Baseball’s gay pioneer Glenn Burke honored at All-Star game
Michael Sam gets all the press for coming out. It’s easy to forget, however, all of the gay athletes that didn’t — that couldn’t. Baseball’s pioneer Glenn Burke walked away from the game he loved. A semi-closeted gay athlete, Burke just wanted to be himself. Then a 27-year-old, he decided he couldn’t do that as a pro athlete.
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“It’s harder to be gay in sports than anywhere else, except maybe president,” Burke said in 1982, when he came out publicly in an Inside Sports magazine article, via the New York Times. “Baseball is probably the hardest sport of all.”
Burke passed away nearly 20 years ago and was honored at the All-Star game Tuesday. The ceremony served as a wonderful reminder for the sacrifice he made to feel comfortable — one that he shouldn’t have had to make. Yet, now three decades later, the MLB is yet to have an openly gay player.
“It was overdue, and Glenn has a story that needs to be told,” Glenn’s sibling, Lutha Burke said. “Glenn wouldn’t be upset that it took this long. He’d just say, ‘It’s about time you guys showed up.’ ”
It’s haunting to hear about dreams unrealized as sporting fans — potential hampered by injury or physical restrictions. But Burke didn’t have a physical restriction. He didn’t have an injury. Thus, his departure from the league is all the more unfortunate.
“Maybe he didn’t get a chance to live out his dream,” Lutha said. “He used to sleep in his baseball uniform, and Mom used to have to peel it off him. But make sure that other little boys get a chance to live out their dream. Glenn would be very proud. Something good has come out of it in the end.”
According to the New York Times, the league will also announce that Billy Bean will work with the league on its inclusion efforts. Bean played six seasons and came out four years after he retired in 1999.