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Former Major League Baseball player and executive Billy Bean<\/strong> has died at age 60.<\/p>\n MLB released a statement confirming his death, indicating he died at home on Tuesday after a yearlong fight with acute myeloid leukemia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague Billy Bean, MLB\u2019s Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Special Assistant to the Commissioner,\u201d MLB wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cOver the last 10 years, Billy worked passionately and tirelessly with MLB and all 30 Clubs, focusing on player education, LGBTQ inclusion, and social justice initiatives to advance equality in the game for all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCommissioner Rob Manfred called Billy \u2018one of the kindest and most respected individuals I have ever known\u2019 and someone who \u2018made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field,’\u201d the post concluded.<\/p>\n The former baseball player \u2014 whose teams included the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres \u2014 was the second former MLB player to come out as gay in 1999 before becoming the sport\u2019s senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion.<\/p>\n We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague Billy Bean, MLB\u2019s Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Special Assistant to the Commissioner. Billy, who fought a heroic year-long battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, was 60.<\/p>\n Over the last 10 years,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/dCfFM6hQlE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In 1999, The New York Times<\/em> <\/a>noted he was the \u201cfirst major league baseball player to publicly discuss his homosexuality to this extent\u201d when he came out as a member of the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n \u201cI was always little Billy Bean, small but bighearted, a gamer, play hurt, stick it out,\u201d Bean\u2014who was born in Santa Ana, California, in 1964\u2014told The Times<\/em><\/a>. \u201cMy mom worked two jobs, and I started a new elementary school every year. Because it was mostly the two of us, I always felt grown-up, responsible. I was precise and methodical like her. And very emotional. I wanted to please people, make them proud of me.\u201d<\/p>\n Bean\u2019s father left when he was just 6 months old, but his mother remarried a police officer, Ed Kovac<\/strong>, who was supportive of his stepson.<\/p>\n \u201dA handshake is binding in our house,\u201d Kovac said.\u00a0\u201dAnd that\u2019s Billy. Always been a credit to the family, the game, and it\u2019s not for me to say, of course, but probably to the gay community as well.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2014, Bean published a memoir, Going the Other Way: An Intimate Memoir of Life In and Out of Major League Baseball<\/em>. That year, MLB<\/a> named him\u00a0their first ambassador for inclusion, a role that would let him support LGBTQ+ people in baseball.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learned making an impact on someone\u2019s life is more important than a lifetime .300 batting average,\u201d Bean told the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a> back in 2001. \u201cThe more positive role models that people see, the less sensational the whole idea of diverse sexuality becomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n