So far, most baseball teams avoiding "It Gets Better" campaign

Posted at 2:28 PM on September 1, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

The Philadelphia Phillies this week became the latest Major League Baseball team to make an ad for the It Gets Better project, designed to reach out to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teens in the wake of high-profile suicides.

The team unveiled its video a week ago at its LGBT community night at Citizens Bank Park.

Tampa Bay shot its production a week-and-a-half ago, inviting people to the team's home field to be part of it.

In Seattle, all of the city's major sports teams collaborated on the message:

As the baseball season winds down, it's hard not to notice the number of baseball teams that haven't joined in. That is to say: most of them.

So far only the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays have signed on to the project.

In June, a Minnesota Twins official told City Pages the franchise was "looking into" making one and that the the team "will pull something together in the near future."

The comments followed a controversy at Target Field when a stadium guard admonished two women who kissed.

"It still on our radar, though it will probably happen next season," Chris Iles, the team's corporate communications manager said in an e-mail today. "We're looking at incorporating this into our overall community outreach plans and securing the support of our media partners at FOX Sports North in hopes of making an even larger impact."

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Comments (3)

You know what would REALLY make a difference? Let's see: 1200 Major league ballplayers. Let's say 5% of the general population is gay. Then, let's pretend that athlete's are LESS gay. So, let's say 2% of players are gay. That's 24 gay ballplayers. How about half of them have the balls to come out. (Sorry:-) So 12 guys get together and give a press conference. Same with NFL. NBA. NHL. How about some multi-million dollar earning "heros" grow a pair and change the world.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | September 1, 2011 2:52 PM

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Yes!!

Posted by Jamie | September 1, 2011 5:23 PM

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The world is still not ready for what Jim suggests. I wish it was.

Among the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL very few have come out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lesbian,_gay,_bisexual,_and_transgender_sportspeople

Posted by BJ | September 2, 2011 8:36 AM

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