Glenn Burke

Burke was an accomplished high school basketball star, leading the Berkeley High School Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season and the 1970 Northern California championships. Burke could dunk a basketball with both hands, a rare feat for anyone under 6 feet tall. He was voted onto the all-tournament team at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) and received a Northern California MVP award. Burke was named Northern California's High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1970. Burke was awarded a scholarship to the University of Nevada, Reno to play both baseball and basketball for the Wolf Pack, but transferred to the University of Denver in 1970 after just a handful of games in Reno. After only a few months in Denver, Burke realized that the cold weather didn't agree with him and he returned home to Oakland . He then enrolled in Merritt College and played on its baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers recruited Burke to start playing in its minor league system in 1971. ==Major League career==

Toward the beginning of his career, an assistant coach described him as the next Willie Mays. Burke was a highly scouted star in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system before being called up to the major league club. As a gay man, Burke's association with the Dodgers was difficult. According to his 1995 autobiography Out at Home, Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to marry. He also angered Dodgers' manager Tommy Lasorda by befriending the manager's gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr. Lasorda disputed that but said he did not understand Burke's behavior at the time: "Why wouldn't he come out? Why keep that inside? Glenn had a lot of talent. He could have been an outstanding basketball or baseball player. He sure was good in the clubhouse. What happened? I don't know what happened. He just wasn't happy here?" The Dodgers eventually traded Burke to the Oakland Athletics for Billy North, claiming that they needed an experienced player who "could contribute right away". Billy Martin used this injury as an opportunity to consign Burke to a minor league team in Utah for the remainder of the season, ending his contract before the season ended. In his four seasons and 225 games in the majors playing for the Dodgers and Athletics, Burke had 523 at-bats, batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBIs and 35 stolen bases. Sexuality Burke said, "By 1978 I think everybody knew," and he was "sure his teammates didn't care." Former Dodgers team captain Davey Lopes said, "No one cared about his lifestyle." Burke told The New York Times, "Prejudice drove me out of baseball sooner than I should have. But I wasn't changing." The high five On October 2, 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker after Baker hit his 30th home run in the last game of the regular season. Burke raised his hand over his head as Baker jogged home from third base. Not knowing what to do about the upraised hand, Baker slapped it. They have been credited with inventing the high five, an event detailed in the ESPN 30 for 30 film The High Five directed by Michael Jacobs. After retiring from baseball, Burke used the high five with other gay residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, and it became a symbol of gay pride. == Life after Major League Baseball and legacy ==

Burke continued his athletic endeavors after retiring from baseball. He won medals in the 100 and 200 meter sprints in the first Gay Games in 1982 and competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball. His jersey number at Berkeley High School was retired in his honor. Burke played for many years in the SFGSL (San Francisco Gay Softball League), playing third base for Uncle Bert's Bombers. An article published in Inside Sports magazine in 1982 made Burke's homosexuality public knowledge. Although he remained active in amateur competitions, Burke turned to drugs to fill the void in his life when his career ended. An addiction to cocaine destroyed him both physically and financially. In 1987, his leg and foot were crushed when he was hit by a car in San Francisco. After the accident, his life went into physical and financial decline. He was arrested and jailed for drugs and lived on the streets of San Francisco for a number of years, often in the same neighborhood that once embraced him. He spent his final months with his sister in Oakland. He died on May 30, 1995, of AIDS complications at Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, California, at age 42. In 1999, Major League Baseball player Bill Bean revealed his homosexuality, only the second Major League player to do so. Unlike Burke, who came out to teammates while he was still an active player, Bean revealed himself four years after his retirement in 1995, the year Burke died. On August 2, 2013, Burke was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. In July 2014, Major League Baseball announced plans to honor Burke at the 2014 All-Star Game, in Minneapolis, doing so as part of a pregame press conference on July 15, 2014. The Fox broadcast in the United States did not mention Burke. On June 4, 2021, the Athletics renamed their annual Pride Night in Burke's honor, with the first rechristened Glenn Burke Pride Night to be held a week later on June 11. Burke was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2015. Burke's story is the focus of the January 9, 2017 episode of The Dollop podcast. Burke is one among many commemorated in the AIDS Quilt. == References ==

• • Out. The Glenn Burke Story. 2010 documentary film, produced by Doug Harris, Sean Madison. 1 hour. [http://www.thenation.com/blog/155946/reviewing-out-glenn-burke-story Reviewing 'OUT: The Glenn Burke Story' • Jennifer Frey, "A Boy of Summer's Long, Chilly Winter; Once a Promising Ballplayer, Glenn Burke Is Dying of AIDS" , New York Times, October 18, 1994. • ==External links==