Baseball Passings

As much of the focus in the final days of the regular season is on the amazing achievements of Ohtani and Judge, many today are mourning the passing of Billy Bean, the only major league baseball player to “come out of the closet” as gay and after many years was eventually retained by Major League Baseball as an important spokesman on behalf of equality and inclusion. I met him at a book signing in Washington D.C. and again at a special LGBT event hosted by then vice president Joe Biden in June 2009. He explained he was not aware he was gay until he was about 25 years old, dating women and not realizing it was really not his cup of tea until a man planted his hand on Billy’s knee.      

On another baseball note, Thursday I watched the emotional tributes surrounding the last-ever game at the old Oakland Coliseum, which was built in 1967 when I was in graduate seminary there. Of the over 5,000 major league baseball games that have been played there over 57 years, there was only one “perfect game.” I was pitched by the late Catfish Hunter in May 1968, and my buddy Dennis and I were among the 8,000 or so fans there that night to witness it first hand. Sad that Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco and my home from 1966 to 1969, lost its NBA basketball team (the Warriors used to play at the arena built adjacent the baseball stadium) and NFL Raiders prior to now losing the baseball A’s.