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RUMOR FREEPERLAND: GAY DAY AT SHEA
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. 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.