Former Salt Lake Bees pitcher now out and proud
While pitcher John Dillinger pitched three games for the Salt Lake Bees, you wouldn’t catch him celebrating the three wins four blocks away at Club Try-Angles, even though he is a gay man. That is because until he retired from the sport in 2005, he was a closeted gay man.
In an interview with OutSports’ Jim Buzinski, Dillinger says he is now open and happy.
The John Dillinger of 2012 would have no problem walking into a bear bar or any gay bar, a far cry from the closeted pitcher who spent 11 seasons in baseball’s Minor Leagues, where he played for 15 teams and five different organizations. After retiring from the sport in 2005, he came out in 2007 and now identifies himself as a happy, out gay man.
Though Dillinger remembers being attracted to Tom Selleck when he was as young as 10 years old, he dated women through his sports career and didn’t date a man until two years after his retirement. He said he was never attracted to a teammate because “I was never attracted to anyone my age.” Team showers, then, didn’t affect him.
Dillinger now lives in Nashville with his partner, Gregory Fisher, who has a salt-and-pepper Tom Selleck stache and goatee.
(Photo credit: Robbie Quinn)
