Dale Scott, MLB Umpire, Comes Out As Gay

Dale Scott, an umpire for Major League Baseball, publicly came out as gay 30 years into his estimable career.

MLB Umpire Comes Out

Scott quietly came out in a Referee magazine profile that hit newsstands in October. While he didn’t explicitly talk about his sexuality in the interview, he sent a picture of himself with his partner of 30 years, Michael Rausch, whom he married just last year. Scott, who has been out privately for years, decided that omitting Rausch from the feature didn’t seem right.

“My thought process was is that there’s a story about my career and how I got started in umpiring and they’re talking to people I have known since junior high and it didn’t seem right to have a whole story and pictures without a picture of Mike and I, someone who’s been with me through this entire process,” Scott told Outsports. We met the October after my first year in the big leagues.

“Obviously, when I sent that picture to Jeff, I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn’t going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it’s not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do,” Scott added.  “I realized that it could open a Pandora’s Box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for. It’s not a surprise to the umpire staff. Until Mike and I got married last November, he was my same-sex domestic partner and had his own MLB I.D. and was on my insurance policy.”

Outsports had approached Scott about the picture of him and his partner when the profile first ran, but Scott declined to be interviewed about his sexuality until after the MLB season wrapped up. He didn’t want the story of him becoming the first out ump in the MLB to overshadow that of the sport he’s been a part of for the better part of his life.  Scott has proven himself on the baseball diamond and has experienced nothing but support from his fellow umpires and the MLB at large.

“If you want to write a story I can’t stop you,” he told the outlet. “I’m also not worried because I do know who I am. I think Major League Baseball has proven that it certainly isn’t an issue with them. I’ve worked three World Series, I’ve worked the playoffs consistently, I’ve been a crew chief for 12 years. Obviously, if they had an issue with my life, it would be shown in my career with lack of assignments.”

“I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else and that’s the way it should be,” he added.

As for Rausch, Scott reveals he met him at a Portland gay bar a few decades ago and they had an instant connection. “We’re opposites,” Scott said. “He’s an artist. He’s very creative, I am not. The old opposites-attract thing fits us and it’s obviously works for us.”