David Denson, Minor Leaguer in Brewers' System, Comes Out

A minor league player on a team affiliated with Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers has come out as gay, making him the first out member of an MLB-connected team.

David Denson, a power-hitting first baseman with the Helena Brewers in Montana, came out publicly in an interview published this weekend by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In it he described coming out to his teammates in the wake of some homophobic clubhouse banter.

About a month ago, he said, a teammate greeted him by using an antigay slur. Denson responded, "Be careful what you say. You never know." He soon found himself having the coming-out talk, with most of the team gathered around him.

"Much to Denson's relief, when the conversation ended he was greeted with outward support and understanding instead of condemnation," the Journal Sentinel reports.

"That was a giant relief for me," he told the paper. "I never wanted to feel like I was forcing it on them. It just happened. The outcome was amazing. It was nice to know my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality."

Denson decided to expand his coming-out process after consulting with Billy Bean, MLB's ambassador for inclusion, and offered the Journal Sentinel an interview, but only after Denson came out to his family. His sister was quick to be accepting, Denson said, but it took his parents, especially his father, a little longer.

"He's a very hard-core Christian and he goes off the Bible and all that, which I completely understand, growing up in the church," Denson told the Journal Sentinel. "I'm a Christian myself. It was an eye-opener for him. He finally came to terms with it."

Denson was drafted by the Brewers in 2013 out of South Hills High School in West Covina, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles. Keeping his homosexuality a secret weighed on him to the point that he became deeply depressed earlier this year, and after seeing a counselor he decided to come out to executives in the Brewers' minor league system. They reassured him that it made no difference to them.

Denson played last year and part of this year with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Class A team in the Brewers' system. He struggled with his hitting this season, so he was sent to the lower-level Helena Brewers. He has had some success there; for instance, he hit a home run in the league's all-star game, which got him named Most Valuable Player in the contest.

Denson's coming-out has the potential to make a big difference in baseball, said Bean, who played on several MLB teams but did not come out as gay until after he retired. "The beauty of what could come from this is he can be an example that can help change that perception and change the stereotype that there would never be a gay person on a men's professional sports team," Bean told the Journal Sentinel. "That was something I struggled with."

There has never been a publicly out active player in Major League Baseball. The late Glenn Burke, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A's, came out, like Bean, after his career ended.

This year another minor league player, Sean Conroy, a pitcher for the Sonoma Stompers of the independent Pacific Association, came out as gay, making him the first out active pro baseball player, but his league is not affiliated with MLB. In other leading men's pro team sports, Jason Collins became the NBA's first out active player in 2013; he is now retired. The following year Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team. Sam did not see a regular season game in the NFL, but he did with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes this month. He announced Friday, however, that he is leaving pro football at least for a time, due to personal concerns.

Should Denson come up to the Milwaukee Brewers, he will be welcome, several players and manager Craig Counsell told the Journal Sentinel. "I think everybody is supportive," said right fielder Ryan Braun. "Overall, we realize it's a courageous decision by him, to come out and embrace his true self.