Rating: 
Summary: Bean's Book
Review: "Going the Other Way" is as nice as "Sea Biscuit", and is of great importance. Bean has made me a baseball fan.
Rating:
Summary: Bean's Book
Review: "Going the Other Way" is as nice as "Sea Biscuit", and is of great importance. Bean has made me a baseball fan.
Rating:
Summary: Bean's Book
Review: "Going the Other Way" is as nice as "Sea Biscuit", and is of great importance. Bean has made me a baseball fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Real LIfe "Take Me Out"
Review: A professional baseball player who for years hid his homosexuality, Billy Bean recounts his story with an easygoing charm. From his childhood, up through the majors the first part of the book is about how he fell into the sport and how his passion for it consumed him. Once he begins to address his sexuality the book shifts focus and really becomes an exploration of gay athletes, and the prejudices they face or potentially face. It seemed by the end that Billy truly is happy, which is great, because at times it felt like he lived a alot of his life with regret, yet ultimately his courageous act may someday help someone else in a similar situation. And maybe one day his dream of players being able to play without fear of discrimination will be a reality.
Rating:
Summary: It helped me come out
Review: After reading this book, and going through a box of Kleenexes, I made the call to my parents and told them who I really was....thank you!
Rating: 
Summary: Going the Other Way by Billy Bean
Review: An enjoyable book. The book is very readable and makes some valid points about homophobia in sports, but it doesn't break any new ground. A good beach book.
Rating:
Summary: Going the Other Way by Billy Bean
Review: An enjoyable book. The book is very readable and makes some valid points about homophobia in sports, but it doesn't break any new ground. A good beach book.
Rating:
Summary: Courageous, the stuff of role models
Review: At its inception, "Going the Other Way ..." could easily have been little more than a professional athlete's bio of protecting his homosexuality in what remains one of the sexuality's near-hallowed taboo, and even going that far would be courageous. But ex-baseball player Billy Bean takes his private story further by not only coming out publicly but by submitting the subtle question if sexual orientation really has anything to do with a person's worth as a family member, friend and working in whatever profession. In doing so, Bean's story is a lesson not only in coming to terms privately but also in being accepted by rendering impotent the social tendency to over-use labels like straight, gay and bi. Until Bean made good his dream to play major league baseball, his story was essentially non-descript: a loving family supporting his athletic ambition, a straight A student, girlfriends, marriage to a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Bean's "wholesome" story becomes unique only when he actually makes the big leagues but has to stay in his closet to avoid the potential multi-dimensional issues associated with coming out. Remarkably, Bean's is both a baseball and coming-to-terms book, and he manages further to posit the thought that sexual orientation may actually have little to nothing to do with any person's total worth. Bean also goes into some detail about his gay sexual experiences and concludes he was bassically "lucky" to have dodged the fatal bullet of AIDS. Still, that portion of his narrative poses the thought that public discussion about homosexuality and AIDS, even by the anti-gay faction, may actually be productive in blunting activity that risks the disease. In the end, though, Bean's story is an important contribution in learning to accept oneself and by doing it in such a way to be accepted in general with little to no qualification of sexual orientation being a factor. Beyond that, Bean's story is a one of courage and unshakeable faith in his own worth as a human being, and it and he are the stuff role models are made of.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Story
Review: Billy Bean is not a hero, but he is someone to be admired by persons both gay and straight and both fans and not fans of baseball. Billy Bean's book is not a great book, but it's an enjoyable one and is a book that deserves reading. I admire Billy Bean for the way he's lived his life and for choosing to tell us about it. He's not a hero. He didn't come out while he was in baseball. He married and divorced a woman he says he loved. He tells of others' sexual escapades, but reveals few of his own, though there probably were some. I admire him for working tirelessly and making sacrifices to overcome weaknesses and attain goals, for being a team player, trying to maintain integrity and set an example for others, and for having the guts to be plain-spoken about many of his peers and experiences. He's not a hero, but based on this book he's my new role model. He inspired me to come out after 20 years in the closet and to examine my life and how I want to live it. Billy commits to dreams and to life. He learns from his mistakes. I don't want heroes in my daily life. Heroes are dependent upon circumstances. I want role models. Role models provide help in living our daily lives. I appreciate Billy Bean and people like him. I hope by his story that I'll be a better role model to others in my life.
Rating:
Summary: Going the Other Way -Good reading and Good Examples
Review: Billy Bean is pretty brave. Even after he left the Bigs, he still cared about kids, baseball and THE GAME. Sure he could have named names and outed some big leaguers who were better than him, made more money and got endorsements but that's not his style. He was a lunch bucket type player. No errors, very few HR's always hustling and taking extra BP each day. He would gladly take bullets for the team (sacrifice fly etc.) and kept his mouth shut about goings on by married players. He played the fundamentals well. He disguised lots of things like his affection towards men. He even married. There were probably more sexual escapades while he played with men than he lets on in the book. The few listed are tantilizing. In the end he did the right thing. He told the truth. He did it because he was proud of his accomplishments and he wanted to make it easier for the next guy. Or the next kid playing High School baseball. Imagine how much better a player he could have been if his mind wasn't always trying to cover up a secret. Concentration is 80% of game (Yogi says baseball is 90% more than half mental-it's also ironic that Billy Bean's book is in the Sports Section next to Yogi Berra's book). Think of how much fun he could have had. Billy Bean is a small time modern day hero in a big time world. No it's not earth shattering journalism but a good story and a good read. Conflict make good journalism. It's a good sports book to buy and read and wonder-how many Billy Bean's are still out there between the lines every day. Spittin tobacco, cussing Umpires and acting macho. And how much better of a player, these closeted players would be if they could feel comfortable with their feelings if baseball was open and friendly to all. 2nd irony is how MLB was first sport to advance Racial Equality with Jackie Robinson and others and so far behind when it comes to elimininating homophobia attitudes and "hostile work environments based on sexual orientation". Buy the book-I did and I enjoyed reading it twice. PS.
Just met Billy at Booktour signing at Powell's in Portland Or. I bought another book for a friend. Class act all the way. As Tommy Lasorda was quoted in the book "every dad's daughter would love to meet Billy" well Every dad's son should meet him also. We need more Billy Beans in this world.
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