An ex-player of Major League Baseball and executive, Billy Bean, has passed away at the age of 60, the league mentioned on Tuesday.
He was a native of Santa Ana, California, and an alumnus of Loyola Marymount University. He gave up due to the battle he had with leukemia, according to the information that the league shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Bean played professionally as an outfielder for a decade, with six of those in the majors. He ended his career with a lifetime batting average of.226, recording 108 hits and 5 home runs during his successful years with the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres.
Bean still made a significant impact on the game despite limited professional success, appearing in only 51 games for the Dodgers in the 1989 season.
The New York Times recalled that Bean was the “first major league baseball player to publicly discuss his homosexuality to this extent” when he publicly identified as a member of the LGBTQ community. The Oakland Athletics executive played in the book and movie “Moneyball” and served as MLB’s senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and a special assistant to the commissioner.
“Over the last 10 years, Billy worked passionately and tirelessly with MLB and all 30 Clubs, focusing on player education, LGBTQ inclusion, and social justice initiatives to advance equality in the game for all,” the MLB said.
Commissioner Rob Manfred, in his tribute, said in the MLB’s information that Bean will be remembered for all the efforts he displayed while he was alive.
“Manfred called Billy ‘one of the kindest and most respected individuals I have ever known’ and someone who ‘made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field,” Manfred said.
