Ventura: MLB would accept openly gay player |

Contents:

• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
• THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
• HOW MANY OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYERS HAVE BEEN THERE? HONORG LGBTQ INS OF BASEBALL ON PRI NIGHT
• THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL UMPIRE REFLECTS ON G OUT, COORS FIELD AND THE ‘ROBO-UMPIRE’
• METS WELE OPENLY GAY BILLY BEAN TO SPRG TRAG
• OPENLY GAY MLB UMPIRE, DALE STT, ANNOUNC RELEASE OF AUTOBGRAPHY
• WHY HAVE THE DODGERS BEEN SO SLOW TO HONOR GLENN BURKE, MLB’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER?
• DODGERS FALLY HONOR FIRST OPENLY GAY MLBER ON PRI NIGHT
• WHY HAVE THE DODGERS BEEN SO SLOW TO HONOR GLENN BURKE, MLB'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER?
• MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAYSHARHARE-SQUARE-673043MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAY
• FIRST OPENLY GAY PRO PLAYER, SEAN CONROY, GETS SHUTOUT HISTORIC START
• FIRST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER GLEN BURKE FALLY CELEBRATED
• GLENN BURKE, 1ST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER, IS SHUNNED NO MORE — 40 YEARS AFTER G OUT
• VENTURA: MLB WOULD ACCEPT OPENLY GAY PLAYER

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. ” 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.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

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.

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. Sce 2016, no homophobic slur has been chanted for the first time, and looks like MLB is dog s bt to change the perspective toward homosexual players.

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

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.

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

” 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.

THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL UMPIRE REFLECTS ON G OUT, COORS FIELD AND THE ‘ROBO-UMPIRE’

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. 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. Unbeknownst to Burke, however, manager Billy Mart was vilently homophobic and sent him down to the mors so he wouldn’t “ntamate” the rt of the team.

METS WELE OPENLY GAY BILLY BEAN TO SPRG TRAG

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.

OPENLY GAY MLB UMPIRE, DALE STT, ANNOUNC RELEASE OF AUTOBGRAPHY

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.

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

Hopefully, one day, Burke’s story will be told by a wrer who is Black and/or gay, who n brg necsary texture and perspective to his important story.

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. Although Anrson Comás is only the send openly gay MLB player to e out while actively wh an anizatn, the Chigo Whe Sox, he is far om the first openly gay player to play profsnal baseball.

DODGERS FALLY HONOR FIRST OPENLY GAY MLBER ON PRI NIGHT

"Former Player of The Day - Billy Bean - Outfielr, #Padr #Tigers #Dodgers #PlayerOfTheDay" - @GayBaseballFanIt has been a long road, but thanks to pneers such as Glenn Burke, Billy Bean, David Denson, and Anrson Comás, baseball is beg a more welg place for everyone. On the rponse he’s gotten om the gay muny after umpirg the majors for more than three s and penng a memoir “The Umpire is Out: Callg the Game and Livg My Te Self”: SCOTT: The people I’ve talked to on this book tour, tellg me my story changed their life, my story gave them the urage to do this, or … this one lbian uple San Francis, she was, I gave her a big hug bee she said, “You don’t know how much hearg about you a game I love …” and that kd of stuff. Three years earlier, while he was studyg journalism at Michigan State Universy, he had publicly e out as gay an say he wrote for the time of the say, he braced for a backlash, but nothg materialized.

He worked his way up om ternships to full-time broadstg jobs, and while anyone wh an ter nnectn uld learn he was gay, nobody asked, and he did not say so aga publicly.

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

It was paful at the time — the worst thg that had happened to him as a gay man, he said — but has reced far enough to his memory that did not e to md an hourlong terview about his experienc as a gay broadster. McCoy for The New York TimBorn to BroadstLong before he knew he was gay, Bach knew he wanted to be a sports father was a ach, and a love of sports ran through the fay.

MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAYSHARHARE-SQUARE-673043MOR LEAGUER SOLOMON BAT OUT AS GAY

’”By the start of his sophomore year at Michigan State, Bach was ready to tell his parents that he was gay, tchg his father off guard but nfirmg what his mother had prevly assumed. He did each job to the bt of his abily, and his sexualy never me, he has found that there’s a difference between beg a gay man baseball and beg pletely fortable as one. “I feel like that’s the burn a lot of gay people live wh — tryg to be perfect for straight people, ” he job requir equent teractn wh the players and the achg staff — addn to his duti as play-by-play announcer, Bach also is the ma public relatns ntact for the team — and he said he hadn’t fully relaxed any of them.

Mrer/Frericksburg NatnalsThat feelg is somewhat “self-flicted, ” Bach said, but he believ the solutn is to brg more openly gay people to sports and create a safe environment for those who are already there but have felt necsary to hi their League Baseball has touted self as a place of clivy.

Billy Bean, an openly gay former player, was named the league’s first ambassador for cln 2014 and has sce been promoted to senr vice print and special assistant to Commissner Rob Maned.

FIRST OPENLY GAY PRO PLAYER, SEAN CONROY, GETS SHUTOUT HISTORIC START

In Febary, Anrson Comás, a mor leaguer the Chigo Whe Sox anizatn, me out as gay wh a post on Instagram, and the announcement was met wh public support om his club and some people around the cints suggt there is more work to be done.

FIRST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER GLEN BURKE FALLY CELEBRATED

The Boston Red Sox lled up a mor leaguer, Matt Dermody, who had posted an anti-gay msage on Twter 2021, and Anthony Bass, a reliever for the Toronto Blue Jays, reposted a vio on social media that lled for boytts of L. “Those of that are this very small mory sports have to keep on havg the nversatns, keep on workg really ick’ hard to earn your spot this space, ” he aspir to be a gay person at home a big-league booth.

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

McCoy for The New York TimA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 27 of the New York edn wh the headle: A Gay Broadster Climbs the Ladr, But It’s Been Lonely.

VENTURA: MLB WOULD ACCEPT OPENLY GAY PLAYER

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.