only time a player's personal life becomes an issue is when it can be shown to be affecting his performance on the field.
Even then, it is best to tread lightly, lest someone come peering into your windows next.
That is why the kind of "journalism" perpetrated in Monday's Post is abhorrent. As are the McCarthy-like tactics of homosexual groups that deliberately out celebrities and athletes under the premise of exposing hypocrisy.
Doesn't anyone understand the meaning of privacy or modesty or discretion anymore?
Mets catcher Mike Piazza
"I'm not gay. The truth is that I'm heterosexual and date women and that's it. End of story."
Brendan Lemon, editor-in-chief of Out magazine
"Until our culture calms down about sexuality a little bit, the media will always be fascinated with this topic.
"The more people like Piazza say this is not a problem, and the more managers like Bobby Valentine say it won't be a problem, the more likely it is a player will come out."
Sports Marketing Consultant David Carter
"Anybody who has spent any time building his image, especially in major markets like New York and Los Angeles, takes something like this very seriously. Mike is a future Hall of Famer, and he could be making endorsements for a long time, so it was absolutely correct for him to take steps to protect his brand.
If he is gay and he denied it, gay groups would try to out him and the constant whispers would hurt his marketability," Carter added. "He did the right thing to lay this all out on the table. This will die down as soon as another pressing issue comes up."
Cyd Zeigler, president of Outsports.com
"A lot of people compare it to when Jackie Robinson first played baseball. People had one stereotype in their head about black people, and then here came this stand-up citizen rocking their world. Baseball is a straight man's sport, and to have a gay man dominate in it, the stereotypes in people's heads would just be shaken up."
Irresponsible and unfair as the item in The New York Post was, I'm wondering what the Mets accomplished or were even thinking with their unfortunate overreaction. People who stoop low enough to make an uninformed issue out of a person's sexuality are not likely to be leading the next day with their target's denial. The better response, for the sake of discouraging such future musings, would have been: You don't have the right to ask unless I want you to know.
Instead, we had Piazza, a gentleman, calmly stating, "I'm not gay," in addition to a variety of Mets voicing anger and disgust, including Vance Wilson, who chimed in with the gem, "He lives his life morally right."
Leads me to think, contrary to Valentine's interpretations of baseball's diversity, that the standard antigay expressions so prevalent in our macho sports culture are now merely spoken in a variety of languages.
Of course, players have to know there are gays among them, or at least understand the overwhelming odds. I'd also like to believe that many are comfortable with the truth, but professional sports do not operate in a vacuum. Forget baseball for the moment: the question of how revelations regarding sexual preference affect business have even dogged women's sports known to have strong lesbian fan bases. Rare is the courage and conviction of Martina Navratilova, who sacrificed millions in endorsement revenue to be who she was.
In an enlightened world, everyone could make that choice with social or financial impunity. In this world, the sexuality of the athlete is no more my business than that of the men and women who share the press box with me. What athletes do with their bodies is not my story, as opposed to how they manufacture those becoming more muscular by the minute.
When Valentine talks about baseball, he forgets it is more than just the players on the field. Baseball is everyone who has an interest in the game. And many of those people still harbor old-fashioned opinions.
We live in a society where gay people are assaulted, even killed, simply for being who they are.
We live in a society that still refuses to grant basic equal rights to gay men and lesbians.
We live in a society that still considers homosexuality an "alternative" lifestyle.
We know how some of the morons in the upper deck will react. They're already prone to commit vulgar acts against straight players, so what would they do with a gay player as a target?
And how will parents react when their 8-year-old's favorite player suddenly comes out?
If many people still call athletes who have babies out of wedlock or cheat on their wives bad role models, what will they say about one who acknowledges he has intimate relationships with other men?
Be honest, a lot of us say we're comfortable with homosexuality until we are forced to deal with it directly. An openly gay athlete in professional baseball, football, basketball or hockey would force us to do that.
Asked how he would handle having an openly gay teammate, Piazza replied: "Honestly, I haven't thought about it much. But I'd have to agree with what [Valentine] said - that in this day and age, it would be irrelevant."
If that were true, Mike Piazza would not have had to answer any of the questions he did yesterday.
If that were true, I wouldn't have felt so dirty after asking some of them.
Phillies manager Larry Bowa
"If it was me, I'd probably wait until my career was over. I'm sure it would depend on who the player was. If he hits .340, it probably would be easier than if he hits .220."
Mets GM Steve Phillips
"If statistics hold up, in every clubhouse there is somebody who is gay. So what? Who cares?"
Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn
"It's ridiculous for people to insinuate that without facts. It's not fair to the man or the individual at all."
Having once found a headless body in a topless bar, the New York Post long ago established itself as a publication capable of most anything. Nevertheless, "outing" a heterosexual earlier this week has to rank high on the list of the tabloid's memorable achievements.
The Post hit the daily double for disgusting journalism by first implying Mets catcher Mike Piazza is gay and then refusing to print sports columnist Wallace Matthews' criticism of such reckless rumor-mongering.
Matthews was fired Wednesday, courageously, angrily standing up for free speech yet creating one of the more fascinating ironies in the annals of sports writing. Several websites ran the column the Post killed, and it became abundantly clear Matthews exercised his free speech to encourage gay baseball players to shut up and, for their own good, to stay in the closet.
There's No Need to Throw Any Coming-Out Parties
By Diane Pucin, The L.A. Times
Consider the source, but the New York Post on Monday implied that Mike Piazza is gay. Whether that is good or bad reporting is a debate for the Columbia Journalism Review.
The question here is, why does the sexual preference of Piazza or any other athlete matter?
Apparently it does matter to some supposed sports fans who rushed to call supposed sports talk radio shows--in New York, in Los Angeles and many other places in between--to discuss the supposed subject. As if any caller or host had any first-hand information. It doesn't matter because Piazza and Met Manager Bobby Valentine and many other Met players said it doesn't matter.
Piazza handled with grace and some humor the hubbub that followed the gossip item in the Post. Before batting practice Tuesday in Philadelphia, Piazza stood in front of reporters to say that, because people were asking, he is heterosexual but that, in his mind, it wouldn't matter if there are gay players in the Met clubhouse.
And there almost certainly are gay baseball players, football players, hockey players and every other kind of player. The players don't much care about the sexuality of their teammates.
This is not the old days. Baseball players don't hang out together, go to dinner together every night, travel cross-country on trains together. They make so much money, have so many agents, trainers, tailors, hairstylists, dieticians and personal coaches around them that most have no real interest in the personal lives of the men who bat behind them or dress next to them.
