Cranney Nolan Ryan Reading

"the phallus is a cultural construct: it bears a culture's meanings of masculinity and attempts to naturalize them by locating them in the physical sign of maleness - the penis," an actual quote from the Trujillo article.

Awkward sexually-explicit quotes aside, I thought the Trujillo article brought up many good points about the glorification of masculinity in sports. Specifically, I found the part about how Nolan Ryan was described by sports writers as the portrait of heterosexuality interesting.

The description of the "Texas Ranger" ad made me laugh. To think that advertisers purposefully used phallic imagery and purposefully position two baseballs on his holsters unsymmetrical is comical to me, though I'm not ruling it out.

Nolan Ryan is obviously a case study for the Trujillo article, but the idea of masculinity and heterosexuality, specifically, is evident throughout the four major sports. There hasn't been a single case of an athlete in the NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB to come out while he was still playing.

Real Sports recently did a piece on homosexuality in sports, and through some of the interviews they gathered, they found that there is a significant number of homosexuals in the four major sports, but none of them want to come out. Real Sports pointed out that young, gay kids, who are statistically more likely to become depressed or suicidal, could use a gay role model in sports to look up to.

I think it's about time we lose the misplaced sense of masculinity in sports. I cannot think of anyone better to categorize the masculine culture of baseball vs. football than the late, great George Carlin.