{"id":27355,"date":"2021-10-29T04:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=27355"},"modified":"2021-11-02T21:43:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T21:43:17","slug":"how-much-longer-will-major-league-baseball-stay-in-the-closet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-much-longer-will-major-league-baseball-stay-in-the-closet\/","title":{"rendered":"How much longer will major league baseball stay in the\u00a0closet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Dreier<\/a>, Occidental College<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In his 1990 autobiography, \u201cBehind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball<\/a>,\u201d Dave Pallone, a gay major league umpire who was quietly fired in 1988 after rumors about his sexual orientation circulated in the baseball world, contended that there were enough gay major league players to create an All-Star team.<\/p>\n

Since then, attitudes and laws about homosexuality have changed. High-profile figures in business, politics, show business, education, the media, the military and sports have come out of the closet. <\/p>\n

Athletes in three of the five major U.S. male team sports \u2013 the NBA, NFL and MLS \u2013 have come out while still playing, with NFL player Carl Nassib<\/a> and NHL prospect Luke Prokop<\/a> coming out in summer 2021. Meanwhile, according to OutSports magazine<\/a>, at least 185 publicly out LGBTQ athletes \u2013 90% of them women \u2013 participated in this summer\u2019s Tokyo Olympic Games, more than in all previous Summer Olympics combined.<\/p>\n

But among the more than 20,000 men<\/a> who have played major league baseball, not one has publicly come out of the closet while still in uniform.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s taken so long? And is baseball ready for its gay Jackie Robinson? <\/p>\n

Two ex-players pave the way<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re getting close,\u201d Billy Bean<\/a>, the only openly gay former major league player alive today, recently told me. \u201cWe\u2019re making incredible strides.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bean played for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres for parts of six seasons, hiding his homosexuality from his friends, fans and teammates at great emotional cost. He quit baseball in 1995 and four years later publicly came out. In 2003 he published a book, \u201cGoing the Other Way: Lessons from a Life In and Out of Major League Baseball<\/a>,\u201d in which he describes the anguish of being a closeted ballplayer. In 2014, then-Commissioner Bud Selig hired Bean as Major League Baseball\u2019s first Ambassador for Inclusion.<\/p>\n

\n\"Man<\/a>
\nAfter retiring from baseball, Glenn Burke talked about the difficulties of coming out as a professional athlete.<\/span>
\nAP Photo\/Mark Hundley<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bean was the second major league baseball player to come out of the closet after hanging up his spikes. The first, Glenn Burke, played for the Dodgers and Oakland Athletics between 1976 and 1979. He came out publicly in 1982 in an Inside Sports article, \u201cThe Double Life of a Gay Dodger<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to be gay in sports than anywhere else, except maybe president,\u201d said Burke. \u201cBaseball is probably the hardest sport of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his autobiography, \u201cOut at Home<\/a>,\u201d published shortly after he died of AIDS in 1995, Burke recalled: \u201cI got used to the \u2018fag\u2019 jokes. You heard them everywhere then.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other ex-major league baseball player \u2013 much less one still in uniform \u2013 has yet followed in Bean\u2019s and Burke\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n

A lingering stain of homophobia<\/h2>\n

What\u2019s stopping LGBTQ baseball players from coming out publicly?<\/p>\n

Perhaps they calculate that the personal or financial costs still outweigh the benefits.<\/p>\n

There is a strong current of fundamentalist Christianity within baseball, which could make life uncomfortable for openly gay players. One study of Bible verses in pro athlete\u2019s Twitter bios concluded<\/a> that major league baseball players were \u201cfar and away the most overtly religious group of athletes of the four major sporting leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also lingering strands of explicit homophobia.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Detroit Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter told the Los Angeles Times<\/a> that he\u2019d be uncomfortable with a gay teammate, because \u201cbiblically, it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, Houston Astros slugger Lance Berkman, an evangelical Christian, campaigned against the city\u2019s Equal Rights Ordinance, designed to protect LGBTQ rights. \u201cTo me,\u201d Berkman said at the time<\/a>, \u201ctolerance is the virtue that\u2019s killing this country.\u201d The ordinance was defeated.<\/p>\n

Other MLB players have made homophobic comments over the years, including John Rocker<\/a>, Julian Tavarez<\/a>, Yunel Escobar<\/a>, Daniel Murphy<\/a> and Todd Jones<\/a>, along with manager Ozzie Guillen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Changes start at the top<\/h2>\n

Even as players on big-league rosters stay in the closet, MLB and individual teams have taken steps to make baseball more inclusive for LGBTQ employees and fans.<\/p>\n

In 2009, when the Ricketts family purchased the Chicago Cubs, Laura Ricketts<\/a> became the first openly LGBTQ person to own a professional sports team. Billie Jean King<\/a>, the former tennis star who, in 1981, became the first openly gay high-profile sports figure, is now part-owner of the Dodgers. <\/p>\n

At least four teams \u2013 the Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks \u2013 now have openly gay top-tier executives. Bean has started a program to recruit and mentor more LGBTQ people to work for teams\u2019 front offices at the major and minor league levels.<\/p>\n

In 2000, a lesbian couple was ejected from Dodger Stadium for kissing<\/a>. Today, out of 30 MLB teams, only the Texas Rangers have never hosted an LGBTQ Pride event of some kind<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\"Fans
\nAll major league baseball teams, save for one, have held a Pride Night.<\/span>
\nAdam Glanzman\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several teams have fined or suspended players, managers, and at least one broadcaster \u2013 the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 Thom Brennaman<\/a> \u2013 for uttering anti-gay slurs. And despite the occasional homophobic epithet that continues to emerge from their ranks, more and more straight baseball players have expressed support for the LGBTQ community over the past couple of decades. <\/p>\n

In 2003, Colorado Rockies star Mark Grace told the Denver Post<\/a> that most ballplayers wouldn\u2019t be threatened by the idea of a gay teammate. \u201cI\u2019ve played for 16 years, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve had homosexual teammates that I didn\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Grace: \u201cI think if you\u2019re intelligent at all, you\u2019d understand that homosexuals are just like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2005, Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. said that having a gay teammate<\/a> \u201cwouldn\u2019t bother me at all. If you can play, you can play.\u201d And in 2018, after the media highlighted a rash of anti-gay slurs<\/a> tweeted by several major league ballplayers, pitcher Sean Doolittle tweeted a full-throated defense<\/a>: \u201cSome of the strongest people I know are from the LGBTQ community. It takes courage to be your true self when your identity has been used as an insult or a pejorative.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

No perfect time<\/h2>\n

The first gay major league baseball player to come out will not be a matter of if, but when.<\/p>\n

A 2015 poll<\/a> found that 73% of Americans \u2013 including a majority of white evangelical Christians \u2013 said they would support a pro sports team signing an openly gay or lesbian athlete. <\/p>\n

Some hope that the first pro ballplayer to come out will be a star. In 2014, Pallone, the gay former umpire, told Fox Sports<\/a> that he wanted it to be \u201ca player whose name rolls off somebody\u2019s tongue. That\u2019s what will do the most good.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.<\/em> Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Or the first gay big-leaguer could simply emerge from the prospect pipeline. In the past decade, two openly gay ballplayers \u2013 David Denson and Sean Conroy \u2013 played in the minor leagues. A third minor leaguer, Bryan Ruby, currently an infielder for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, part of an independent professional league in Oregon, came out in September 2021<\/a>. There are growing<\/a> numbers<\/a> of openly gay college players, and the best of them could ascend the professional ranks into the majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was playing, homosexuality was a taboo topic. We never talked openly about it,\u201d Bean said. \u201cGay athletes in high school, college and the minors now have role models.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will always be some who argue that the time isn\u2019t ripe for a major breakthrough. But as Jon Buzinski, the founder of OutSports, told me: \u201cEverybody will say, \u2018We aren\u2019t ready.\u2019 Society was not ready for Jackie Robinson. If you are going to wait for everybody to be ready, nobody will do it.\u201d\"The<\/p>\n

Peter Dreier<\/a>, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Dreier, Occidental College In his 1990 autobiography, \u201cBehind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball,\u201d Dave Pallone, a gay major league umpire who was quietly fired in 1988 after rumors about his sexual orientation circulated in the baseball world, contended that there were enough gay major league players to create an All-Star team. Since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[179,2593,2103,8339,10729,2071,5819,10730,203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27395,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27355\/revisions\/27395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}