Pittsburgh’s Pirates Kevin McClatchy Comes Out

McClatchy, the controlling owner of the Pirates from 1996-2007, publicly revealed his sexuality in a column by Frank Bruni of The New York Times. He said he told his family in 1996, around the time he bought the team, because of an anonymous threat to leak that information.Kevin McClatchy says he kept quiet about being gay for the years he owned the Pittsburgh Pirates because of homophobic slurs."I think I was more paranoid, for sure, about people," he told theTimes. "And suspicious, definitely. And angry.

 

"McClatchy is another in a lengthening list of men involved in American professional sports to come out. The list includes former basketball players John Amaechi and Will Sheridan, former football player Wade Davis, former baseball player Billy Bean and current Golden State Warriors President Rick Welts, who revealed his orientation last year to the Times.But none has come out during his playing career. That bothered McClatchy.
"Tens of thousands of people have played either professional minor league baseball or major league baseball," he told the Times. "Not one has come out and said that they're gay while they're playing."McClatchy, the chairman of the board for publishing giant The McClatchy Co., sold his last shares of the Pirates in 2009 after helping ensure the team a new ballpark and longevity in the city, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But the 49-year-old remains involved with sports, advising Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson on how to keep the Sacramento Kings in town.He expects backlash from some on both sides: those who wish he had spoken up sooner and those who will put his sexuality at blame for the Pirates' lack of success during his ownership."I'm sure people will criticize me because I came out later, and I should have come out while I was in baseball and in the thick of it," he told the Times. "(But) I could find excuses for why not to do this article until I'm blue in the face."
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