'I was making money playing ball and not having any fun,' he said of his time in the majors. He became a star shortstop in a local gay softball league and dominated in the Gay Softball World Series. 'It's the first thing in my life I ever backed down from,' he later said.Д«urke started hanging around San Francisco's Castro district. After playing just 25 games in the minors in 1980, he abruptly retired. His unhappiness was compounded by a knee injury and a demotion to Triple-A. Burke, accustomed to being the heart of the clubhouse, felt crippled by the discomfort he was causing. Some teammates even avoided showering with him. Martin threw the word 'faggot' around the clubhouse and didn't play Burke. But the gay rumors followed Burke to Oakland.

A couple of players were seen crying at their lockers.ДЄfter unproductive years in 1978 and '79, Burke hoped for a fresh start in 1980 under new A's manager Billy Martin. sportswriters described the trade as sucking the life out of the Dodgers' clubhouse. 'When things went bad at the end, it was almost like a father turning his back on his son.' Early in the 1978 season, the Dodgers abruptly dealt Burke to the Oakland A's - among the most lackluster teams in baseball - for Billy North, an outfielder past his prime. 'Glenn had such an abundance of respect and love for Tommy Lasorda,' says Burke's sister. Lasorda stopped being amused by the player's dugout antics and, according to Burke, turned on him. Whatever the case, Burke's association with Spunky marks the point at which his big league career took an irrevocable left turn. They chickened out before knocking on the door. Burke described them turning up together at Lasorda's house one night, done up in pigtails and drag, hoping to stage a kind of gay Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He also explained that Lasorda Sr.'s homophobia was something he and Spunky commiserated about. In his 1995 memoir, Out at Home, co-authored with Erik Sherman, Burke went out of his way to leave the true nature of the relationship unclear.

Burke's sister, Lutha Davis, insists the two men were just close friends. told the magazine.Д«urke and Spunky's relationship didn't become public until years later and remains ambiguous. GQ reported that the death certificate said his illness was likely AIDS-related. But his father was in staunch denial and remained so even after Spunky's death, in 1991, from pneumonia. A 1992 GQ profile of Spunky portrayed his homosexuality as an open secret. Spunky was a lithe young socialite who frequented West Hollywood's gay scene, smoking cigarettes from a long holder. It was around that time that Burke struck up a relationship with Spunky Lasorda, aka Tommy Lasorda Jr.

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