Earlier this week, while watching Ken Burns’ Baseball on MLB Network, I noticed something in the crawl at the bottom of the screen about “first openly gay umpire comes out.” Well, isn’t that nice, I thought to myself before continuing to go about my non-business. Surely it’s a testament to how far we’ve come as a society that news of a gay official in a major sport failed to rock my world. Or maybe it’s a testament to the fact that First Gay Umpire isn’t especially high on most folks’ lists of social justice accomplishments.
Still, if it’s worth a few mentions on MLB Network and in the mainstream media, it’s worth delving into a bit to see how we feel about it. The umpire in question is one Dale Scott, which is a name I’ve heard enough times to recognize, but I can’t say I have a strong opinion on him (or any other umpire for that matter). Since this is a Brewers blog, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Scott only ejected one person during the 2014 MLB season, and it happened to be Brewers hitting coach Johnny Narron. Small world.
Back in my day, coming out used to mean something, but Scott’s was about as nonchalant as it gets. Scott and his longtime partner Michael Rausch got married in California in November 2013, but that happy occasion didn’t attract public attention. It was a profile of Scott’s career in the October 2014 issue of niche magazine Referee that was the giveaway. The print edition included a perfectly cute picture of Scott and Rausch on their flight to Australia for the 2014 MLB season opening series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
The website Outsports picked up the Referee piece, interviewed Scott, and eventually the story made its way into larger media outlets and to the MLB Network crawl. Tweets by pro athletes’ significant others come with more fanfare.
Social acceptance of homosexuality in the U.S. has increased at a remarkable pace in the last 20 years, but the pro sports world has been a lagging indicator. Only a handful of athletes – Jason Collins and Michael Sam come to mind – have come out as active players. The impression is that the culture of locker room is still relatively unfriendly to gays. One wonders if that’s really the case, or if the mere perception that it’s the case is what keeps more players from being out and proud.
(To be sure, we’re talking about male pro sports culture. Lesbian athletes have been out for decades.)
Scott’s interview with Outsports suggests that he hasn’t faced any discrimination as far as the MLB umpire locker room goes:
“I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else and that’s the way it should be.”
Scott is a classic example of someone who is openly gay within his workplace and social circle but, until now, not publicly out. He never held a meeting with fellow umpires or with management to discuss his sexual orientation, yet he never hid his relationship with Rausch and says eventually everyone in his circle figured it out by the late ’90s.
“There’s never been a coming out statement,” he said. “You work with an organization for a long time and people figure it out. It is what it is. I’ve never had any pushback from other umpires. If anything else, it’s been the opposite. It was in the late ’90s when, unprovoked by me, some individual umpires were talking to me and said, ‘I know who you are and it doesn’t bother me and I’d walk on the field with you any time.’ It was them saying it’s all good. It was all positive stuff.”
The article does note that Scott was initially reluctant to talk with Outsports, but that has a different connotation than it once did. There was a time when that reluctance would have been based on fear of personal and professional repercussions. Now it seems like it’s based on fear of making a big deal out of nothing.
If anyone is criticizing Scott for being a distraction, I’m not aware of it. On the contrary, he’s apparently received an overwhelming amount of support. That’s all well and good, but I sometimes wonder if it’s too much of a good thing. MLB.com columnist Richard Justice wrote about Scott and said, “Here’s to you, Dale Scott. Here’s to your courage. Here’s to your feeling comfortable with yourself and for being honest and open.”
I don’ think “courage” is the right word, considering Scott didn’t want to make a big deal about coming out and he hasn’t faced any negative consequences for doing so. It’s also a little silly to congratulate someone for being comfortable with himself. The instinct to applaud Scott is understandable, but it also feels a little misplaced – like an increasingly antiquated custom from a bygone era.
When the first active MLB player comes out (or the first active player in any major male pro sport), it will be more newsworthy and maybe even a little exciting. But since most of us have gay friends and relatives, I suspect it will seem like not that big of a deal at the same time. It will be simultaneously groundbreaking and mundane. We’ll say, “I can’t believe that took so long,” tell our friends and coworkers it’s not much of a surprise, and promptly move on with our lives.
And good for us. If we’re going to congratulate a guy for being comfortable with himself, we might as well congratulate ourselves for barely noticing. That’s a marker of progress if ever there was one.
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