Certainly we all commend Billy Bean on the stand he's taken and the role model he plays for all of us and for closeted professionals around the world. His story is much like the story of coming out late that many of us share. I was hoping to learn in more detail the unique angle in his experience he could share - that of a professional athlete and deeper insights into how gays move forward as professional athletes and as professionals in general. Four fifths of the book recounts his story of growing up, playing baseball, his thoughts when realizing his sexual orientation. The last part of the book is, by far, the most revealing and insightful of individuals from his past and their perspective on homosexuality in baseball and professional sports. More of that would have made the book completely worthwhile.

In the end, though, I still like the book and the effort Billy Bean took to write it and share his thoughts. (I read the book in one sitting, so it's a good read). Billy Bean still has more to tell.

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.

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.