Billy Bean is in the Biggest Fight of His Life

By: Zachary Draves

For the last 25 years, former Major League outfielder turned MLB executive Billy Bean has lived a life of honesty, humility, and hope.

During his playing days, he was a gritty player who would do whatever it took to help out the team accompanied by an often reserved demeanor.

“When Billy is on the baseball field, he is at home, “said Cyd Zeigler, founder of Outsports, “ He can be soft-spoken but when he has to do his job, he is much amplified.”

After playing eight years (1987-1995) for three teams (Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres), he came out as gay in 1999, the second player in Major League history to do so after Glenn Burke. Since then, Bean has become one of the most beloved LGBTQ+ figures in sports and has been a catalyst for change.

(Courtesy: Billy Bean)

In 2014, he was appointed by then MLB Commissioner Bud Selig as the first Ambassador for Inclusion. In 2022, he became the Senior Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in charge of helping to educate and spread awareness of LGBTQ+ equality in baseball.

(Courtesy: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

Now after a journey of self-discovery and finding his place, Bean, 59, is currently in the greatest battle yet.

During an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Dec. 3, Bean announced that on Aug. 28, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer that forms in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. He was in the hospital for almost a month and is in need of a donor for a bone marrow transplant.

“Mentally, it’s a new challenge,” Bean told USA TODAY Sports. “I’ve been fit my whole life, but there have been some nights where I can not recognize how my body feels. I still can not enjoy food.

In the midst of such enduring pain, Bean expressed some optimism while also acknowledging the grueling reality of his ordeal.

(Courtesy: B Bennett/Getty Images)

“I’m not angry, I’m hopeful,” he says, “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.”

On Dec. 7, Bean was honored at MLB’s 10th annual charity auction, Stand Up to Cancer, started by Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch, but wasn’t able to make it in person due to his condition.

That same day, Athlete Ally, the LGBTQ sports advocate, posted on X/formerly Twitter well wishes to Bean and a link to beamatch.org that provides information on how to become a donor.

With time being of the essence, the best possible hope for Bean is obviously to have the right match for a donor. But a donor whose life he touched, preferably a young LGBTQ+ person, who would be sentimentally life-saving.

“Over the last ten years, he has worked to make sports a safe place for LGBTQ+ youth, ” said Zeigler. “People in their 20s and 30s. That is who he needs right now. That is who can save them right now. The people who he has been trying to help all these years are in their hands.”

Bean helped pave the way for future LGBTQ+ athletes to be out and proud.

In the last several years, the world of baseball has seen the likes of Bryan Ruby, TJ House, Anderson Comas, and Solomon Bates follow in Beans’ path and live their truths. All of whom are young vibrant gay men in the prime of their lives that match the very demographic that could save his life.

In the words of Ziegler, Bean was the “accidental hero who put on the cape” when he began to live authentically and charted a course for others to do the same. Now there is a great opportunity for another accidental hero to snatch on the cape and save a life in the best possible way.

A life that has impacted many just for the singular, but simple act, of being truthful.