Billy Bean

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For the article on the current general manager of the Oakland Athletics, see: Billy Beane.

William Daro "Billy" Bean (born May 11, 1964 in Santa Ana, California) is a former Major League Baseball player who made news in 1999 when he made his homosexuality public.

Bean was a marginal outfielder who had only 487 at bats with a .226 batting average in a career that lasted from 1987 through 1995: Detroit Tigers 1987-89, Los Angeles Dodgers 1989, San Diego Padres 1993-95. After acknowledging that he is gay, Bean went on to write a book, "Going the Other Way: Lessons from a life in and out of Major League Baseball". Bean is the second former major league player to reveal his homosexuality; former Los Angeles Dodger and Oakland Athletic Glenn Burke, who died of AIDS in 1995, is the only other ex-player to have acknowledged his homosexuality.

Bean currently lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and works as a real estate developer in residential properties. He is also a current panelist on GSN's I've Got A Secret revival, and a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.