Baseball Comes Out

When Billy Gallagher, a strangely aloof pitcher on a fictional San Francisco Giants team, is outed as gay, he at first denies it. Gallagher had never been an easy man to like. Now people around him had an idea why. The malicious outer had published a lurid photo showing Gallagher dressed in frightening S&M regalia at a Montreal leather bar. Other photos in the tabloid filled in a mosaic of welts and bruises inflicted in pursuit of sexual gratification. With the media now ransacking his past, the accused man decides to come out at a press conference, proudly introducing his partner -- a popular teammate. Conservative forces, led by a reactionary fictional owner of the Cincinnati Reds, call the gay players 'men who torture for pleasure' and demand the pair's ouster from the game 'in the best interest of baseball' - well recognized code in the game for banishment without appeal. The Giants management goes all in to fight for the gay players. The national uproar is deafening. People unprepared to process this new reality -- team management, other players, fans and the media -- must make difficult personal decisions. The future of the gay players is still in doubt when resolution comes in the World Series at Yankee Stadium