If you follow me on Twitter, then you know my two main hobbies are reading books and watching sports. And if you've been following my bookish content for a while, you'll know that I make it a priority to seek out queer non-fiction and learn about queer history. Maraniss' biography of Glenn Burke, the first openly gay active MLB player, is a deep dive into Burke's life from his childhood all through his playing career and even a bit afterwards.

First thing's first, though, I was entirely put off by the opening chapter, which was bad enough that it warrants a mention. Depicting Burke at an extremely low point of his life living in a barren hotel room after his playing career, as "a Black man, curled up in the fetal position, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. The man was sobbing, and soaked in sweat, crying tears Haskell recognized from years on the streets: tears of hopelessness, fear, and drugs," just didn't seem like the right move. While I don't think those subjects are inappropriate for kids, I must also point out that this is a biography marketed towards kids/teens and that introducing young readers to a historical figure, especially a gay Black man is a rather uncomfortable framing, and I'm surprised it was published.

That aside (though not excused), the information in the book is thorough. I just wish that this had been written by someone closer to Burke's experience. Maybe it still would have had some uncomfortable framings like the opening chapter had, but I just wonder how much better written this could have been if were done by someone Black, someone queer.

The book has a few other false starts before diving into Burke's childhood and going into his playing career, and I hate to give another criticism because I really wanted to like this book, but I'm just picturing myself reading this as a teen, and I have to say there's no way this would have kept my attention with the way it's organized. Maybe it's just the way my brain works and other people/teens will be fine with it, but I had to point it out.

Fortunately for this book, Burke's life itself, the anecdote about him, the quotes from him were interesting on their own. Burke is funny in that way where you know he absolutely does not mean to be funny but it just is. Like, the anecdote of when the Dodgers first tried to recruit him and Burke's response was,

“I don’t want to play for the Dodgers,” Glenn said, clutching his basketball. He was a Giants fan, and that meant hating the Dodgers, a rivalry that began before both teams had moved to California from New York City in 1958. “Leave me alone.”

And lastly, Burke's story is important. Although he played in the back half of the 70s, he is still the only MLB player who has come out as gay during his career, and the unfortunate but important context is that he was pressured to come out. He's an often forgotten about player in part because he only played for four seasons and in another because of how poorly he was treated in the league. Burke's story is one that deserves to be remembered, and if nothing else, I'm glad this book helps ensure he won't be entirely forgotten.

This book educated me not only about the life of Glenn Burke but about baseball and political movements related to gay rights. My only complaint is sometimes the back and forth with storylines seemed to leave gaps and didn't always mesh well.

Somehow I knew that Glenn Burke invented the high-five, but I didn’t know anything else about his life. I was surprised to read that he was the first openly gay Major League Baseball player, but unfortunately the struggles and challenges in his life were not unexpected given the time period in which he lived. This was a fascinating and well written biography, and Burke’s story is an important one to tell.

I'm not a huge fan of sports biographies, but this sounded incredibly interesting and I am a huge Dodgers fan. Andrew Maraniss really understands narrative nonfiction and this book just flowed off the pages. This is an incredibly interesting story and one that I doubt many people have ever heard of. First there is the fact that he "invented" the high five. But more importantly, he was gay in a time when it was really difficult to be gay and nearly impossible to be gay and in sports. This is a very niche biography though and I fear that it will not get read as much as it should, but it was very well written and compelling.