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Billy Bean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane.
For other people named Billy Bean, see Billy Bean (disambiguation).

Billy Bean
Bean on Spirit Day 2016 at Dodger Stadium
Outfielder
Born: (1964-05-11)May 11, 1964
Santa Ana, California, U.S.
Died: August 6, 2024(2024-08-06) (aged 60)
Batted: Left
Threw: Left
Professional debut
MLB: April 25, 1987, for the Detroit Tigers
NPB: 1992, for the Kintetsu Buffaloes
Last appearance
MLB: July 8, 1995, for the San Diego Padres
NPB: 1992, for the Kintetsu Buffaloes
MLB statistics
Batting average.226
Home runs5
Runs batted in53
Teams

William Daro Bean (May 11, 1964 – August 6, 2024) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers (1987–1989), Los Angeles Dodgers (1989), and San Diego Padres (1993–1995), as well as the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in 1992.[1] In July 2014, he was named MLB's first ambassador for inclusion.[2] In January 2016, he became MLB's vice president,[3] ambassador for inclusion and was senior vice president and special assistant to the commissioner.[4]

Early life

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Bean's father, Bill Bean, began dating 18 year old Linda Robertson while they were classmates at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. The couple married while Linda was pregnant, then separated when Billy was six months old. Linda married Ed Kovac, a police officer, and they had five children together.[5] The family was Catholic.[6][7]

Playing career

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Bean attended Santa Ana High School,[8] and won a state championship with the school's baseball team. He enrolled at Loyola Marymount University on an athletic scholarship to play college baseball for the Loyola Marymount Lions.[5] After his junior year, the New York Yankees selected Bean in the 24th round of the 1985 MLB Draft.[9] Though the Yankees offered Bean a $55,000 signing bonus, Bean followed through with his promise to return to Loyola Marymount for his senior year.[5] Bean appeared with the Lions in the 1986 College World Series.[10][11]

The Detroit Tigers selected Bean in the fourth round of the 1986 MLB Draft.[10] He signed with the Tigers for $12,500. Bean made his major league debut for the Tigers on April 25, 1987 and tied the major league record of 4 hits in his debut game. He had a total of 6 bases with two doubles and won over the fans in Tiger Stadium that were chanting his name in the later inning at bats. He spent most of the 1988 season in the minor leagues, where he led the Toledo Mud Hens in batting average; among his teammates in Toledo was the similarly named Billy Beane.[12][13] Bean played in 10 games for the Tigers after he was promoted back to the major leagues in August 1988. He played in nine games for the Tigers in the 1989 season.[5] On July 17, 1989, the Tigers traded Bean to the Los Angeles Dodgers for minor leaguers Steve Green and Domingo Michel.[14] He batted .197 for the Dodgers in 51 games, and was demoted to the minor leagues.[5]

Bean played in Minor League Baseball during the 1990 and 1991 seasons. He played for the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball in 1992,[5] batting .208 in seven games.[15] Bean signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres before the 1993 season, and was promoted back to the major leagues.[11] He batted .260 in 88 games for the Padres in 1993, and .215 in 84 games for the Padres in 1994. After playing for the Padres in 1995, Bean opted to retire from baseball after the 1995 season.[5]

Television appearances

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Bean was a panelist on GSN's I've Got a Secret revival in 2006,[16][17] and was a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.[18] He appeared in a 2009 episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, showing Griffin several homes.[19]

In 2007, Bean was hired as a consultant by Scout Productions, the team of David Collins and Michael Williams, who produced Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, for their next project with Showtime entitled The Beard. The project was to be a romantic comedy about a gay professional baseball player who enters into a relationship with a woman in order to survive in the sports world; Showtime did not go forward with the series.[20]

Bean starred in a MTV episode of Made, he was an actor in an episode of the sitcom Frasier[21], and appeared as himself on the HBO series Arli$$ in the 2002 episode "Playing it Safe".[22]

Personal life and death

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Bean married his college sweetheart when he was 24 years old. He left the marriage four years later after meeting his future partner Sam, an Austria-raised, Iranian immigrant, at the gym. Their relationship and living arrangement were secrets; when Bean's teammates from the San Diego Padres stopped by to visit, Sam had to hide in the car for fear that they would be identified as a gay couple.[23]

On April 23, 1995, Sam, who was HIV-positive, collapsed at their Del Mar, California home. When he returned home after playing in an exhibition game against the Anaheim Angels, Bean discovered Sam's body. The MLB outfielder rushed his partner to the closest hospital, but changed course after recalling that he had recently appeared at the local hospital as a member of the Padres. Fearing that he would be outed, Bean drove an extra thirty minutes to a different hospital in a different direction.[24] The next morning, Sam died of a cardiac arrest from AIDS-related complications. Their homosexual relationship was guardedly private, and Bean did not attend Sam's public funeral.[5][25]

Bean retired after the 1995 MLB season,[26] and gradually came out as gay to his parents and friends.[27] He came out publicly to Lydia Martin of the Miami Herald in 1999, becoming the second Major League Baseball player to publicly come out as gay; Glenn Burke was the first to come out to his teammates and employers during his playing days but did not come out to the public at large until his career was over.[5] Following Burke's death in 1995, Bean became close with Burke's family.[28]

After leaving baseball, Bean moved to Miami Beach, Florida, to be with his partner Efrain Veiga, the founder of Yuca, a local restaurant. Bean and Veiga were together for 13 years, breaking up in July 2008.[29][30]

In 2003, Bean released a memoir titled Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life in and out of Major League Baseball.[31][32]

Bean was appointed MLB's first "Ambassador for Inclusion" on July 15, 2014.[33] In this role, Bean counseled David Denson, who became the first minor league player signed to an MLB organization to come out as gay.[34] He later became the league's senior vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.[28]

Bean was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2023. He died on August 6, 2024, at the age of 60.[35][36]

References

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  1. ^ "Bill Bean Stats, Fantasy & News". MLB.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  2. ^ "MLB names Bean its first Ambassador for Inclusion". MLB.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  3. ^ Zeigler, Cyd (January 7, 2016). "MLB promotes Billy Bean to vice-president". Outsports. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  4. ^ "MLB hires Pride as latest Ambassador for Inclusion". MLB.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lipsyte, Robert (September 6, 1999). "BASEBALL; A Major League Player's Life Of Isolation and Secret Fear". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  6. ^ "Billy Bean On WFAN: Murphy's Comments 'A Reminder That We're Just Getting Started' - CBS New York". www.cbsnews.com. March 5, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
  7. ^ "Bean-Lovullo bond inspires as game's culture evolves". MLB.com. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
  8. ^ Coker, Matt (October 6, 2011). "Billy Bean, Pride of Santa Ana High and "Out" Major Leaguer, Rolls With Moneyball Billy Beane Confusion". OC Weekly. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  9. ^ "1985 New York Yankees Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  10. ^ a b "Billy Bean Means Business : Baseball Becomes a Job When Major League Is Within Reach". Los Angeles Times. July 14, 1986. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  11. ^ a b "Former Loyola Marymount Outfielder Bean Is Getting a Chance With Padres". Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1993. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  12. ^ "Mud Hens Yearly Leaders (1965-present)" (PDF). MiLB.com. Minor League Baseball. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  13. ^ "Brad Pitt does not play gay Billy Bean in "Moneyball," he plays straight Billy Beane". OutSports.com. SB Nation. October 3, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  14. ^ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search". google.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  15. ^ "1992 Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes". Baseball Reference.
  16. ^ I've Got a Secret (TV Series 2006– ) - IMDb, retrieved July 5, 2023
  17. ^ I've Got a Secret, retrieved July 5, 2023
  18. ^ "Major League Baseball's Billy Bean Joins MMPW as National Spokesman". globalnewswire.com. March 10, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  19. ^ "Meet Billy Bean, Major League Baseball's Gay Rights Ambassador". Details. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  20. ^ "Showtime looking at The Beard". newnownext.com. July 31, 2007. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  21. ^ "Billy Bean (I)". IMDb.
  22. ^ "HBO to rerun controversial Arli$$ episode featuring Billy Bean (6096)". www.advocate.com.
  23. ^ Pinak, Patrick. Billy Bean Tragically Lost His Partner to AIDS Before Becoming a Gay MLB Pioneer. MLB. FanBuzz. June 1, 2022. https://fanbuzz.com/mlb/billy-bean-partner-death-aids/
  24. ^ Pinak, Patrick. Billy Bean Tragically Lost His Partner to AIDS Before Becoming a Gay MLB Pioneer. MLB. FanBuzz. June 1, 2022. https://fanbuzz.com/mlb/billy-bean-partner-death-aids/
  25. ^ Martin, Lydia (August 5, 1999). "A Fresh Start: Once A Closeted Major League Outfielder, Billy Bean Is Now Finding His Own Voice". Chicago Tribune. Knight Ridder. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  26. ^ Edel, Victoria. Billy Bean, Second Major League Baseball Player to Come Out as Gay, Dies at 60. Yahoo Sports. August 6, 2004. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/billy-bean-second-major-league-213600796.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKZ71WNnaAdl4tljvqopSsFRxHfXuBrgI9pZH6sBSH3ijheoAmtND6_pSF_JSEkJmdU5LHxC45hakqvco1QgeKu94uxs03GGDIYIzrEJozax7uV3YOIGhlM-QWbyC7deanZjDy1HTXOjIVyXYcOkxpKlVr6fS-VzaLu4YRXzc5jc
  27. ^ "19 Male Baseball Heroes Who Came Out as Gay or Bisexual". www.advocate.com. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  28. ^ a b Miller, Scott (June 2, 2022). "The Dodgers Embrace the Family of a Player They Once Shunned". The New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  29. ^ Buzinski, Jim (June 29, 2008). "Billy Bean, partner split". OutSports. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  30. ^ "Bean-Viega Split Accompanied by Tragedy". The Advocate. July 11, 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  31. ^ Bugg, Sean (May 15, 2003). "Out of the Park: Former pro-baseball player Billy Bean pursues a new field of dreams". Metro Weekly. Retrieved June 11, 2014.. Written by Billy Bean with Chris Bull; published New York: Marlowe & Company, 2003.
  32. ^ "Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life in and Out of Major-League Baseball by Billy Bean". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  33. ^ Maury Brown. "MLB Names Former Major League Outfielder Billy Bean As First". Forbes. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  34. ^ Tom Haudricourt. "Brewers minor-leaguer makes baseball history by coming out publicly as gay". jsonline.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  35. ^ Feinsand, Mark (August 6, 2024). "Baseball trailblazer Billy Bean, who dedicated life to inclusion, dies at 60". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media, LP. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  36. ^ "Bean, openly gay ex-player who worked for MLB, dies at 60". ESPN.com. August 6, 2024. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
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