An excerpt om a new book that exam the vibrant life, and untimely ath, of Glenn Burke, baseball’s first openly gay player.
Contents:
- THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
- FIRST OPENLY GAY PRO PLAYER, SEAN CONROY, GETS SHUTOUT HISTORIC START
- 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
The first openly gay profsnal baseball player to e out publicly while still active the sport has pched a shutout, strikg out 11 and allowg three hs over ne ngs. * who was the first gay baseball player *
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. 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.
FIRST OPENLY GAY PRO PLAYER, SEAN CONROY, GETS SHUTOUT HISTORIC START
* who was the first gay baseball player *
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.
9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
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. The fact that he didn’t fulfill the prevailg effemate stereotype of a gay man helped him rema illegible to his peers.