ESPN’s Keith Olbermann Knocks Gay Jason Collins STRAIGHT!

ESPN’s Keith Olbermann Knocks Gay Jason Collins STRAIGHT!

Keith pays tribute to the first openly gay player in one of the four major sports. And it’s not Jason Collins. On “Olbermann”, Keith talked about Glenn Burke, the LA Dodger who was the first openly gay athlete in major sports over 30 years before Jason Collins, and he hits a sweet spot. It’s personal, rational and ends with a shocking twist.

Glenn Burke, the Real First Openly Gay Athlete in Professional Sports

“If I can make friends honestly, it may be a step toward gays and straight people understanding each other. Maybe they’ll say, ‘He’s all right, there’s got to be a few more all right.’ Maybe it will begin to make it easier for other young gays to go into sports.” Glenn Burke

Glenn Keith

Those are the words of Major League Baseball’s first openly gay player. While the national media covers Jason Collins‘ first minutes on the court as an openly gay professional basketball player and the NFL network constantly breaks down rookie Michael Sam‘s combine stats, we forget about the ORIGINAL sports pioneer.

Glenn Burke played 225 games in the majors as a Dodger and as a member of the Athletics, with 523 at-bats, a .237 average, two home runs, 38 RBIs and 35 stolen bases. While those numbers remain far from stellar, he contributed as a spirited member of the locker room, well liked by his teammates.

Major League Baseball didn’t either know how to deal with his sexual orientation or chose not to. The media wouldn’t touch the story until years after he left the game. Glenn Burke was a trailblazer who arrived on the scene long before our culture knew how to embrace him. Glenn Burke, who played two seasons for the Dodgers in the late 1970s, didn’t hide from teammates that he was gay. He was a popular figure in the clubhouse.

Out-GB wAJ

Glenn Burke was just doing what came naturally. Dusty Baker’s home run blast to left field on 

the last day of the regular season, Oct. 2, 1977, was history-making. It was his 30th, meaning the Dodgers became the first team to have four players hit 30 home runs in a season. As Baker rounded third to the roar of the Dodger Stadium crowd, Burke, a rookie outfielder, ran from the on-deck circle, jumped up and gave Baker an over-the-head hand-slap in celebration. And, the high-five was born.

Over the next few weeks, forgive me if I seem apathetic towards media reports about the progress of Mr. Sam or Mr. Collins in theirrespective sports. We live in 2014. A player’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have any bearing on how well they throw a ball or how much weight they can lift. While they may have overcome hardships in their quest to seek a career in professional sports while maintaining their authenticity as a person, it pales in comparison to Burke’s journey more than 35 years ago. Most of us have come a long way since then, although you wouldn’t know it by the actions of a few knuckle-draggers.

Last week, Jason Collins wasn’t even on an NBA team. In two weeks, he might not be on one. But for now, Collins — the first openly gay, active player in the United States’ four big sports leagues — is, by jersey sales, the NBA’s most popular player.

Collins Big Hero

NBA Senior Vice President Vicky Picca said Tuesday that Collins’ No. 98 Brooklyn Nets uniform is the top-seller on NBA.com, besting the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin. The interest is coming from the fans Collins has earned since announcing last year, when he was still unemployed, that he was gay.

“Jason Collins’ return to the league represents a historic moment, and fans continue to show their support by (buying) Jason’s jersey,” said Picca.

Not bad for a player who, just last week, inked a 10-day contract with the Nets. And the Stanford graduate hardly dominated in his lone game back on the court, going scoreless while compiling two rebounds and five personal fouls in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

In fact, Collins had never been a headline player. A journeyman with stops with New Jersey, Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston and Washington, he’s known more for his defensive prowess and rebounding than his offensive output, having averaged 3.6 points per game over his 12-year career.

The warm reception he received during and after that game from his teammates, competitors like Kobe Bryant and league officials reflects more on Collins’ reputation as a player and person around the league, as well as his historic announcement. “I know everyone in the NBA family is excited for him and proud that our league fosters an inclusive and respectful environment,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after Collins’ signing last Sunday.

Whether Collins stays around remains to be seen. At age 35, he’s not bringing fresh legs to Brooklyn. And the team has no obligation to keep him on the roster. Still, whether or not he’s a go-to player, Collins has very much become a symbol for the gay rights movement since disclosing his sexuality in an April column in Sports Illustrated magazine.

Glenn Dodgers Card“I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation,” he wrote. “I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, ‘I’m different.’ If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.”

There’s no escaping the symbolism in his jersey number: He chose 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student beaten to death in 1998.

The news that the Nets jersey was selling so well (despite the fact that Collins hasn’t even worn it yet, having at first donned a No. 46 for the Lakers game) struck a chord online.

Some on Twitter praised the development, like one who wrote, “He’s a piece of history, and this is really significant for a lot of people.”
Many others, though, were less enthusiastic — including some who used gay slurs and suggested Collins was profiting because he is gay. (In fact,

NBA players don’t get more or less money based on how many of their jerseys are sold.) Some questioned why Collins was being held out as an icon while, in their view, athletes who publicly profess their Christianity are criticized.

A few people questioned the jersey sales not because of Collins’ sexuality, but because of what they considered his sub-par play.
“Jason Collins’ jersey was actually a top-seller?” tweeted one. “Wow…I mean I’m glad he came out and all but #CmonMan.

I would write more about it, but wordsmith and sports personality Keith Olbermann eloquently sums it up better in 5 minutes than most professional journalists could with an entire novel.

Dusty Hi 5 Glenn aft HR

There’s no escaping the symbolism in his jersey number if he chose number 3 in honor of GLENN BURKE, the REAL FIRST gay athlete in team sports. The next time you read or hear a story about a gay athlete, remember outfielder Glenn Burke.

If you have any interest in learning more about his journey, check out his story from the 1982 issue of Inside Sports chronicling Burke’s time as a professional baseball player. Heartbreaking, courageous, inspiring and tragic… all words to describe the tale of professional sports’ first openly gay athlete.

Watch “Olbermann” weeknights on ESPN2 at 11pm ET

Before Jason Collins

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ESPN logo

Commentary

Before Jason Collins

Originally Published: May 15, 2013

By Rick Reilly | ESPN.com

Glenn Burke
AP Photo/Mark Hundley)
In 2013, the world was ready for Jason Collins’ announcement. Glenn Burke, above, lived in a totally different time.

The world is throwing a parade for Jason Collins, the 7-foot free-agent NBA center who came out last month. He was hugged by Oprah, celebrated by “Good Morning America,” and congratulated by President Obama.

But nobody seems to remember baseball’s Glenn Burke, who tried to come out nearly 40 years ago and was stuffed back in.

“How’s Jason Collins going to talk about being the first?” says Burke’s agent, Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim. “Glenn Burke was the first. And he wasn’t any free agent, either. He was in the lineup.”

Glenn Burke was a barrel-chested jokester, a singing, dancing, one-man cabaret. His teammates called him King Kong. In high school, the 6-foot Burke could dunk two basketballs at once, in street shoes. He roamed center field for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s in the late 1970s.

2013-04-30-glennburkehighfive.jpgBurke was the pulse of the clubhouse. He wore a red jock. He’d jump in the backs of pink Rolls-Royces after games. He invented the high-five (with Dusty Baker). Oh, yes, he did.

He was as out as an athlete could be in the mid-1970s. It wasn’t that he was flaunting it. It was that he couldn’t keep it in.

“When we’d land at airports,” remembers Davey Lopes, the Dodgers’ second baseman. “There’d always be guys waiting for Glenn. We’d go our way and he’d go off on his merry way. We’d go to clubs and women would hand him their numbers. But he’d never call ’em. Didn’t matter to us. We loved him.”

In the famous 1977 Dodgers-Yankees World Series — starring Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Steve Garvey, and Ron Cey — only one rookie cracked either starting lineup: Glenn Burke.

“Nobody tripped that he was gay,” says Burke’s longtime pal, Doug Harris, who produced the documentary “Out” about Burke in 2010. “The people who tripped off it were the Dodgers [management]. They didn’t want to talk about it. He was trying to tell the reporters, but they said they couldn’t write that stuff.”

“Out. The Glenn Burke Story”

The atmosphere in Burke’s time was far more hostile to gays than it is in Jason Collins’ time. Few gay characters in movies. No states where gay marriage was legal. “You couldn’t put [anything] gay in an ad or anything,” remembers al-Hakim. “That was a no-no. The reporters didn’t want to write it. You couldn’t go there.”

Glenn Burke was so out that the Dodgers’ front office finally called him in, laid a $75,000 check on the desk, and offered to pay for his wedding if he’d just get married — soon.

Burke started laughing.

“I guess you mean to a woman, right?”

Then he walked out, without the check.

“Glenn told me he wasn’t the first Dodger called in and presented a check,” says childhood friend Vince Trahan. “They’d done it with gay players before. The difference was Glenn didn’t take it.”

None of this helped his career. Nor did palling around with Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda’s colorfully gay son, Spunky, according to Burke’s 1995 autobiography, “Out at Home.”

But friends of Burke’s say they were never a couple, despite what you’ve read. “Glenn never had an intimate relationship with Tommy’s son,” says Trahan. “He wasn’t attracted to the real flamboyant types.”

Didn’t matter. Next thing Burke knew, early in the 1978 season, he was traded to pitiful Oakland, despite Lopes and others walking into the office of general manager Al Campanis to complain.

A year and a half later, during spring training, new A’s manager Billy Martin greeted Burke by sitting his team down in center field, pointing to Burke and saying, “Boys, this is Glenn Burke. He’s a f—–.”

That’s when everything stopped being so funny.

Burke

“In those days, a guy did one of two things when a friend was out,” says Lopes, now the Dodgers’ first-base coach. “He’d either support him, or the pendulum would swing the other way and he’d avoid him. A lot of ballplayers back then would stay away. Guys were afraid somebody would start saying the same thing about them.”

Cue the movie montage: Catcalls from fans. Latino players mumbling a gay slur in Spanish under their breath. Nobody within 20 feet of him in the showers.

Injured, he packed his bag for the minors — Utah to be exact.

To a partying gay ballplayer from Berkeley, a minor league team in Utah is hell on earth. Twenty-five games into the 1980 season, Burke and his tortured .237 batting average retired, after only four years in the major leagues.”Had he taken that check the Dodgers offered,” says Trahan, “his career would’ve gone on and on. He could’ve relaxed and played great baseball. But he wasn’t going to lie. He was going to be true to who he was.”

He was welcomed into The Castro as a conquering hero. “They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors,” he’d brag, “because I’m a gay man and I made it.”

But soon enough, he stopped making it. He became depressed. He became a cocaine addict. Then homeless. Then he contracted AIDS. He died in 1995, at 42. They buried King Kong in Oakland, under a small stone, grave No. 3171.

Jason Collins came out of the closet and was put on magazine covers. Glenn Burke came out and got covered up. The president never called.

“I’m happy for Jason Collins,” says Trahan. “But he wasn’t the first. He was the first in this new era, this new time of acceptance of gays, gay marriages, gays on TV, all that. He wasn’t the first. He was just the first who was listened to.”

You say Glenn Burke was born too soon, but that’s not exactly right. The problem was all the people born without the courage to stand up for a friend, a colleague, an employee.

Yes, Jason Collins was courageous to come out. But if others back then had the guts Glenn Burke had, Collins wouldn’t have needed courage at all.

 KGO Radio Conversation On ”OUT. The Glenn Burke Story“

Rick

Rick Reilly | email

Columnist, ESPN.com

  • 11-time National Sportswriter of the Year
  • Author of “Sports from Hell: My Two-Year Search for the World’s Dumbest Competition”
  • Finalist 2011 Thurber Prize for Humor

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