Kevin McClatchy, the former owner of
the Pittsburgh Pirates, has come out gay.
The 49-year-old McClatchy made the
announcement in an interview with The New York Times published
Saturday.
McClatchy told the paper that rampant
homophobia in baseball convinced “him that keeping his sexual
orientation hidden was best.”
“I've got a birthday coming up where
I'm turning old,” McClatchy said. “I've spent 30 years – or
whatever the number is specifically – not talking about my personal
life, lying about my personal life. … There's no way I want to go
into the rest of my existence and ever have to hide my personal life
again.”
He
said his decision to speak openly about his sexuality was
difficult: “I probably didn't sleep as well as I could have last
night.”
At the age of 33, McClatchy became the
youngest owner of a major league baseball team. He was the
Pittsburgh Pirates' public face for 11 years, stepping down as CEO in
2007. In April, he succeeded Gary B. Pruitt as chairman of the board
of The McClatchy Company, a newspaper empire owned by his family.