Glenn Burke - Major League Career

Major League Career

When he began his baseball career, many of the scouts described him as the next Willie Mays. Burke was a highly touted baseball star in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system being called up to the major league club.

Burke's association with the Dodgers was a difficult one. According to his 1995 autobiography Out at Home, Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to get married. Burke refused to participate in the sham, allegedly responding, "to a woman?" He also angered Dodgers' manager Tommy Lasorda by befriending the manager's estranged gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr. The Dodgers eventually dealt Burke to the Oakland Athletics for Billy North, by some accounts a much less talented player, suggesting homophobia was behind the trade. There, manager Billy Martin introduced him as a "faggot" in front of his teammates. He was given little playing time on the A's, and after he suffered a knee injury before the season began, the A's sent him to the minors in Utah. The A's released him from his contract in 1979.

In his four seasons, and 225 games in the majors playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A's, Burke had 523 at-bats, batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBI and 35 stolen bases.