Aug. 7 (UPI) — Billy Bean, the second openly gay MLB player and the league’s senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, died Tuesday after an illness, MLB confirmed. He was 60 years old.
Bean died after an 11-month battle with acute myeloid leukemia after he shared in December that he had been diagnosed three months earlier.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday that Bean was “one of the kindest and most respected individuals I have ever known,” expressing his sadness and condolences to Bean’s family and his husband, Greg Baker, “as we mourn our dear friend and colleague, Billy Bean.”
Several MLB teams on Tuesday paid tribute to Bean on social media, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Sox and San Diego Padres.
A Santa Ana, Calif. native, Bean was Detroit’s fourth-round 1986 draft pick and played for the Tigers, Dodgers and Padres from 1987-1995, logging a total of 519 plate appearances in 272 career games.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague Billy Bean, MLB’s Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Special Assistant to the Commissioner. Billy, who fought a heroic year-long battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, was 60.
Over the last 10 years,… pic.twitter.com/dCfFM6hQlE— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2024
Manfred said Bean was a friend “to countless people across our game” and made a noteworthy difference “through his constant dedication to others.”
Bean retired at the age of 31 in 1996 and came out in 1999, later saying that living as a closeted baseball player was untenable.
He was only the second-ever openly gay current or former MLB player after Glenn Burke, who retired from the league in 1979 and then publicly shared his sexuality in 1982, died in 1995.
“He made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field, by the power of his example, his empathy, his communication skills, his deep relationships inside and outside our sport, and his commitment to doing the right thing,” Manfred said of Bean.
“We are forever grateful for the enduring impact that Billy made on the game he loved, and we will never forget him.”
Bean’s 2003 memoir, “Going the Other Way,” became a national bestseller as his story spread across the country with multiple news outlets like ABC, CNN and the New York Times covering his life story.
Years after his memoir got published, Bean made a triumphant return back to MLB in 2014 but this time to a leadership role when then-Commissioner Bud Selig hired Bean as the league’s first-ever Ambassador for Inclusion.
“As society progressed, Billy brought that as a figurehead to Major League Baseball and institutions that never had a position like that, or a role like that, or even acknowledged it,” Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus, who played 18 years in the big leagues and was a close friend of Bean’s dating back to their time as Padres teammates in the 1990s, said Tuesday.
In 2018, Bean said in an interview that nowadays “there’s so much more information” versus what their was.
“Self-identification happens a lot earlier and open-hearted families and parents teach their children about everything in the world,” he said. “It allows for an earlier evolution. I was living in a very stone-age space.”
He would go on to be promoted throughout the years, first in 2017 as vice president and special assistant to the commissioner where Bean took on anti-bullying efforts, followed five years later by his new title of senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion where as Manfred’s senior advisor, Bean’s role was focused on player education, LGBTQ inclusion and social justice initiatives.
“Billy would say that baseball did a lot more for him than he ever did for baseball,” said Ausmus. “I truly believe in talking to him, that the best thing that’s ever happened to him in his life is that he was able to get back into baseball after having to leave baseball.”
Ausmus and Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman were among the first of Bean’s former teammates to reach out after his 1999 coming out. On Tuesday, Hoffman described Bean as a “kind soul, a thoughtful teammate.”
“He respected the game, played it hard,” Hoffman said. “And then was really the first inclusion ambassador in baseball — and I thought he had a unique perspective, just having lived in that arena with his personal hurdles that he had to handle as a player.”
The league’s late DEI chief was a member of the Major League Baseball Owners’ DE&I Committee where, according to MLB, Bean was “instrumental” in the development of MLB’s current education program to prevent bullying.
MLB says Bean was also able to further elevate the visibility of the league’s mental wellness resources, and was a key part of the game’s support of Spirit Day and MLB’s “Ahead in the Count” education program.
“And then as somebody that really navigated the next era of players and organization into the future and forward-thinking,” Hoffman said. “So, really, he was in the right place at the right time. He’s going to be a big loss for all of baseball and society. He’s going to be sorely missed.”