MLB Umpire: Baseball, The Military, And ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
Posted by Dave Pallone in public Oct 22, 2010
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Editor’s Note: Dave Pallone worked as a professional umpire for 18 years; 10 of those years with the National Baseball League. Pallone is the author of the 1990 New York Time’s best-selling autobiography, Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball.
On November 30, 1988 I learned firsthand what homophobia in sports is all about. That was the day Major League Baseball fired me because I was gay. After 18 years as an accomplished umpire, 10 of those years with the National Baseball League, Major League Baseball decided there was no room for a gay man within their ranks. This decision by Major League Baseball, more than twenty years ago, left a scar on the face of our national pastime.
Why do I bring this up today, after all these years? It seems to me that there are many similarities between Major League Baseball and the state of our military. When ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ became law in 1993 it also left a scar. The scar that was left this time, however, was on our Nation’s face.
In the Major Leagues the integrity of an umpire is one that can never be questioned. The umpire’s integrity is what makes the profession what it is, and has been since its inception by Abner Doubleday. Despite this fact, how can one feel like they have integrity when they are forced to lie; lie about who they are, and forced to live a ‘double life’? This is what Major League Baseball forced me to do. I had to live in a box and hide throughout my entire career. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is doing exactly this, by forcing courageous men and women of our nation’s military, who happen to be gay, to keep their lives hidden each and every day they serve our country. They are forced to live in a box, become liars, and throw their integrity into the trash. I have never served in our military. I have the upmost respect for all the men and women who serve our nation with honor, dignity, and for the too many of them that give the ultimate sacrifice. That said, how can I possibly respect those in our military (and for that matter in major league baseball), who force those of us who happen to be gay/lesbian to lie to our peers, family, friends and most of all to ourselves on a daily basis? How can we as a nation, a proud nation at that, allow this to be (in the case of our armed forces) law?
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