Billy Bean, an out gay former MLB player, passes away at the age of 60.

Billy Bean, the sports world’s senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion, passed away in 1999. He was the second former Major League Baseball player to come out as gay. He was sixty years old.

MLB confirmed his passing in a statement. Tuesday, almost a year after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, Bean passed away at home.

From 1987 to 1995, the California native participated in six major league seasons. In his first game as a player, he tied a record with four hits during his debut with the Detroit Tigers. He was a player for the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers as well. At Loyola Marymount, he was an outfielder who was twice named an All-American and who helped the team win the Men’s College World Series in 1986.

Billy Bean authored the book “Going the Other Way” and frequently served as the event’s keynote speaker. In 1999, he became the second former big league player to come out as gay in public. The first was Glenn Burke, who made his public debut in 1982.

In 2014, Billy Bean started working for the commissioner’s office after previous commissioner Bud Selig appointed him as MLB’s first inclusion ambassador. After more than a decade of employment with MLB, he was elevated to the position of senior vice president.

Billy Bean, a former executive and player in Major League Baseball, passed away at the age of sixty, the league said on Tuesday.

The league announced on X, formerly Twitter, that Bean, a native of Santa Ana, California, who attended Loyola Marymount University, passed away from leukemia.

Billy Bean was an outfielder for ten years, six of which he spent in the major leagues. With 108 hits and five home runs for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres, he finished with a lifetime batting average of.226.

Billy Bean made an impact on the game despite having little professional success; in the 1989 season, he played in just 51 games with the Dodgers.

When he came out as a member of the LGBTQ community in 1999, the New York Times reported that he was the “first major league baseball player to publicly discuss his homosexuality to this extent.” Bean, who should not be confused with Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane, who was highlighted in the book and film “Moneyball,” was the commissioner’s special assistant as well as the senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion for MLB in recent years.

In the MLB announcement, Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that Bean will be remembered for their efforts.

“One of the kindest and most respected people I have ever known,” according to Manfred, Billy “made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field.”

Billy Bean, a DEI executive with MLB, passed away at 60.

Billy Bean, an MLB official, passed away on Tuesday, the league reported, at the age of 60, from acute myeloid leukemia.

Bean has been employed by MLB’s national office in a variety of capacities, including special assistant to the commissioner and senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Billy played with the Tigers, Dodgers, and Padres for ten seasons, spending six of them seasons in Major League Baseball. “One of the kindest and most respected individuals I have ever known,” according to Commissioner Rob Manfred, Billy “made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field.”

 

The following quotations from Moneyball are either direct quotes from Billy Beane or mention him. You can view the other characters and themes associated with each quote (each topic is represented by a dot and icon, such as this one).