Celebratg LGBTQ sports history: Mike Piazza announc, ‘I’m not gay’ - Outsports

Contents:

• 'IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME FOR THIS:' BRYAN RUBY BE ONLY ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO BE OUT AS GAY
• METS WELE OPENLY GAY BILLY BEAN TO SPRG TRAG
• HOW MANY OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYERS HAVE BEEN THERE? HONORG LGBTQ INS OF BASEBALL ON PRI NIGHT
• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: MIKE PIAZZA ANNOUNC, ‘I’M NOT GAY. I’M HETEROSEXUAL.’
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
• METS ASK BILLY BEAN TO SU UP, BUT HOW DO PLAYERS FEEL ABOUT GAY PLAYER BASEBALL?
• METS SEND BASEMAN DANIEL MURPHY SAYS HE DISAGRE WH GAY LIFTYLE AS BILLY BEAN, MLB’S CLN AMBASSADOR, VISS CLUB
• MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAYSHARHARE-SQUARE-885MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAY
• METS’ DANIEL MURPHY ADDRS POSSIBILY OF GAY TEAMMAT
• NEW YORK METS PLAYER DANIEL MURPHY DISAGRE WH BILLY BEAN'S 'GAY LIFTYLE' 100 PERCENT
• STEVE GAY
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

'IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME FOR THIS:' BRYAN RUBY BE ONLY ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO BE 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. 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.

METS WELE OPENLY GAY BILLY BEAN TO SPRG TRAG

"Beg gay don't change anythg about the way I play or teract wh teammat, " he said a team statement released for Pri Month. @_DavidD_41A first baseman for the Helena Brewers, rhe Milwkee Brewers' rookie affiliate team Montana, David Denson 2015 beme the first player affiliated wh Major League Baseball to e out as gay.

@DunngtonTylerA pcher for rookie and Class A teams affiliated wh the Cardals 2014, Dunngton told Outsports he left pro ball bee of homophobia.

HOW MANY OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYERS HAVE BEEN THERE? HONORG LGBTQ INS OF BASEBALL ON PRI NIGHT

"I experienced both ach and players make remarks on killg gay people durg my time baseball, and each ment felt like a knife to my heart, " he said. "Lookg back, I wish I had told the whole world that I'm gay om day one, " he said. Durg an 11-year mor league reer, John Dillger would vis bear gathergs on the road but kept his gay sexualy secret up until his retirement 2005.

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: MIKE PIAZZA ANNOUNC, ‘I’M NOT GAY. I’M HETEROSEXUAL.’

@tampaMarkJWhen Mark Johnson and teammat won a champnship for the Universy of Tampa 1998, he still was nial about his gay sexualy, he told Outsports, but he beme more nfint over his adult life. He cid to talk about beg gay and s impact on his game at age 35.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

When Tyson Lk, director of baseball operatns at the Universy of South Carola, cid on Natnal Comg Out Day 2016 to publicly reveal he was gay, he beme the first person Divisn I llege baseball to ever e out as LGBT.

METS ASK BILLY BEAN TO SU UP, BUT HOW DO PLAYERS FEEL ABOUT GAY PLAYER BASEBALL?

An umpire for Major League Baseball most notable for a rather famo row wh Pete Rose, Dave Pallone would eventually be ducted to the first class of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Sports Hall of Fame. He later wrote his 1990 memoir Behd the Mask: My Double Life Baseball that he believed he was fired bee he was gay.

A Major League Baseball umpire om 1986 to 1999, Dale Stt me out as gay to Referee Magaze 2014.

In 2021, mor league baseball player, Bryan Ruby me out as gay. At the time he was the only active baseball player to e out as gay. Yet 's Ruby's hidn part of his inty that he now believ n have the biggt impact, partially bee 's so foreign to the worlds of baseball and untry is a gay man, the only active profsnal baseball player at any level to be publicly out.

METS SEND BASEMAN DANIEL MURPHY SAYS HE DISAGRE WH GAY LIFTYLE AS BILLY BEAN, MLB’S CLN AMBASSADOR, VISS CLUB

" FOLLOW THE MONEY: MLB player salari and payrolls for every major league teamHis g out follows a summer which Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib and Nashville Predators prospect Le Prokop also me out as gay. “As a untry mic songwrer, at first I thought beg gay was a huge weakns, ” said Ruby, who will be showsed the upg documentary, "Out Nashville.

Love songs don’t need to be gay or straight. ”Ruby told his fay and close iends he was gay four years ago, then his teammat this summer. I've been a baseball player sce I was seven or eight, way before I knew I was gay.

"When Bryan told me he was gay I was shocked actually, " Lren Ruby said of the revelatn when Bryan was 21. And the male sports world n be very homophobic wh gradg banter. "I grew up a culture where homosexualy was taboo, " Jon, a baseball ach at Friends' Central High School Philalphia, said.

MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAYSHARHARE-SQUARE-885MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAY

"I had an unual look to that culture, though, bee my brother's gay. All of the sudn, the (gay) slurs that I was hearg ronated much differently. Gabriel Cotto, the Volno' tcher, said he never would've pictured Ruby as gay.

But Cotto immediately embraced Ruby once he told him bee his own father is gay.

METS’ DANIEL MURPHY ADDRS POSSIBILY OF GAY TEAMMAT

"But I ed to get bullied and fights growg up bee my pops is gay. Bean played the major leagu as an outfielr for nearly a and me out as gay himself after his retirement the 1990s.

"A steppg stone that uld have a domo effect for other gay profsnal athlet. "It's not all super rosy, " Ruby ach om past generatns have been subtly homophobic, urgg him to keep his sexual orientatn a secret or to be wh a woman to keep up a ont. Teammat over the years have slipped out gay slurs.

NEW YORK METS PLAYER DANIEL MURPHY DISAGRE WH BILLY BEAN'S 'GAY LIFTYLE' 100 PERCENT

Gehrig Richs, the Volno' assistant ach, said he imag teammat beg protective of Ruby if gay slurs were to persist once he's out publicly. " But there is part of the paradox of beg closeted: Homophobic language begets fear.

Daniel Murphy ma some ments Tuday about Billy Bean, an openly gay Major League Baseball executive who spent the day wh the New York Mets at sprg trag Port St.

Bean, the league's first ambassador of cln, is gog om mp to mp providg guidance and trag for players and others orr to support those the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny. "I do disagree wh the fact that Billy is a homosexual.

STEVE GAY

I don't thk the fact that someone is a homosexual should pletely shut the door on vtg them a relatnal aspect. While there may be a perceptn that Christian athlet may not be acceptg of gay players, Murphy says that is not the se. "Maybe, as a Christian, that we haven't been as articulate enough scribg what our actual stance is on homosexualy, " he said.

A player the 1970s, Burke opened up about beg homosexual after his reer end, but he lived and died wh a ep sadns om havg to hi who he was. As the world be more progrsive, so do the baseball muny wh clubs, fans, and teammat embracg openly gay MLB players. As the MLB ntu embracg the LGBTQ muny, the players have also taken steps towards clivens wh Chigo Whe Sox pcher, Anrson Comás, g out as openly gay.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

The 23-year-old pcher om the Domin Republic hop the revelatn of his sexualy enurag other gay players to e out.