Columns

Billy Bean Did the Right Thing
Marginal Players Can Be Replaced Easily

By Charlie in the Trees
Outsports.com columnist

``I don't think any player would be strong enough to handle that persecution, shrug it off, then deal with Randy Johnson. The pressure would mount. It could be a frightening experience. I would hate to see a great player screwed up without fully understanding the ramifications.''
-- Billy Bean, quoted in USA Today (May 24, 2002)

Why is Billy Bean so pessimistic? Why does he think it would be "professional suicide," in his words, for a major league baseball player to come out as gay?

Because we all view everything through the prism of our of own life experiences and it would have been professional suicide for a marginal, journeymen outfielder to have come out as gay in the late `80s or early `90s.

Bean's professional baseball career always had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. In seven major league seasons, his career numbers were as follows:

• 272 games played (average: 38 per season)

• 487 at bats (average: 68 per season)

• .266 on base percentage

• .308 slugging percentage

• .228 batting average

• 42 runs scored (average: 6 per season)

• 53 RBI (average: 8 per season)

• 5 home runs (all hit in 1993)

Bean's best season was 1993 with the Padres:

• 88 games played

• 177 at bats

• .284 on base percentage

• .395 slugging percentage

• .260 batting average

• 19 runs scored

• 32 RBI

• 5 home runs

He did not have a superstar career. These are not Hall of Fame numbers. He only had 487 at bats in his entire major league career. Ichiro had 692 at bats last year alone.

Put Bean's numbers in perspective. From 1987 to 1995, he was one of the 150 or so people best suited to be a major league outfielder, in the whole world. But Bean's a bright guy. He saw that the gap between himself and the next 150 best outfielders (all panting for a shot in the majors in AAA ball) was a whole lot smaller than the gap between himself and baseball's superstars. Like most of us in our jobs: he could be replaced.

Let's do a comparison between Bean and three outfielders whose 2001 seasons were most comparable to his 1993 season:

(1) Mark Smith, outfielder, Montreal Expos

• Games played: 80 (- 8) compared with Bean's total of 88 in 1993

• At bats: 194 (+ 17)

• On base percentage: .326 (+ .042) Bean never drew walks

• Slugging percentage: .412 (+ .017)

• Batting average: .242 (-. 018)

• Runs scored: 28 (+ 9)

• Home runs: 6 (+ 1)

• RBI: 18 (- 1)

(2) John Mabry, outfielder, Florida Marlins (82 games) and St. Louis Cardinals (5 games)

• Games played: 87 (- 1)

• At bats: 154 (- 23)

• On base percentage: .287 (+ .003)

• Slugging percentage: .370 (- .025)

• Batting average: .208 (- .052)

• Runs scored: 14 (- 5)

• Home runs: 6 (+ 1)

• RBI: 20 (+ 1)

(3) Mike Kinkade, outfielder, Baltimore Orioles:

• Games played: 61 (- 27)

• At bats: 160 (- 17)

• On base percentage: .345 (+ .059)

• Slugging percentage: .381 (- .014)

• Batting average: .275 (+ .015)

• Runs scored: 19 (even)

• Home runs: 4 (- 1)

• RBI: 16 (- 3)

Doubt that Bean could have been replaced easily? Of those three, whose 2001 compare very favorably with Bean's best, only John Mabry has played in the major leagues this season. Kinkade and Smith are gone, even without the complication of coming out. Mabry, just traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Oakland A's, has been averaging two teams per season the last three years. And that's using Bean's best season.

It's just as ugly if we use Bean's career averages. Comparing the three outfielders whose 2001 numbers most closely mirrored Bean's career averages:

(1) Todd Dunwoody, outfielder, Chicago Cubs:

• Games played: 33 (- 5)

• At bats: 61 (- 7)

• On base percentage: .278 (+ .012)

• Slugging percentage: .350 (+ .042)

• Batting average: .234 (+ .006)

• Runs scored: 6 (even)

• Home runs: 1 (even) Bean averaged just under one per season

• RBI: 3 (- 5)

(2) Robin Jennings, outfielder, Oakland Athletics (comparing only his AL numbers):

• Games played: 20 (- 18) although he played in 28 NL games too

• At bats: 52 (- 16)

• On base percentage: .273 (+ .007)

• Slugging percentage: .308 (even)

• Batting average: .250 (+ .022)

• Runs scored: 4 (- 2)

• Home runs: 0 (- 1)

• RBI: 4 (- 4)

(3) Quentin McCracken, outfielder, Minnesota Twins:

• Games played: 24 (- 14)

• At bats: 64 (- 4)

• On base percentage: .275 (+ .009)

• Slugging percentage: .313 (+ .005)

• Batting average: .219 (- .009)

• Runs scored: 7 (+ 1)

• Home runs: 3 (+ 3)

• RBI: 20 (+ 12)

Again: two of the three most comparable players have not been on a major league roster in 2001. And McCracken, as with Mabry in the best-year comparison, is on a different team as he is now a Diamondback. Think I selected specific players to reach the conclusion I wanted? You can go to majorleaguebaseball.com, go to the historical stats page and run your own comparisons. I omitted a player whose 2001 statistics more closely compare with Bean's career numbers, centerfielder Alex Sanchez of the Milwaukee Brewers, because he was a rookie in 2001.

My conclusion is simple: Billy Bean's right. I know these comparisons are not perfect, given the offensive explosion of the last few years, but I think they put Bean's career into context. For Bean to have come out, it would have been career suicide. For him. Players with stats comparable to Bean often do not return to the same team and likely find themselves out of work from season to season. That's reality. Even without the whole naked-in-the-shower issue as complicating things.

The second lesson: if Mabry or McCracken are gay, don't come out either. The water is ice cold. The atmosphere is poisonous on this planet. It's easy for us to say that Bean should have been more courageous, but his professional livelihood was constantly on the line.

Bean Situation Not Universal

Does that mean it would be professional suicide for any major league ball player to come out as a gay? Not exactly.

There are two ballplayers who I occasionally hear rumored to be gay. I'm not "outing" any of them. I can't. I have no first hand knowledge. I'm rumor-mongering for the sake of making a point. Would it be professional suicide for one of them, a terrific infielder, to come out? Every team, no matter how conservative, has room on its roster for a sure-thing Hall of Famer.

What about the other, who has played on a World Series winning team? Everybody's loved him and his teammates showered with him for years. They know he can exercise the necessary restraint in the locker room.

The lesson is clear. If you are the fourth of fifth outfielder on your team, you are probably the most replaceable component on any major league roster. You could be replaced any day, for any reason. Why risk it?

While it would have been wholly inappropriate for a marginal major leaguer like Bean to make a spectacle of coming out, his experience applies only to Billy Bean and other utility outfielders. Bean made arguably the correct choice for himself and he should not be criticized for it. But that also means that his deep pessimism is not warranted in every instance.

Related: Billy Bean Is a Lousy Spokesman

Charlie in the Trees is an Outsports columnist living in Las Vegas. Check out his version of baseball's postseason honors with a gay twist, the 2001 Brass Balls Awards

May 28, 2002