Robbie, it's always such a pleasure to read your work and interact with you. I'm glad I was able to offer some perspective here. As I've said before, age robs you of many things, but what it gives you in return is perspective.
Memories are tricky things. What I've found over the years is that the "good old days" weren’t all that great in many respects, and the present is in many ways better then we tend to give it credit for. I'd like to think that this is true for Glenn Burke....that his story would be a different one today than it was 45 years ago.
While I would like to believe that to be the case, your discussion of the events in 2014 and your insightful points around the vindictive powers behind the game give me great pause and make me wonder if I'm not being more than a bit naive. What is clear from your discussion here is that much work still needs to be done.
Thank you again for having the courage and dedication to write this beautiful piece. Remembering Glenn as you have done teaches us not only about him, but about ourselves as well. It's efforts like this that do make a difference in the world. Take care.
As an A's fan visiting the library each week in Northeast Ohio in the 70s to read local Bay Area sports coverage of my A's – my childhood version of the internet - I remember being so excited to read about the A's getting the younger Burke for Billy North. The A’s needed good young players and the Dodgers’ ability to find talented players was considered outstanding. It seemed like a great deal.
Yet, things never seemed to work out the way I had hoped or expected, and the odd circumstances around the premature end of his career were never clear to me...until now. Thank you.
Your piece here adds so much more detail to the tragic consequences that can arise from disrespecting someone. What’s astonishing to me is how Glenn Burke seemed to give respect to everyone he encountered, while receiving so little in return. Truly heartbreaking.
Sports has always been about storytelling and then connecting that storytelling to our lives. While it’s easy to be confused these days, sports is not just about numbers and metrics but appreciating that beneath those numbers lies a real human being with a unique story. The Glenn Burke story for me is about how so much can be gained simply by treating another human being with respect...and how so much can be tragically lost in its absence.
What I really appreciate about your work is how it seeks to bridge the usual storytelling of sports into larger more meaningful insights for our own lives. Your stories make that important connection, and I am better for having read this story.
You know Grant, I was thinking about you a little bit as I wrote this. You're the resident baseball old head around here. I don't think I was cognisant of the fact you were a fan of the Athletics, but I did wonder about your perspective on this whole thing. When it's a story like that of Glenn Burke, you wish as the writer that you could go back and be there, to experience it for yourself.
It was a weird dichotomy with Glenn. The public knew that there was something more to this. Prospects of this calibre don't get traded for Bill North, especially not by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but baseball (mostly) successfully conspired to keep the facts of what exactly that extra something was out of the public, although most people in baseball knew and even some especially knowledgeable fans of the day knew. I suppose it's the definition of the phrase 'open secret.'
The story of Glenn Burke is a sad one. No doubts about that. It was not especially fun for me to sit down and write this. It got me in a rather glum mood for a lot of the week, but it had to be done, because if I didn't talk about him, who was going to? It got even sadder if I decided to include more specifics about his life after baseball, which is why I did not include a lot of it.
I think your perception of Glenn as he came through here is mostly correct. He was a person of multitudes, but in general he was a good guy, who would've been a beloved teammate in any locker room if not for people's prejudices, and still was in most locker rooms anyways. I would've loved to have met him, but he was just not born to be able to handle being discriminated against.
Some people can handle this treatment better than others I suppose, and Glenn did not take it very well. I think if he could've found the right environment, he could've blossomed into a wonderful ballplayer, and who knows what could've happened to both him and his community from there, but it just never worked out for him.
My main problem with this whole story, and why I chose to take it on in the first place, is that even with the ridiculously vindictive powers behind the game of baseball, the disrespect normally ends once somebody's dead. An easy example is the Hall of Fame, where they waited for people like Marvin Miller Dick Allen, and (presumptuously) Pete Rose to die before they could get in, but at least they all eventually got in.
A less easy example of baseball's vindictiveness is somebody like Glenn, who was frozen out in the 1970s, and remains frozen out now. For whatever reason, when he died, the disrespect did not end. I surmised in the article that baseball was just as traumatised as Glenn was by this missed opportunity, but there can be any number of reasons why Glenn is not remembered more fondly these days. I will not project any prejudice onto anybody, but it can't be denied that Glenn deserves more attention than he gets. It's not just the 2014 rug pull. It's every June in specific, but all the year round that they have chances to promote Glenn, and don't do it.
Thank you very much for your kind words Grant! You know how much I respect you my friend, so if I can get you to lend your voice to my comments section, I always know it's a fantastic piece of work. Any compliment you may give is just gravy on top of that. Thank you back for taking the time to immerse yourself into the story of Glenn Burke. He's a man that deserves it.
As someone who knew much of the story, and had surmised much of the rest, I was deprived of the drama of the big reveal, but that didn't even matter, as your telling moved me profoundly.
I was not aware of the Tommy Lasorda/Bowie Kuhn angle, or the shameful rug-pull at the 2014 All-Star Game, and I thank you for adding to my knowledge.
I come away with deep respect and profound sadness for Glenn Burke, who was, it turns out, one hell of a man.
Thank you very much Al. It means a lot to hear that. More than I can express with words here.
This is one of the saddest things I've ever committed myself to writing on here. The Notes are a bit different sometimes, but normally on the longform stuff, it's always happy go lucky. He's playing well. He's also playing well. Look at how well everybody is playing. That's more my normal speed, but I felt I had to throw my hat in the ring on this, because nobody else is doing it. Even during Pride Month, nobody really talks about Glenn Burke, so I figured I had to be the one to do it, however big or not big my platform may be. Somebody has to do it.
Tommy Lasorda and Bowie Kuhn both get anti-Pride reputations. Tommy for how he dealt with his son, Bowie for how he dealt with this, but it's tough to comment, because Tommy loved his son intensely, even if never admitting to himself that he was gay, and make the Dodger clubhouse a place where Glenn Burke could exist in peace. That doesn't sound so anti-gay to me, and the Bowie Kuhn thing about the AIDS hospice.
It depends on if you think words or actions speak louder. Tommy Lasorda's words were always hateful towards homosexuals, but his actions were not, and the same goes for Bowie Kuhn, whose lack of any words on the subject spoke louder than any slur ever could have, given the position that history put him into. I accuse them both of reverse virtue signalling, pretending to be less accepting than they both actually were, probably a result of the baseball environment of the times.
Nevertheless, despite neither going out of their way to end Glenn Burke's career, like they both could have and Billy Martin eventually did, neither truly went out of their way to help him either. I suppose it's up to the reader to decide whether to interpret them as heroes or villains.
The only people who are not in any kind of shade of grey in this is baseball. No person in specific, but baseball. It is the lady in black in all this. Baseball pulled the rug at the All-Star game. Baseball is what causes only two teams to have Glenn Burke nights (when every team has a Jackie Robinson night). Baseball is what caused all the Google results to be incorrect in the first place. Baseball is still the game that least accepts homosexuality in their athletes, and I do ascribe that to the scars left by Glenn Burke all those years ago.
Glenn Burke is a man of many sides. Some (like me) view him as an athlete, a pioneer, a man that ought to be honoured, who got taken advantage of by a partner who stole a lot of his money and left him on the streets. Others view him as a failure, a drug addict, a criminal, who could not keep a lid on his temper, which caused him to be jailed multiple times. This is all different views on the same person, who also happens to be the person who was the first gay athlete in American sports.
I personally think a lot of us may have ended up in Glenn's place, had we been put into the situation he got put into, which is why I don't mind honouring him, despite the issues that his life fell into in its later years, but he's a complicated person.
Once again, thank you very much Al for the kind words. I'm happy you were here to learn more about Glenn. He deserves it.
Robbie, it's always such a pleasure to read your work and interact with you. I'm glad I was able to offer some perspective here. As I've said before, age robs you of many things, but what it gives you in return is perspective.
Memories are tricky things. What I've found over the years is that the "good old days" weren’t all that great in many respects, and the present is in many ways better then we tend to give it credit for. I'd like to think that this is true for Glenn Burke....that his story would be a different one today than it was 45 years ago.
While I would like to believe that to be the case, your discussion of the events in 2014 and your insightful points around the vindictive powers behind the game give me great pause and make me wonder if I'm not being more than a bit naive. What is clear from your discussion here is that much work still needs to be done.
Thank you again for having the courage and dedication to write this beautiful piece. Remembering Glenn as you have done teaches us not only about him, but about ourselves as well. It's efforts like this that do make a difference in the world. Take care.
Simply, a beautiful tribute.
As an A's fan visiting the library each week in Northeast Ohio in the 70s to read local Bay Area sports coverage of my A's – my childhood version of the internet - I remember being so excited to read about the A's getting the younger Burke for Billy North. The A’s needed good young players and the Dodgers’ ability to find talented players was considered outstanding. It seemed like a great deal.
Yet, things never seemed to work out the way I had hoped or expected, and the odd circumstances around the premature end of his career were never clear to me...until now. Thank you.
Your piece here adds so much more detail to the tragic consequences that can arise from disrespecting someone. What’s astonishing to me is how Glenn Burke seemed to give respect to everyone he encountered, while receiving so little in return. Truly heartbreaking.
Sports has always been about storytelling and then connecting that storytelling to our lives. While it’s easy to be confused these days, sports is not just about numbers and metrics but appreciating that beneath those numbers lies a real human being with a unique story. The Glenn Burke story for me is about how so much can be gained simply by treating another human being with respect...and how so much can be tragically lost in its absence.
What I really appreciate about your work is how it seeks to bridge the usual storytelling of sports into larger more meaningful insights for our own lives. Your stories make that important connection, and I am better for having read this story.
Thanks so much for sharing it.
You know Grant, I was thinking about you a little bit as I wrote this. You're the resident baseball old head around here. I don't think I was cognisant of the fact you were a fan of the Athletics, but I did wonder about your perspective on this whole thing. When it's a story like that of Glenn Burke, you wish as the writer that you could go back and be there, to experience it for yourself.
It was a weird dichotomy with Glenn. The public knew that there was something more to this. Prospects of this calibre don't get traded for Bill North, especially not by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but baseball (mostly) successfully conspired to keep the facts of what exactly that extra something was out of the public, although most people in baseball knew and even some especially knowledgeable fans of the day knew. I suppose it's the definition of the phrase 'open secret.'
The story of Glenn Burke is a sad one. No doubts about that. It was not especially fun for me to sit down and write this. It got me in a rather glum mood for a lot of the week, but it had to be done, because if I didn't talk about him, who was going to? It got even sadder if I decided to include more specifics about his life after baseball, which is why I did not include a lot of it.
I think your perception of Glenn as he came through here is mostly correct. He was a person of multitudes, but in general he was a good guy, who would've been a beloved teammate in any locker room if not for people's prejudices, and still was in most locker rooms anyways. I would've loved to have met him, but he was just not born to be able to handle being discriminated against.
Some people can handle this treatment better than others I suppose, and Glenn did not take it very well. I think if he could've found the right environment, he could've blossomed into a wonderful ballplayer, and who knows what could've happened to both him and his community from there, but it just never worked out for him.
My main problem with this whole story, and why I chose to take it on in the first place, is that even with the ridiculously vindictive powers behind the game of baseball, the disrespect normally ends once somebody's dead. An easy example is the Hall of Fame, where they waited for people like Marvin Miller Dick Allen, and (presumptuously) Pete Rose to die before they could get in, but at least they all eventually got in.
A less easy example of baseball's vindictiveness is somebody like Glenn, who was frozen out in the 1970s, and remains frozen out now. For whatever reason, when he died, the disrespect did not end. I surmised in the article that baseball was just as traumatised as Glenn was by this missed opportunity, but there can be any number of reasons why Glenn is not remembered more fondly these days. I will not project any prejudice onto anybody, but it can't be denied that Glenn deserves more attention than he gets. It's not just the 2014 rug pull. It's every June in specific, but all the year round that they have chances to promote Glenn, and don't do it.
Thank you very much for your kind words Grant! You know how much I respect you my friend, so if I can get you to lend your voice to my comments section, I always know it's a fantastic piece of work. Any compliment you may give is just gravy on top of that. Thank you back for taking the time to immerse yourself into the story of Glenn Burke. He's a man that deserves it.
Beautifully written, Robbie.
As someone who knew much of the story, and had surmised much of the rest, I was deprived of the drama of the big reveal, but that didn't even matter, as your telling moved me profoundly.
I was not aware of the Tommy Lasorda/Bowie Kuhn angle, or the shameful rug-pull at the 2014 All-Star Game, and I thank you for adding to my knowledge.
I come away with deep respect and profound sadness for Glenn Burke, who was, it turns out, one hell of a man.
Thank you very much Al. It means a lot to hear that. More than I can express with words here.
This is one of the saddest things I've ever committed myself to writing on here. The Notes are a bit different sometimes, but normally on the longform stuff, it's always happy go lucky. He's playing well. He's also playing well. Look at how well everybody is playing. That's more my normal speed, but I felt I had to throw my hat in the ring on this, because nobody else is doing it. Even during Pride Month, nobody really talks about Glenn Burke, so I figured I had to be the one to do it, however big or not big my platform may be. Somebody has to do it.
Tommy Lasorda and Bowie Kuhn both get anti-Pride reputations. Tommy for how he dealt with his son, Bowie for how he dealt with this, but it's tough to comment, because Tommy loved his son intensely, even if never admitting to himself that he was gay, and make the Dodger clubhouse a place where Glenn Burke could exist in peace. That doesn't sound so anti-gay to me, and the Bowie Kuhn thing about the AIDS hospice.
It depends on if you think words or actions speak louder. Tommy Lasorda's words were always hateful towards homosexuals, but his actions were not, and the same goes for Bowie Kuhn, whose lack of any words on the subject spoke louder than any slur ever could have, given the position that history put him into. I accuse them both of reverse virtue signalling, pretending to be less accepting than they both actually were, probably a result of the baseball environment of the times.
Nevertheless, despite neither going out of their way to end Glenn Burke's career, like they both could have and Billy Martin eventually did, neither truly went out of their way to help him either. I suppose it's up to the reader to decide whether to interpret them as heroes or villains.
The only people who are not in any kind of shade of grey in this is baseball. No person in specific, but baseball. It is the lady in black in all this. Baseball pulled the rug at the All-Star game. Baseball is what causes only two teams to have Glenn Burke nights (when every team has a Jackie Robinson night). Baseball is what caused all the Google results to be incorrect in the first place. Baseball is still the game that least accepts homosexuality in their athletes, and I do ascribe that to the scars left by Glenn Burke all those years ago.
Glenn Burke is a man of many sides. Some (like me) view him as an athlete, a pioneer, a man that ought to be honoured, who got taken advantage of by a partner who stole a lot of his money and left him on the streets. Others view him as a failure, a drug addict, a criminal, who could not keep a lid on his temper, which caused him to be jailed multiple times. This is all different views on the same person, who also happens to be the person who was the first gay athlete in American sports.
I personally think a lot of us may have ended up in Glenn's place, had we been put into the situation he got put into, which is why I don't mind honouring him, despite the issues that his life fell into in its later years, but he's a complicated person.
Once again, thank you very much Al for the kind words. I'm happy you were here to learn more about Glenn. He deserves it.