YouTube has a strange ability to showcase fare that rebuilds queer reality in previously unknown ways. Hence, we can delve into the life of Glenn Burke, an extraordinary man who came up Black and working class in Oakland, California, developing enviable shoulders, thighs, personality, and athletic prowess that bowled over Major League Baseball (MLB) prospectors, not to mention everyone around him.
Glenn was the first baseballer to (quietly) own his “homosexuality” with teammates. But he fielded in the hostile world of 1970s sports.
We can probe his history with, among other things, “Out: The Glenn Burke Story,” a 2010 documentary that explores the life of a major leaguer who should be as well known as Cy Young or Roberto Clemente.
Equally at home in baseball and basketball, Glenn chose the horsehide and started with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ minor league team in 1976.
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