At Pri Night, Los Angel will celebrate the life of Glenn Burke, M.L.B.’s first openly gay player. His fay will be there hopg the honor mak Burke “partially whole.”
Contents:
- CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
- THE DODGERS WILL FALLY HONOR GAY BASEBALLER GLENN BURKE AFTER MISTREATG HIM S AGO
- DODGERS FALLY HONOR FIRST OPENLY GAY MLBER ON PRI NIGHT
CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
* gay dodger player *
’s first openly gay player. In stagg their nth annual LGBTQ+ Pri Night, they will celebrate their former outfielr — and the first major leaguer to have e out as gay — on Friday durg their seri wh the closg the circle 44 years later. ”The issue, of urse, was that the Dodgers’ management had figured out Burke was gay.
Lasorda Jr., who was known by many as Spunky, was also gay and died of AIDS plitns 1991, though his father publicly nied his son’s sexualy and the e of his ath. One teammate, Clll Washgton, said Mart troduced Burke to the team wh a homophobic slur. Bean, also a former Dodgers outfielr, was the send — and still the only other — ex-big-leaguer to e out as gay.
THE DODGERS WILL FALLY HONOR GAY BASEBALLER GLENN BURKE AFTER MISTREATG HIM S AGO
”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn B, Page 7 of the New York edn wh the headle: The Dodgers Offer a Belated Embrace To a Player Shunned for Beg Gay. Today, as the Los Angel Dodgers prepare to play the World Seri agast the Tampa Bay Rays, -founr Jim Buzski remds that the Dodgers anchise is a part of LGBTQ sports history as havg the only two MLB players who ever were public about beg gay.
Dodgers have had Major League Baseball’s only 2 openly gay players. In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been only two players who have e out as gay: Glenn Burke and Billy Bean.
Burke, while never publicly out wh the media while playg, did nothg to hi the fact to his teammat that he was gay. Not a “Hey world, I’m gay” way, but the sense that his teammat knew as did the management of the Los Angel Dodgers, Burke’s first team. ” A memorable moment “Out” occurs when is relled that the Dodgers — tryg to stifle mors that a popular player was gay — offered Burke $75, 000 to get married.
DODGERS FALLY HONOR FIRST OPENLY GAY MLBER ON PRI NIGHT
The Dodgers and their manager, Tom Lasorda, prented a versn of themselv as a clean-cut, All-Amerin team and a flamboyantly gay player uld not be tolerated, pecially one who hung out wh Lasorda’s gay son. (“Spunky’), himself a gay man and the son of the team’s manager, Tommy Lasorda.
“Spunky” Lasorda later died of AIDS and his father shamefully never acknowledged that his son was gay. “My son wasn’t gay. His beg gay was known and players were reluctant to shower wh him.
A former Burke teammate Clll Washgton rells that A’s Manager Billy Mart was openly homophobic:. Burke went on to settle San Francis and was a fixture on the gay scene there, even playg the Gay Gam softball.