Statistics say there are dozens of gay pro baseball players - Outsports

Contents:

• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
• STATISTICS SAY THERE ARE DOZENS OF GAY PRO BASEBALL PLAYERS
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
• A GAY BASEBALL PLAYER, STATISTIL PERSPECTIVE

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS 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. 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.

STATISTICS SAY THERE ARE DOZENS OF GAY PRO BASEBALL PLAYERS

“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. While baseball is still wag for s first openly gay active MLB player, Bean’s elevatn to a posn of thory the missner’s office is a sign that thgs have changed sce the days when Glenn Burke was lled a faggot by his manager.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

Here's a list of those the profsnal and llege baseball world proud enough to wear a rabow p wh their pstrip and e out as gay. An outfielr for the Los Angel Dodgers and the Oakland A's between 1976 and 1979, Glenn Burke beme the first Major League Baseball player to e out as gay to teammat and owners while still active, though the team asked that he keep his sexualy secret om the public and he plied.

A GAY BASEBALL PLAYER, STATISTIL PERSPECTIVE

Two years later, he told Insi Sports that he believed he'd been let go om the Dodgers bee he was gay. He beme one of few proment gay athlet of the era after that, playg the Gay Gam 1982 and 1986. "They n't ever say now that a gay man n't play the majors, bee I'm a gay man and I ma , " he told The Philalphia Inquirer.

@billybeanballThe only livg Major League Baseball veteran who has e out as gay, outfielr Billy Bean played for the Tigers, Dodgers, and Padr over a reer that spanned om 1987 to 1995. He me out four years after retirg om the field, and wrote his 2003 book Gog the Other Way: Lsons From a Life and Out of Major League Baseball that the bullyg and homophobic world of baseball led him to walk away om pro ball. "Beg gay don't change anythg about the way I play or teract wh teammat, " he said a team statement released for Pri Month.