Baseball to recognize gay player from the past

This was news to me.

Glenn Burke was 27 when he walked out on Major League Baseball, his promising career as an outfielder undone mostly by the burden of being a semicloseted gay man. It was 1980, and it was more important, Burke later explained, to be himself than to be a professional baseball player.

Here's a link to the NYT story, which is both sad and uplifting. I look forward to hearing more about him. It's great that Major League Baseball is remembering him. They couldn't handle it when he played but at least they're talking about him as a gay athlete today. If he was still alive, I think he'd be very happy about this.

And Billy Martin was a big old pig. Read the story to find out why I say this. And then hiss at Martin's memory. SSSSsssssssssss!