Car salesman, softball player squashes stereotype

ROYAL OAK – As an avid softball player on the Metro Detroit Softball League and car salesman at Royal Oak Ford, Garrett McCloskey crushes the gay male stereotype.
"It's like a regular Joe doing his daily routine," said McCloskey, 36. "There's nothing really different about it for me."
Now in his third year on MDSL, Garrett, who's on the Between The Lines sponsored Blazers team, has met hundreds of baseball lovers like himself who gather every week at Borden Park in Rochester Hills.
"It's the best thing in the world," he said. "I play with a bunch of great guys and it's just fun. Everybody's smiling every Sunday when you go out there."
After playing ball, the players often head to a specific bar every week.
"A good portion of us get together for that and even outside of that we do things together," McCloskey said.
It's a bit different from playing on straight softball teams for 17 years.
"The straight team is cuter, but the gay team is funner," he said, laughing.
Another difference McCloskey notices is the straight team pushes its macho-nature to the limit. When McCloskey, who's also a football fan, played eight years ago with The Skull Brothers, a group of bikers, he witnessed the use of barbaric tactics.
"We would beat up the other team and/or the umpire," he said.
There's no roughhousing on the MDSL league "except for 'fun' by some of the people, but I don't get that personal with them," he said, laughing.
McCloskey isn't looking forward to the end of the 21st season of MDSL in August.
"It's always sad because most of the people you don't see again until the following spring," McCloskey said. "It's always a sad goodbye."