18


GAY SAN DIEGO


July 30-August 12, 2010


SPORTS/FILM


in October and stretches into March. This year, Week 1 of the season is tentatively scheduled for October 13, with a one-game preseason the week beforehand. Unlike most other leagues, players do not form their own teams and there are no divisions. Instead, coaches hold two weeks of open gym observation to get a read on the upcoming class of players, and a draft is held to ar- range the teams. Returning players and


Baja Betty’s (D) is among five teams from San Diego hoping to win the World Series (Courtesy Tamara Hann)


DUGOUT CHATTER with Jeff Praught San Diego’s LGBT athletes


and their friends are fortunate that leaders within the neighbor- hood have built and maintained a wide variety of strong, stable sports leagues for them to com- pete in. Swimmers, bowlers, rug- gers, ballplayers and even pool aficionados are among the many that have access to LGBT leagues at their fingertips. Some of those leagues are just


beginning, or their first week is right around the corner.


POOL The fall pool season got un-


derway July 26. Registration for teams is closed, but individuals looking to be added to a team that may need players are encouraged to check out San Diego Pool’s website (sdpools.org). The pool league is divided into divisions, with A being the most com- petitive. Matches are played at sponsor bars on Monday nights. Individual and team tournaments are available throughout the year,


San Diego Hoops hosts pick-up basketball every Wednesday night in Golden Hills (Courtesy San Diego Hoops)


San Diego Hoops (sdhoop.


net) plays a 14-game season on Wednesday nights at the Golden Hill Rec Center, which begins


for the league and its chosen charity. To form a team for this tournament, receive assistance in finding a team, or simply to get more information about the league, check out the San Diego Hoops website and contact Com- missioner Jay Irby.


FAST SOFTBALL The Open Division of Amer-


and the top San Diego teams advance to compete in the West Coast Challenge.


BASKETBALL


newcomers are encouraged to participate in the league’s Open Gym every Wednesday through- out the summer. From 6:30-8:30 p.m., participants can usually get in anywhere from three to five games, depending on attendance that night. Admission is $5 (to cover the court costs), and play- ers are asked to bring a dark and light-colored shirt. The return of San Diego


Hoops’ 3-on-3 Tournament is imminent as well. Tentatively scheduled for mid-September, 16 teams (five players maximum) will compete for the tournament trophy, all while raising funds


ica’s Finest City Softball League (AFCSL) will be sending its five representatives to the Gay Soft- ball World Series in Columbus, Ohio August 16-22. The Loft (B), GrenX Outlaws (C), Flicks (C), Krush (D), and Baja Betty’s (D) represent the lucky five who will be chasing the national title in their respective divisions. But the softball year doesn’t


conclude with the World Series. Fall Ball begins in early Sep- tember, when an abbreviated schedule on Sundays allows for players to either keep fresh for the ensuing Spring season, or for newcomers to get acquainted with the league. There are divisions for Open


and Women’s play. The ladies will be using the season as a tune-up for their own World Series, which takes place this November in Las Vegas. The Women’s division champions from Spring included Urban Mo’s (A), Abberation (C) and Jiai Aikido (D). Anyone can participate in these leagues, and no ratings clinics are required (as they are for Spring) for new players. For more information on the


league, visit afcsl.org.


A Note on the Padres Our community is full of proud


and loyal Padres fans. Many of us expected the team to struggle this year, having been through an own- ership change, two tough seasons and the trade of our beloved Jake Peavy last year. Obviously, this year’s roster has shocked the city and the majors by battling for the best record in the National League. Though the Padres don’t


have much star power beyond Adrian Gonzalez, this year’s team is proving that star power and high payrolls don’t always translate to winning. Some high-payroll teams such as the Red Sox, Dodgers, Phil- lies and Tigers are battling just to stay in contention. The Padres are winning because of run prevention (leading the majors in several key defensive metrics) and a fantastic bullpen. They may not be able to outslug teams, and they don’t often win pretty, but they are winning, and what more can a fan ask for? I hear complaints time and


again that the team needs to spend money on a slugger. First, sluggers


www.gay-sd.com


don’t grow on trees. And if you’re not spending the $10 it takes to go to a game, how can you complain when the team isn’t willing to spend the $15 million to sign a bat? Attendance is middling, at best, and for a first-place team, the commu- nity needs to step up. Bring some noise to Petco Park!☭


FROM PAGE 17 FILM


able “From Russia with Love” knife. Salt seems capable of doing just


about anything short of devising a new plot wrinkle. She constructs a homemade bomb out of things lying around the office. Salt hops across the tops of speeding trucks as if they were stones in a stream she is trying to ford. And it’s OKfor Salt to brutally beat, maim and shoot good and bad guys alike just as long as we never see any of her victims die. After all, there is a movie star’s image (and a PG-13 rating) to uphold. Her reason for immediately


taking it on the lam is due to the fact that she cannot contact her husband, a German-born arach- nologist who appears to have been kidnapped, or worse. We spend the next hour or so watching her play cat and mouse with the Russkies while director Phillip Noyce thinks he’s serving up an exercise in sustained suspense similar to Hitchcock’s remake of his own “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” a film from which “Saltpeter” Noyce liberally lifts. Noyce made his mark on


American audiences with “Dead Calm,” a taut Australian torture yarn about three characters cast adrift. After setting foot on American shores, Noyce has done little more than show his hand as a director of formulaic thrillers and action films (“Sliver,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “The Bone Collector”). If there is an auteur at work here it’s composer James Newton Howard. His scheming, wall-to-wall score provides what little suspense there is, all the while telling us precisely what to think and how to feel during every second of the proceedings. The script is riddled with illogi-


cal plotting. In one scene Salt can’t afford to buy a sanitary pad from a restroom vending machine in order to nurse a wound, while in the next she has enough cash to hop a train.


What the hell has happened to Angelina Jolie? I liked her a lot more when she was an openly bisexual wild child who made out with her brother during the Acad- emy Awards ceremony and never left home without a pendulous vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood slung around her neck. Her early string of performances as hard- edged chicks from the wrong side of the tracks culminated in her Oscar-winning role in “Girl, Interrupted.” Never has an actress—not even Halle Berry— been so quick to transform her golden doorstop into a string of big budget, Grade Z comic book hogwash. With two exceptions — Michael Cristofer’s stylish and sexy noir “Original Sin” and Clint Eastwood’s “Change- ling”—she hasn’t appeared in one film worth looking at over the past decade. If you’re looking for something


with a little more flavor, take a pass on this popcorn “Salt.”☭


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