Former St. Louis Cardinals minor league pitcher Tyler Dunnington said when he was in the organization, one particular homophobic incident from teammates caused him to quit the game.
Dunnington, a 28th round pick by the Cardinals in 2014 who played one season in the organization, told Cyd Zeigler of Outsports when he was playing baseball with the Cardinals, one of his teammates mentioned he had a gay brother. Dunnington, who wasn’t openly gay at the time, said the comment was met somewhat positively, but two other teammates questioned how he could be friends with a gay person and discussed ways of killing gay people.
Dunnington said that kind of homophobia factored largely in his decision to quit baseball, as he told Zeigler in an email he felt he had to choose between being openly gay and playing baseball.
“I was also one of the unfortunate closeted gay athletes who experienced years of homophobia in the sport I loved. I was able to take most of it with a grain of salt but towards the end of my career I could tell it was affecting my relationships with people, my performance, and my overall happiness.”
I can’t imagine having to make a decision to quit the game you love because you don’t feel comfortable or safe in your surroundings.
Dunnington told Outsports he hopes on returning to baseball in a front office role. He said he doesn’t think he’d have to retire if given the same decision today as MLB has made steps towards inclusion, notably hiring Billy Bean as the first Ambassador for Inclusion in 2014. The league is working on being more accepting, even if it’s not fully there yet.
The Cardinals issued a statement about Dunnington’s comments, saying they would look into the matter.
“This is very disappointing and our hope is that every player, staff member and employee feels that they are treated equally and fairly,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. “Given the nature of these allegations, I will certainly look into this further.”
