African-American baseball outfielder in the Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1976-1978) and Oakland Athletics (1978-1979). Burke was the first and only MLB player to come out as gay to teammates and team owners during his professional career and the first to publicly acknowledge it, stating, “They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it.”
In his four seasons and 225 games in the majors playing for the Dodgers and Athletics, Burke had 523 at-bats, batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBIs and 35 stolen bases.
On 2 October 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker after Baker hit his 30th home run in the last game of the regular season. Burke raised his hand over his head as Baker jogged home from third base. Not knowing what to do about the upraised hand, Baker slapped it. They have been credited with inventing the high five.
Burke continued his athletic endeavours after retiring from baseball. He won medals in the 100 and 200 metre sprints in the first Gay Games in 1982 and competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball.
An article published in Inside Sports magazine in 1982 made Burke’s homosexuality public knowledge. Although he remained active in amateur competitions, Burke turned to drugs to fill the void in his life when his career ended. An addiction to cocaine destroyed him both physically and financially. In 1987, his leg and foot were crushed when he was hit by a car in San Francisco. After the accident, his life went into physical and financial decline. He was arrested and jailed for drugs and lived on the streets of San Francisco for a number of years, often in the same neighbourhood that once embraced him. He spent his final months with his sister in Oakland. He died on the evening of 30 May 1995 of AIDS complications at Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, California, at age 42.
On 2 August 2013, Burke was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.
Link to Wikipedia biography