Morning Man Classic: The late MLB player and executive Billy Bean who was born 62 years ago

Happy heavenly birthday to the late Major League Baseball player and executive Billy Bean who was born 62 years ago today. Billy was a closeted gay man during his playing days with the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers and other teams and suffered greatly for it.

‘When I was a player there wasn’t one message that I ever saw that made me feel that I could share that part of my life,’ Billy told me in 2017 when we did an interview for Gay Star News. ‘I didn’t blame baseball. All the things I felt was self-imposed. I was afraid to talk to my own family.’

After retiring prematurely from the sport in 1995 because of the stress, Billy told his story publicly in 1999 with a heart-breaking memoir Going the Other Way that moved me deeply. To promote it, he did an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer that left me openly sobbing as I watched it at a Gold’s Gym in Long Beach while doing cardio. I’ll never forget the deep emotion his interview triggered in me as I was in the process of coming out myself.

I saw Billy many times over the years at a wide array of LGBT and entertainment industry events and did several interviews. He was always warm and open including the last time I saw him which was at Dodgers Stadium on Pride Night in 2017.

In January 2016, Billy had returned to Major League Baseball as his authentic self when he was hired as MLB’s Vice President, Social Responsibility & Inclusion. He was more recently Vice President and Special Assistant to the Commissioner until he became ill and died from leukemia in 2024 at just 60 years old.

Billy had said to me in our final interview.‘ “The LGBT community is part of every diversity spectrum: race, gender, language, old and young. Far and near each and every one of us represents the bigger message.”

Here are some excerpts from a 2006 interview I did with Billy when he was part of an all-gay panel for an entire season of the game show “I’ve Got a Secret” which aired on the GSN Network.

On National Coming Out Day, which he makes clear is more of an opportunity for out people to celebrate their collective experience rather than being a day where people feel they have to come out:
“For the most part I’d say 100 percent of the experiences people have shared with me, they always say their lives greatly improved once they did it. None of us start in the same place and time. It’s showing people that you can live a life that is complete and full in an honest and open way.”

On his own coming out:
“It was just really empowering…When I was in a position emotionally to make it happen, .the relief of living honestly and being able to give my family and friends and people who care about me the opportunity to know me completely, I just became so much closer to them.”

On gays and lesbians coming out younger these days:
“I think kids at this generation are light years ahead of where we were. They are so much more aware because of the Internet and blogs. We had to interact face to face which kept us from doing that. They are so much more progressive in so many ways.”

On professional athletes being out:
“We just have to embrace the few images that we have and keep building positive images to create a more diverse group of people. As their lives allow it, it will just keep happening. Slowly, but it will.”