ABOVE: My caption is true. BELOW: Keep reading for the original MLB gay hero, a swig of gay beer, a little Change of Sex and more ...
Many friends shunned him as he lay dying. (Image via Topps) WHITE CLEAT BEAT: Glenn Burke, the Black athlete who spent four seasons in the majors ('76-'79) and who literally invented the high-five (with Dusty Baker), was the first gay player in the Major Leagues.
Though not professionally out, he was out at work, so his status as a gay man was widely known in the clubhouse, and couldn't have been easy — he was reportedly traded from the L.A.
Dodgers for having a relationship with Tommy Lasorda's son, and greeted in Oakland as an A by Billy Martin, who used an anti-gay slur.