Glenn Burke is being honored at the 2014 All-Star Game as the first openly gay baseball player.
“He was a pioneer, and should be recognized,” Pat Courtney, a Major League Baseball spokesman, said to The New York Times.
Starting off his professional baseball career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1976, but was eventually traded to the Oakland Athletics due to suspicions from management of him being gay. He was The team’s new manager, Billy Martin, reportedly addressed Burke with homophobic slurs in front of teammates. When the A’s got their new manager Billy Martin, it was reported that he directed gay slurs toward Burke in front of his teammates.
He eventually got into a car accident in 1987 and fell into a cycle of drugs and homelessness until his sister Lutha Burke found him on the streets of San Francisco. Shortly after, he was diagnosed with AIDS and not much after then did he pass away.
The MLB is honoring him as the growing amount of out athletes increases and inclusion of gay athletes becomes more prominent across all major, professional level sports.
“Maybe he didn’t get a chance to live out his dream,” Lutha Burke said to The New York Times. “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.”
