Billy Bean left Major League Baseball as a player in 1995 in large part because he was unable at the time to reconcile his sexual orientation with his profession. Almost 20 years later he was hired by Major League Baseball as an ambassador for inclusion, being promoted recently to vice-president.
Now Bean has trained his focus on helping LGBT people interested in careers in baseball and professional sports get jobs with the front offices of Major League Baseball teams. At the MLB Diversity Business Summit in Phoenix this week, Bean is connecting over 40 LGBT job-seekers and business-owners (along with hundreds of other non-LGBT minorities and women) with teams from across MLB in hopes of landing some of these people jobs, internships and contracts.
Bean tells Outsports that being able to help LGBT people find a home in baseball two decades after he originally left the league has meant more to him than "making the Hall of Fame."
Check out Bean (above) talking about the summit, his role in baseball, and the personal importance of all of that to him.
