Major League Player's Mormon Heritage Didn't Keep Him Straight (A Major League Player's Life of Isolation and Subterfuge
New York Times 6Sep99 L3
By Robert Lipsyte

An inauspicious beginning gave former major league baseball player Billy Bean a Mormon heritage, but his recent lifestyle makes it unlikely that he will every participate fully in that heritage. Bean was born in Santa Ana, California, part of conservative Orange County. His mother, Linda Robertson, married her high school classmate, Bill Bean, after she begame pregnant. However, the father left the family when Billy was just 6 months old because his Mormon family disapproved of the marriage.

But Billy grew up into a talented athlete, leading his High School to the state baseball championship and earning a full athletic scholarship to Loyola Marymount. He was drafted by the New York Yankees while still in college, but chose to stay in college because he had promised his coach he would return. When he did finish in 1987, Bean was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, and later played for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.

Now, after a 9-year career in which Bean bounced back and forth between major and minor leagues, he has settled down in a career as a restaurant owner. And he has decided to come-out and acknowledge his struggle with homosexuality and with hiding his orientation from fellow baseball players, coaches and fans. This New York Times article discusses this struggle and tells how Bean came to the decision to make his story public.