Dale Scott is the first umpire in Major League Baseball - and the only active official in North American team sports - to publicly say he's gay after revealing the personal news in an interview with SB Nation's Outsports.
Scott, an umpire for the past 29 seasons, subtlety acknowledged his sexual orientation during a profile in the October issue of Referee magazine.
From Outsports:
Prior to publication, (Referee) editor, Jeff Stern, wanted some non-game photos and that's when Scott made a decision to reveal a part of himself previously hidden from the public.
After consulting with his partner, Michael Rausch, Scott decided to send (a) photo ... of the two of them, and it ran with this caption: "He and his longtime companion, Michael Rausch, traveled to Australia for the 2014 season opener between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers."
In his first interview on the subject, Scott told Outsports that it didn't feel right to have his story profiled in a magazine without including such a significant part of his life. Scott - who married Rausch last November - said the two met shortly after his first year on the job.
"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," Scott said.
"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."
Commissioner Bud Selig threw his support behind Scott in a statement released Tuesday afternoon:
"For 29 years, Dale Scott has been an outstanding Major League Umpire," Selig said. "To his friends and colleagues throughout the game, Dale is universally regarded as a class act. All of us at Major League Baseball are very proud of him, just as we have always been.”
