Is Baseball Ready for a Gay Jackie Robinson?

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• Reader Comments (3)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

    In a country where the majority of people believe in Creationism and the President himself says he has doubts about the validity of evolution, I think that a pro athlete in any team sport would be crazy to come out of the closet. Every other player, it seems, crosses himself before each at-bat/free throw/touchdown, etc. The only person less tolerant than a born-again Christian is an egomaniacal born-again Christian athlete on steroids. I’m not holding my breath.

  Posted by Ian on Aug 17, 2003 at 4:03 AM

  I don’t think that the comparison to Jackie Robinson holds up.  Although a small handfull of MLB players “passed” before 1947, identified as “Indian” or “Cuban”, it was basically impossible to be a “closeted Negro”.  So baseball’s prejudice against African Americans was much easier to enforce.  If Jackie wanted to play in the majors he had no alternative than to be a pioneer, unless he wanted Lary Doby or another man to be the first.  Gay baseball players, however, have always had an alternative:  stay in the closet.  There’s no reason to think the Majors have been all hetero at any point in their history, from 1876 to now.

  With the color line, the question was “When will the majors (re)admit black players?” (there was no color line until the later part of the 19th century); with the sexuality line, the question is “When will the majors admit that many players have been gay and let all players be honest about their identities?”  The first openly gay player will certainly not be the first gay player, or the first great gay player—given the numbers, it’s likely that a number of Hall of Famers were/are gay.  Breaking the sexuality line is extrememly important, and will require a person of tremendous bravery and fortitude, but the sexuality line is different from the color line, and the man who breaks it won’t be a “gay Jackie Robinson.”

  Posted by Nick on Aug 18, 2003 at 3:07 PM

    Gay Major League players are not going to “come out of the closet” anytime soon. There are too many costs at coming out while you are playing, team distraction, loss of advertising money, and loss of friendships with teammates. Why should players be open about their private sexual lives if straight players are not? As a professional player in any professional big money sport, you have a responsibility to your team to keep your head out of controversy. Having a very secretive personal life comes as a cost from being a professional player. Coming out would just destract the team’s playability, place you in jeoapardy of loosing your product endorsements, and worst of all loosing your fellow team buddies. I understand that there needs to be more respect for homosexuals in professional sports, but practically speaking it will not happen so quickly.
      I remember reading that when Jackie Robinson started playing on the Brooklyn Dodgers, no player would hit him any ground ball during fielding practice. After many years later, players became comfortable with playing with blacks. Whether to know how long it took those white players to fully accept black players, we do not know, but knowing the kind of anti black feeling there was at that time in the cultural upbringing of white players, real intergration probably took longer than what fans saw out there on the field after 1947. The same, goes for player’s homophobic cultural upbringing today. Having many Major league baseball players from Latin America, and other Christian players, who are predominantly brought up with homophobic religious teachings, pushes further away the age of public acceptance of homosexaul teammates. It will take more than one pioneer but many All Star gay pioneers to have Major League acceptance of gay players.
        Finally, players should keep their homosexuality to themselves, but on top of teaching good baseball fundamentals, have owners and managers teach fundamental human respectability towards homosexuals.

  Posted by Luis on Sep 29, 2003 at 4:11 AM

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• Is Baseball Ready for a Gay Jackie Robinson?