Billy Bean has died at the age of 60. In 1999, the former baseball player — whose teams included the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres — was the second former Major League Baseball player to come out as gay. Bean became the league’s senior vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Bean’s death was confirmed by the Major League Baseball, which posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the former player “fought a heroic year-long battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.”
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague Billy Bean, MLB’s Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Special Assistant to the Commissioner,” the MLB wrote.
“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 league continued, before sharing a quote from Commissioner Rob Manfred, who said Bean was “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.”
Bean was born in Santa Ana, Calif., in 1964. His parents married when his mother, who was 18 at the time, got pregnant, but his father left when Bean was 6 months old.
”I was always little Billy Bean, small but bighearted, a gamer, play hurt, stick it out,” he told The New York Times in 1999.
