Dale Scott has been an MLB umpire for 29 years, including 12 as a crew chief. He's worked three World Series, two All-Star games and will enter his 30th season as an umpire at age 55. On Tuesday it was revealed that Scott is gay and has been together with his partner for 28 years.
Scott was profiled in the October issue of Referee Magazine, which is the original magazine for sports officiating and has a circulation of 45,000. In that article, Scott didn't explicitly reveal he was gay, but provided photos of him and his "longtime companion" Michael Rausch to the publication before they ran the article. His latest interview with Outsports.com officially made it known he is the first active gay male official in the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL.
"This is not going to be some huge flashing news to Park Avenue [MLB headquarters], but I also didn't want to be making some coming out story, some banner headline, because that's not how I operate. It's not a shock to MLB management because they're well aware of my situation and it's not a shock to the umpire staff. If it would have been, I don't think I would have done it," he said in the interview.
Scott has been openly gay amongst his coworkers and others in his social circle, but it wasn't made public until Tuesday. He said other umpires he's worked with approached him in the 90s when they found out he was gay and comforted him throughout a time period where his sexuality wasn't entirely accepted by society at-large. Scott is thankful for his coworkers as well as Major League Baseball, who have "proven that it certainly wasn't an issue with them."
The 55-year-old was contacted by Outsports.com after the photos of him and his partner were seen in the Referee Magazine article, but Scott didn't provide any further detail regarding his partner until recently because he didn't want his story to possibly overshadow the MLB playoffs.
"The first 10 years of my Major League umpire career, I would have been horrified if a story had come out that I was gay. But guys unprovoked started to approach me and say, 'I just want you to know that I would walk on the field with you any day, you're a great guy, a great umpire and I couldn't care less about your personal life.' Basically what they were saying without me provoking it was 'I know and I don't care.' That meant a lot to me because it surprised me since I had not brought it up. At first I was uncomfortable because I had spent my whole life hiding that fact from people even though I wasn't hiding it from myself or my friends."
Scott married Rausch legally in 2013 after the two have been together since October of 1986. The longtime umpire is a Eugene, Oregon native.
