In major league baseball only two players have publicly me out as gay other than that few of mor league players have done so.
Contents:
- THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
- 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
In 1974, The Advote wrote letters to Major League Baseball teams askg to terview players “livg a gay liftyle.
” The requt “was meant to jolt the baseball tablishment to acknowledgg that there were ed gay men playg the game, ” Andrew Maraniss wr his new book, Sgled Out: The Te Story of Glenn Burke. Along wh beg the first openly gay man to have played the MLB — he me out 1982, after leavg the league — Burke and his teammate Dty Baker are often creded wh ventg the high five.
9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
Yet his acplishments were largely fotten or tentnally obscured, whether by a homophobic society that had no e for a gay athlete or by a baseball anchise that wanted to claim cred for the thgs Burke had done for the team whout acknowledgg the prence of an out gay man their Sgled Out, Maraniss do his bt to pture the tragedy and weight of Burke’s story.
He signed a Mor League ntract wh the Los Angel Dodgers his first uple of years the mors, Burke didn’t yet know that he was gay, jt that he was “different” om his teammat. Eventually, Burke unrstood himself to be gay, which me as a relief.
He also spent the off-season prowlg the gay bars of the Castro San Francis, across the Bay om his hometown of Maraniss explas his book, was unheard of for profsnal male athlet to be gay at that time. The other players were so far removed om gay culture, and so unspectg that one of their teammat might possibly be gay, that many of them simply missed the ample evince of Burke’s inty.