In 2018, a man named Bryan Ruby wrote a letter to Billy Bean. Bean wrote back. It would be something that Ruby would never forget.
Three years after that exchange, and while a member of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Ruby became the only active professional baseball player at any level to be publicly out as gay. When Ruby told his remarkable story to he thought back to Bean and that letter, and how much it meant to him. Bean helped clear the path for Ruby's historic and important decision.
He'd provide support and advice and kindness. Bean even gave Ruby a pair of cleats. "I didn't even put my last name or address" on the letter, said Ruby in 2021, recounting his interactions with Bean.
"He's someone who sits right next to the MLB commissioner and he has my back. I've worn his cleats everywhere I've played – on three different continents. I look down at them, and know I have support.
I didn't think about the symbolic meaning until recently, of me wearing his shoes and what I'm doing (going public)." "The beauty of it for Bryan is that he's not playing to only become a big leaguer," Bean said at the time. "He's playing because he loves the game.
I imagine he'll be proud of himself when he's 40 years old in his country music career knowing what he's doing for baseball. I couldn't be prouder, and I definitely think Bryan's story is a stepping stone in the right direction." Bean added that the decision of a closeted player to come out is "not as simple as people want to make it.
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