The St. Louis Cardinals selected pitcher Tyler Dunnington in the 28th round of the 2014 MLB Draft and fulfilled the youngster's dream of becoming a pro ball player. However, it only took Dunnington, 24, a year to quit the sport because of his sexual orientation.
Dunnington, who at the time was a closeted homosexual, came out on Wednesday and expressed that he stepped away from the game of baseball because he "experienced both coaches and players make remarks on killing gay people" during his short stint with the Cardinals.
Dunnington made these revelations to Outsports.com. The Cardinals are looking into the allegations and plan to take action if possible.
"This is very disappointing and our hope is that every player, staff member, and employee feels they are treated equally and fairly," general manager John Mozeliak wrote in an email to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Given the nature of these allegations I will certainly look into this further as well as speak with Billy Bean of the Commissioner's office for further assistance on this matter...we will take this very seriously."
They missed out on a potential good pitcher in Dunnington, who went 4-2 with a 3.09 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and 29 strikeouts in 19 relief appearances (32 innings) in his debut season in the minors.
Last June baseball had its first ever openly gay player in the sport when Sean Conroy, a pitcher for the Sonoma Stompers (an independent professional team), publicly came out during the team's gay pride night. Then came David Denson, who became the first ever openly gay MLB player (in the minor leagues), last August.
This has been a common struggle among homosexual athletes, as many are hesitant to express their sexual orientation in fear of becoming an outcast among their teammates. Prior to recent professionals coming out during their playing careers, it was typically common for athletes to wait until they retired to make such a public announcement.
And now, for the second time in the past year, the Cardinals are again under a microscope. Their first such incident came when their former director of player development, Chris Correa, admitted to hacking into the Houston Astros' computer database, which compromised intellectual property and other sensitive information.
The Cardinals were once an organization considered to be "baseball royalty," but that perception is bound to change after these two troubling incidents.