Glenn Burke, MLB's First Openly Gay Player, Likely Invented the High Five

Contents:

• THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
• WHY HAVE THE DODGERS BEEN SO SLOW TO HONOR GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER?
• GLENN BURKE, 1ST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER, IS SHUNNED NO MORE — 40 YEARS AFTER G OUT
• THE DODGERS WILL FALLY HONOR GAY BASEBALLER GLENN BURKE AFTER MISTREATG HIM S AGO
• SGLED OUT TELLS THE STORY OF GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST GAY PLAYER
• THE TRIALS OF BASEBALL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER, GLENN BURKE, FOUR S AGO
• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
• GLENN BURKE: MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER, LIKELY INVENTED THE HIGH FIVE
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

” 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.

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.

WHY HAVE THE DODGERS BEEN SO SLOW TO HONOR GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER?

His teammat were fur and, after he was gone, the team traer nfirmed Burke had been trad bee Campanis and manager Tommy Losarda didn’t want any gay men the Oakland, Burke stggled to fd his groove after an jury. Followg one 1979 game at the Oakland Colism when A’s fans were yellg homophobic slurs at Burke the outfield, he chased down the heckler the nurse and grabbed him around the neck.

He would never aga play a major league game, nor would he hold a regular beg forced out of the A’s, Burke remaed his Bay Area home and relished the opportuny to live an openly gay life whout worryg about whether would get back to the prs or jeopardize his baseball reer. But he had a ntrollg and emotnally abive partner who spent most of the money Burke had ma— a partner who had also prsured Burke for years to e out publicly as gay, even when might have st him his partner, Michael Smh, fally nvced Burke to e out a 1982 article the magaze Insi Sports.

GLENN BURKE, 1ST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER, IS SHUNNED NO MORE — 40 YEARS AFTER G OUT

Burke was a proud Black, gay man, so the -group language and cultural referenc he ed sound awkward om the voice of an thor who shar neher inty wh his subject. Even the gay and Black history portns of the text, which are fold for ntext about the world that Burke habed, read like the Spark Not versn of gay and Black history— the basics you uld get om readg a Wikipedia page.

The elr Losarda’s homophobic treatment of Burke had larger implitns: the longtime Dodgers manager nied that his own son was gay, even after he died of AIDS, and remaed silent about HIV, the vis that killed both Burke and Losarda, Jr. 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.

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. ”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. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSgled Out: The Te Story of Glenn Burke‘No One Can Say I Didn’t Make It’An excerpt om a new book that exam the vibrant life, and untimely ath, of Glenn Burke, baseball’s first openly gay Storey/The LIFE Imag Collectn, via Getty ImagThis excerpt is om the book “Sgled Out: The Te Story of Glenn Burke, ” which will be published by Philomel Books on March 2.

THE DODGERS WILL FALLY HONOR GAY BASEBALLER GLENN BURKE AFTER MISTREATG HIM S AGO

After a few natnal sportswrers disvered Glenn was dyg of AIDS and wrote about what had bee of the man who vented the high-five and had been the first Major League baseball player to e out as gay, letters began arrivg Lutha’s mailbox and at the Oakland Colism. There were letters om parents who praised Glenn’s kdns to their kids, letters om adults who had met Glenn as children, and letters om gay men who admired his sacrific as a pneer.

But as much as the renciliatn meant for her fay, she unrstood the moment would only have te transformatnal power if “other ltle boys” the future had the chance to live out their Major League dreams whout fear of reprisal if they were gay.

SGLED OUT TELLS THE STORY OF GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST GAY PLAYER

Inspirg a new generatn of gay athlet would be one of two important measur of Burke’s for Glenn Burke’s other lastg ntributn to the world, his ventn of the high five?

And on this sprg day 2017, people gathered there to celebrate Glenn’s addn to the Rabow Honor Walk, a seri of bronze panels, embedd siwalks traversg the Castro District, regnizg some of the most signifint lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr figur history.

Stretchg down Castro and Market Streets, the plaqu pay homage to the lik of astront Sally Ri; artist Frida Kahlo; wrers Jam Baldw, Tennsee Williams, and Virgia Woolf; mathematician Alan Turg; dis star Sylvter Jam; civil rights lears Bayard Rt and Barbara Jordan; and Queen lead sger Freddie announcg the newt honoree, Honor Walk -founr David Perry told the crowd at the Whe Horse that gay hero and hero n be found all around, he said, at home Andrew Maraniss on Twter: @tblu24. On a Florida beach vatn wh my fay last week, I was unr orrs not to check my phone too I sneaked a peak last Friday afternoon and was heartened to see a tweet om a Bay Area sportswrer sharg the news that the Oakland A’s have renamed their annual Pri Night after Glenn Burke, the former Berkeley High baseball and basketball standout who went on to bee the first openly gay Major League Baseball player wh the Dodgers and A’s the late is a well-served posthumo honor for Burke, regnizg his unique ntributn to the game and the endurg signifince of his story. He is even creded wh ventg the high-five as a first openly gay major leaguer was a charismatic rerve on a great Dodgers team, and yet the anchise rarely acknowledg him.

THE TRIALS OF BASEBALL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER, GLENN BURKE, FOUR S AGO

The team’s marketg partment acknowledged receivg but did not rpond to several qutns for this lumn, cludg qutns askg for any exampl of the team’s acknowledgment of Burke that I may have lookg at the team’s long history of well-executed Pri Nights and support for LGBTQ anizatns and , there has been somethg nspicuoly missg: a meangful nnectn to Glenn Burke and the team’s place gay history. This is a shame, bee as one of the most high-profile anizatns all of sports, the Dodgers uld effect change, a game that needs , if they led an hont nversatn on Burke’s experience as a gay major leaguer.

There are no openly gay players the Major Leagu Williams told me somethg else when I asked him about squarg his mment to progrs wh the racism his universy’s past. It’s time for the Dodgers to take ownership of the homophobia that prematurely end Glenn Burke’s days Los Angel so that the anizatn n move beyond , stake s claim to history by centerg Burke’s experience, and lead the way for LGBTQ rights baseball.

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

The ex-Dodger outfielr spoke to TODAY’s Bryant Gumbel 1982 about his cisn to publicly e out as gay after retirg om 28, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC / Updated July 3, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC / Source: TODAYNearly forty years ago, Glenn Burke ma the momento cisn to e out publicly as gay — makg him the first Major League Baseball player to do so. I thought if I jt kept to myself for a while until I was ready to tell them that they might unrstand if they got to like me first stead of what I’d done, you know, sexually or somethg like BurkeAfter clg a bribe to marry a woman by the Dodgers’ general manager Al Campanis, Maraniss said, the team trad him to Oakland, where he faced homophobia om teammat and fans; he rarely played at all before beg sent to the mors Utah.

Billy Bean, right, MLB's ambassador for cln, meets wh Carol Williams, sister of Glenn Burke, before the baseball game between the San Diego Padr and the Oakland Athletics on June 17, 2015, Oakland, Margot / APBurke kept active sports, petg the Gay Gam track 1982 and basketball 1986. He played for several years San Francis’s Gay Softball League on the Pendulum Pirat, which won the Gay World Seri the summer of prented Gumbel wh the team’s hat at the end of their terview. The Los Angel Dodgers — a pro-baseball team that once mistreated Glenn Burke, the first out gay player Major League Baseball (MLB) — is now honorg Burke’s legacy and his fay at s 9th annual Pri Night event on Friday.

In 2014, MLB appoted former outfielr Billy Bean, who me out as gay after his playg reer, to serve as a nsultant guidg the sport toward greater cln and equaly. That day, Burke, a tremendoly talented prospect, after years of fightg his way through the mor leagu, beme the first gay player Major League Baseball history, though no one knew at the time.

GLENN BURKE: MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER

Dpe lookg like a potential star the mors, he stggled to fd his footg Los Angel, and never played more than 83 gam a sgle never officially me out as gay durg his reer, but his sexualy was an open secret.

” For Baker, the cisive moment was when Burke lied about stayg wh his mother on a road trip to San Francis where, stead of spendg time wh fay Oakland, he was hangg out wh gay iends across the his teammat disvered that Burke was gay, most claimed to not be bothered.

GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER, LIKELY INVENTED THE HIGH FIVE

He was able to fd athletic succs aga through participatn the San Francis Gay Softball League and the Gay Gam, though the fal years of his life would prove tragic. The appendic further this aim as Maraniss clus both a timele chroniclg the history of gay rights the Uned Stat and a list of LGBTQ Black Amerins that terted rears n rearch themselv. Burke’s story is a celebratn of a gay man’s achievements a homophobic world, an elegy for a man whose life, sir, and ambns were hampered due to attus towards his sexualy.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

He's even creded wh velopg the famed "high five" hand slap followg a home n by teammate Dty via ESPN 30 for 30While Burke was a favore wh both his teammat and his fans, Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda had ltle e for a Black gay Major League Baseball player, pecially one wh a burgeong relatnship wh Lasorda's gay son. Burke claimed his tobgraphy, Out at Home: The Te Story of Glenn Burke, Baseball's First Openly Gay Player, the anizatn offered him $75, 000 to get married, to which he claimed he (que naturally) rpond, "To a woman? The young outfielr, star of their mor league system, had the strength and speed of Willie Mays and an irreprsible energy all his they also knew that Burke was gay, and they were unfortable wh .