Billy Bean, Major League Baseball’s vice president of social responsibility and inclusion, threw out the first pitch Monday at the Philadelphia Phillies Pride Night Celebration. Bean, who is gay and a former MLB player, threw a strike to the Philly Phanatic.
Bean said he spoke with Phillies’ front office personnel during the game about the need for inclusion, and during the game’s broadcast gave a shout out to Larry Felzer, an Outsports reader from Day 1, who organized the first Phillies Gay Day in 2003. Monday’s event was billed as the first Pride Night Celebration, which is technically accurate, though some sort of gay fan promotion has been held by the team for 14 years.
On Monday’s game, a 4-0 Phillies loss to the Washington Nationals, the team handed out special Phillies pride shirts to fans who bought tickets through the promotion and flew a rainbow flag below the American flag.
Here is Bean talking about the need for Pride Night, along with video of his pitch.
Photos by Mitch Leff.
