Billy Bean, One of MLB's First Openly Gay Players, Dies at 60 From Leukemia

Billy Bean, MLB's Senior Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, died at the age of 60 on Tuesday.

Bean, who was also Special Assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred, had been battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia for the past year. He spent the past decade working with teams on player education, LGBTQ inclusion and social justice initiatives.

Not to be confused with longtime Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, Bean was a trailblazer as both a player and executive.

The Detroit Tigers selected Bean out of LMU in the fourth round of the 1986 MLB Draft. He made it to the big leagues in 1987, was actually teammates with Beane in 1988, and was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1989.

Following two seasons buried in the minors, Bean joined the Kintetsu Buffaloes in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. That reignited Bean's career, as he was able to return stateside and play for the San Diego Padres from 1993 to 1995.

Tragedy struck when Bean's wife, Sam, died of HIV-related causes in 1995. Bean then came out to his parents as gay in 1996, and he came out publicly in 1999.

Bean was only the second MLB player ever to publicly come out as gay, following in the footsteps of Dodgers and Athletics outfielder Glenn Burke, who played from 1976 to 1979.