Going the Other Way

Major league baseball’s first Ambassador for Inclusion shares “a passionate memoir of the challenges [he] faced as a closeted gay athlete” (Sports Illustrated).

With a relentless work ethic, exceptional talent, and a quick left-handed swing, Billy Bean made it to the majors, where he played from 1987 to 1995—an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres. But as a gay man in the brutally homophobic world of professional baseball, Billy remained closeted to both teammates and family. Throughout his career, he was unable to reconcile his public life with his inner self.

Going the Other Way is the intimate chronicle of a man who, in the prime of his career, had to make a terrible choice between his love of the game and the love of his life. At the young age of thirty-one, just as he solidified his role as a major-league utility player, Bean walked away from the game that was his calling and his livelihood.

At once heartbreaking and farcical, ruminative and uncensored, this groundbreaking memoir points the way toward a more perfect game, one in which all players can pursue their athletic dreams free of prejudice and discrimination.