Sonoma Stompers pitcher Sean Conroy on Thursday night became the first ever openly gay professional baseball player to toss a shutout.
The 23-year-old is the first openly gay professional baseball player, period, and the shutout in his first start with the team proved his role with the Stompers has little to do with publicity.
“He wanted to be that guy, and coming out here and doing this shows you what kind of man he is,” Stompers radio broadcaster Tim Livingston said after the final out of the game, per The Associated Press. “To see this little field here in the middle of nowhere, when we look back, it will have been the perfect setting for this.