Last spring Billy Bean, the only living openly gay former major leaguer, gained national attention with his breakthrough memoir, Going the Other Way—an unprecedented chronicle of America's national pastime that went on to sell more than 25,000 copies. Bean brings us inside the clubhouse and onto the playing field, offering dead-on insight into the game and the physical and emotional demands it makes on players. Bean faced an agonizing choice, in secrecy and solitude, between continuing to play the game he loved and the honesty of a loving relationship. By turns heartbreaking and farcical, ruminative and uncensored, the book culminates in a respectful, deeply felt appeal to Major League Baseball and other professional team sports to live up to their promise of equality and opportunity. A testament to the power of the single voice, Going the Other Way is an exemplary American tale that points the way toward a more perfect game, one in which all men and women can pursue their athletic dreams free of prejudice and discrimination. An eight-page photo insert is featured in this New York Times bestseller.
Billy Bean played major-league baseball from 1987 to 1995 for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres. He now lives in Miami Beach with his partner Efraîn Veiga, with whom he shares a business redeveloping residential properties, and he competes in tennis and basketball and often travels around the country playing in organized tournaments, in hopes of raising the visibility of athletes of diversity. He lives in Miami Beach.
Chris Bull is the Washington correspondent for The Advocate and co-author of The Accidental Activist and Perfect Enemies.