MLB SVP of DEI Billy Bean .(Photo via Bean’s Facebook)
Former Dodger Billy Bean is swinging for the fences again.
He battled bigotry as only the second retired pro baseball player to come out as gay. For nearly a decade, he has been a Major League Baseball executive working to bring LGBTQ+ awareness, acceptance and understanding to the sport.
Now 59, MLB’s senior vice president of diversity equity and inclusion is in the fight of his life.
Bean was diagnosed on Sept. 1 with acute myeloid leukemia, also known as AML, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow in which a patient has excess immature white blood cells.
“Mentally, it’s a new challenge,” Bean told USA Today earlier this month. “I’ve been fit my whole life, but there have been some nights where I cannot recognize how my body feels. I still cannot enjoy food.” Bean told the paper he’s lost 22 pounds since his diagnosis, and remains optimistic a bone marrow match will be found.
“I’m not angry, I’m hopeful,” he said, “but it hit me really, really hard. I spent 21 days in a hospital with my immune system compromised, I couldn’t have visitors. It was a very isolating experience, especially when you don’t know what the outcome is.”
One of Bean’s closest friends, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo, told USA Today he heard Bean was sick during the MLB postseason, as the Diamondbacks chased the Texas Rangers for the World Series crown. When he called Bean, his old friend told him not to worry.
A day after losing the World Series to Texas, Lovullo called back and Bean revealed his diagnosis.
“You hear the word ‘cancer,’ you hear the word, ‘leukemia,’ and it just rattles you,” said Lovullo. “He explained exactly what he was going through. We laughed. We cried. And I got informed.”
Bean was honored on Dec, 7th in Nashville during MLB’s 10th annual charity auction, Stand Up to Cancer, started by Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch. At that event, Bean’s diagnosis was revealed for the first time publicly. ESPN reported Lovullo talked about his friend of 39 years, and had to pause several times to compose himself as he delivered a message to Bean.
“I know that it’s very hard for you right now, Billy, and it’s our turn to take care of you,” Lovullo said. “You have been the ultimate giver since the day that I’ve known you. So even though I know it’s going to be very tough for you, it’s time for you to sit down and let us love you up and take care of you.”
In a recorded message played at the event, Bean explained why he didn’t want to tell Lovullo as the Diamondbacks advanced to the World Series.
“Like most players, I am very superstitious, so I didn’t want to bother Torey with my diagnosis because they were winning,” Bean said. “There would be time to tell him later.”
Bean came out in 1999, the second major leaguer to do so after Glenn Burke. He retired from baseball in 1995 having played for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres since 1987.
An avid runner, Bean said he misses Central Park and riding his Peloton bike twice a week with his husband, Greg Baker, things he hasn’t had the strength to do since the diagnosis that has changed and threatened his life.
“You need support, because you don’t feel whole,” Bean told USA Today. “You don’t feel strong. You don’t have energy. It’s like, I’m not interested in watching TV. I’m not into reading books. When I have the energy, I just focus on work.”
“Nobody knows all of the work he does with teams and individuals,” said Patrick Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer. “He has made such an impact for us. He just didn’t want anything to slow down his momentum.”
Courtney lost his college roommate to cancer this summer. He said the MLB office was devastated to learn of Bean’s cancer struggle following news that another colleague had cancer as well.
Catalina Villegas, 36, is director of MLB’s diversity, equity and inclusion. She is recovering after undergoing breast cancer surgery and six aggressive rounds of chemotherapy, praying the disease is gone forever from her body.
“It’s been rough on everyone here knowing what they’ve been going through,” Courtney said. “First Catalina, and now him. This has been such a battle.”
“That is the one beautiful lesson that cancer teaches you,” Villegas told USA Today. “It doesn’t discriminate.”
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