Inaugural Class Headed to National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame

With the likes of Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Greg Louganis and recently out basketball player Jason Collins all set to be inducted in the first class of the National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame tonight in Chicago, I was a little taken aback to see former baseball umpire Dave Pallone's name in the Associated Press story's lede:

The Associated Press rerports:

CHICAGO (AP) — Dave Pallone, who was part of Chicago history when he umpired the first night game at Wrigley Field, is returning to Chicago to take part in another chapter of American sports history: His inclusion in the inaugural class of what organizers say is the first-of-its-kind National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. 

On Friday night, Pallone will be honored in the first class of inductees that includes tennis greats Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, and Jason Collins, who in April became the first active male professional athlete in a major team sport to publicly reveal he was gay. 

"It is a tremendous honor and ... I hope it gives young people and adults alike who happen to be LGBT and want to be in professional sports another example of why they should continue to strive for their dreams," Pallone said.

Indeed.

If you were in your 20s and living in Los Angeles or Washington, D.C., when Pallone's memoir, "Behind the Mask," came out, there's a pretty good chance he hit on you. After a flirtatious night of drinking at the Mother Lode, he got my number, then asked me out to dinner the night next. When I arrived to pick him up at the house in the Hills where he was staying, he promptly jumped me, which prompted a less-than-enthusiastic reaction from me ... and an even better reaction from him: "What, did you want to eat first?"

Congrats to Dave and all the trailblazers!