Burke began his Major League career with 25 games during the 1976 season for the Dodgers, hitting .239 with eleven hits in 46 at-bats.
He’d play in 83 games in 1977, upping his average to .254 with 43 hits in 169 at-bats while filling in at all three outfield positions.
The following year, after starting off with 16 games in Los Angeles, he was traded on May 17th North to the Oakland A’s for speedster Bill North, where he play out the remaining year and a half of his MLB career.
By the time he hung up the cleats after the 1979 season in which he appeared in 23 games, he finished with a career .237 batting average with 124 hits in 523 at-bats over 225 games.
However, his baseball legacy comes outside of the world of statistics as Burke will always be remembered as the first Major League player to come out as Gay during his career, while on a more pop-culture level, he is credited as the first player to give a “High-Five” when he did just that to teammate Dusty Baker in 1977’s season finale when Baker hit his 30th home run of the year.
Certainly two different items from completely different aspects of life that nevertheless left a mark in sports history.
Sadly, Glenn Burke passed away in 1995 at the age of only 42, from from AIDS-related causes.
