56 MPH

So, I have a friend who has season tickets to the 49ers, which just happened to have their practice open to the public this morning. So, at 9am, we were there to watch all the boys strut their stuff. It was a bit too early for me, but I managed through all of it, especially with a lot of really big athletes.

My friend also invited me along to the softball league's day at the Giants game. When we arrived, my friend talks me into seeing how fast we can throw. We get in line with a few kids at the section with the radar gun. You get three pitches. My friend, who has a really strong arm, but hurt it pretty seriously last year, manages a 47 MPH fast ball. I think she can throw faster.

I get up to the little mound and take a wind up. Back in my 20's, I think the fastest I threw was about 67 miles per hour. I figured I'd still be kinda close to that, but I only unleashed a 56 miles per hour fastball. The amazing thing is I thought it was moving way faster than what it read out on the radar gun, but you know, I'm not surprised that I throw a lot slower. I'm older, and weaker without the testosterone.

Of course, both of these events were on opposite sides of the Bay Area, which gave me a lot of time to listen to the radio this weekend.

I listened to a bit of KCBS this weekend with all of the driving. One interview (The almost 6-minute interview is in the bottom right of this page)involved San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty in a discussion about HRC's dinner in San Francisco last night and the snubbing by many pro-gay/pro-united ENDA big wigs. I believe there was even a transgender protest of the HRC dinner.

As I was driving to the baseball game, I heard there had been a fatal shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church in the Midwest. The UU are known for being very LGBT friendly, and I wondered, when I heard this, if the shooter did this because of who we are. It was a somber reminder that there are plenty of people out there that hate us for what we stand for...hate us for being ourselves...hate us for simply being.

I mean, just the other day, I was playing on my coed softball team when the son of the girlfriend of one of our players makes a remark in our dugout about the opposing team's 3rd baseman wearing pink socks.

"That's gay!"

"What's wrong with being gay?" I ask.

"That's nasty."

The boy is about 11.

"I'm gay."

"Ha ha...you mean, like happy?"

"No, I'm gay."

"Oh....that's nasty."

He didn't say it in a joking manner. I mean, this kid expressed some serious hate and disgust at anyone being gay."

After he left the dugout, and his mom's boyfriend re-entered the dugout, I told him, "Dude, you're little man is a serious homophobe."

"Yeah, E, he's a big homophobe. If he's gonna grow up in the Bay Area, he's going to see a lot of gay people...so he better get used to it," a non-gay teammate says.

I love my teammates.