He achieved his lifelong dream of becoming a major league baseball player at 23, but Billy Bean gave it all up at 31 because he fell in love with another man. Bean, MLB’s senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, died at home in New York on Aug. 6 after an 11-month-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia. Major League Baseball announced his death.
Bean was 60, and leaves a husband, Greg Baker.
Bean did not come out publicly until he left the game, in 1999, following an article in the Miami Herald that outed him. That led to even bigger stories in the New York Times and television interviews about being a closeted athlete. He wrote a book, “Going the Other Way.” For decades, Bean was the only living former baseball player to have come out as gay, following Glenn Burke.
Four years ago, Bean recorded an emotional video about coming out and how baseball has changed, titled “Dear Glenn Burke: A Letter from Billy Bean.”
However, the biggest impact Bean had on the game and on all professional sports came in 2014, when he was hired by former Commissioner Bud Selig to be MLB’s first ambassador for inclusion. He spent more than 10 years working for MLB, eventually being promoted to senior vice president.
Bean worked with pro baseball players and their clubs to, in his words, “advance equality for all players, coaches, managers, umpires, employees, and stakeholders throughout baseball to ensure an equitable, inclusive, and supportive workplace for everyone.”
The California native’s athletic career started as a two-time All-American outfielder at Loyola Marymount, then Bean played six seasons of pro ball. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1985, but returned to Loyola for his senior year, leading the team to the NCAA Men’s College World Series.
The Detroit Tigers drafted him the following year, and Bean made his debut in 1987 with a four-hit performance that tied a record for a player in his first game. Bean went on to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres, in Japan as well as in the minor leagues.
But he hung up his mitt in 1995, when the lefty outfielder — who at that time was married to a woman — lost his first partner, Sam. He died of HIV-related causes in Bean’s final season. They had fallen in love on a road trip in Miami.
That 1999 Miami Herald article that outed him was a review of the restaurant he co-owned with his partner at that time. He had already told his parents in 1996, but Bean once told the LGBTQ sports site Outsports he still regretted ending his career in the closet.
“If I had only told my parents, I probably would have played two or three more years and understood that I could come out a step at a time, not have to do it in front of a microphone. And I was completely misguided. I had no mentor. I think that’s where the responsibility comes in for people who have lived that experience, and we take for granted that everybody’s adjusted and gets it. I had no one to confide in and that was the biggest mistake of my professional life was to think that if one person knew, everybody knew.
Just having some kind of ally at that time, I think I would have changed and I think I would have played so much better. You can appreciate the degree of despair when you’re hiding something and you’re on the bubble as it is. It just was a really frustrating time for me.”
At MLB, Bean led the charge for baseball teams to hold Pride nights, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The beginning of Pride month alongside fans returning to our MLB ballparks is tremendously exciting,” Bean told the Los Angeles Blade in June 2021. “The past year has been difficult for everyone, and I am so appreciative that our clubs are able to reach out and support the LGBTQ community in such a positive way.”
The league, baseball teams, his alma mater and LGBTQ advocates and allies posted remembrances and tributes to Bean on social media following news of his passing.
Funeral arrangements were not announced as of press time.
Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
