Billy Bean was a
major league baseball player who also happened to be
gay. This shouldn't be special, but it is, because in the entire history of
Major League Baseball,
only two players have ever
come out as gay, and both of those came out well after their playing days. One-time
A's and
Dodgers outfielder
Glenn Burke was the first, coming out in
1982, and Bean was the second, coming out in a front page article in the
New York Times in
1999. Neither were stars, or even well known. Considering that there have been tens of thousands of major leaguers, and taking into account estimated percentages of gay people in the population at large, the numbers just don't add up.
Billy Bean was a marginal player at best, and this undoubtedly made it easier for him to come out as gay. While constantly bouncing up and down between the major and minor leagues, he played outfield and first base in parts of six seasons with the Tigers, Dodgers, and Padres from 1987-1995, compiling a career batting average of .226, with 5 home runs and 53 RBI in 478 at bats.
Bean had been married for three years before he realized he was gay when he fell in love with a "handsome Iranian named Sam." When Sam died suddenly of a ruptured pancreas, a grief-stricken Bean, tired of hiding his secret gay lifestyle from his teammates and baseball friends, walked away from the game he had thus far dedicated his life to. But even after retiring in 1995, Bean continued to conceal his orientation from his former teammates for four years, until friends convinced him to come out for the good of other professional athletes who are still trapped in the proverbial closet.
Today Bean runs a restaurant in Miami Beach, Florida with his current partner, and has become an outspoken advocate of gay rights. He recently published a book about his experiences as a closeted gay baseball player, entitled Going the Other Way.
But to this day there is not a single openly gay player in the MLB, the NFL, the NHL, or the NBA.
Billy Bean's Career Statistics
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
1987 23 DET AL 26 66 6 17 2 0 0 4 1 1 5 11 .258 .310 .288 19 0 0 0 0 1
1988 24 DET AL 10 11 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .182 .182 .364 4 1 0 0 0 0
1989 25 DET AL 9 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 .000 .214 .000 0 0 0 0 1 0
LAD NL 51 71 7 14 4 0 0 3 0 2 4 10 .197 .250 .254 18 0 0 0 1 0
TOT 60 82 7 14 4 0 0 3 0 2 6 13 .171 .244 .220 18 0 0 0 2 0
1993 29 SDP NL 88 177 19 46 9 0 5 32 2 4 6 29 .260 .284 .395 70 2 5 1 2 4
1994 30 SDP NL 84 135 7 29 5 1 0 14 0 1 7 25 .215 .248 .267 36 1 3 1 0 4
1995 31 SDP NL 4 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 .000 .125 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
6 Seasons 272 478 42 108 20 2 5 53 3 8 25 84 .226 .266 .308 147 4 8 2 4 9
Source: baseball-reference.com