How Long Before a Red Sox Player Calls Newly Out Boston Sportswriter Steve Buckley a Fag?

Steve Buckley, the 56-year-old Boston Herald sports columnist, came out yesterday in his newspaper column. It was seven years in the making: His mother urged him over a Thanksgiving holiday back in the 2000s that he should “do that story you’ve been talking about”; just as Buckley was preparing to write the column, his mother died of a heart attack, derailing the emotional support he believed he needed. But yesterday, he wrote, “I’ve put this off long enough. I haven’t been fair to my family, my friends or my co-workers. And I certainly haven’t been fair to myself: For too many years I’ve been on the sidelines of Boston’s gay community but not in the game — figuratively and literally, as I feel I would have had a pretty good career in the (gay) Beantown Softball League. … It’s my hope that from now on I’ll be more involved. I’m not really sure what I mean by being “involved,” but this is a start: I’m gay.” And wouldn’t you know it, the Boston sports community appears to be behind him. He’s heard from the owners of the Patrios and Red Sox, and even a few players, all expressing solidarity. But speaking to Buckely yesterday on his Big Show radio program, Glenn Ordway told the sportswriter, “My gut feeling is, you’re probably going to get some immature, young player somewhere down the line who’s going to get (angry) because Buck criticizes him. And he’s going to reach for the easiest way that he can get back at Buckley and call him a name or something like that.”