Sean Conroy (born March 18, 1992) is a former American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

from Clifton Park, New York. He competed for the Sonoma Stompers of the

Pacific Association The Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs was an independent baseball league based in Northern California. The league was founded in 2013 by four former North American League teams. History During the initial season, two Hawaii- ...

. Conroy is prominently featured in the book ''The Only Rule Is It Has to Work'', by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller.

Early life

Sean Conroy was born on March 18, 1992. He grew up in Clifton Park, New York. He came out as gay to friends and family at the age of 16. He was open about his sexuality with teammates at both the high school and collegiate levels.

College Baseball

Conroy attended

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Va ...

, where he pitched for the Engineers baseball team. During his time at RPI, he amassed a 21–7 record with a 2.05 ERA. He struck out 223 batters in 259 innings of work. His senior season success earned him D3baseball.com second team All American honors, along with first team All-New York region honors.

Professional Baseball

Following his senior season at RPI, Sean Conroy signed with the Sonoma Stompers of the

. The team had never seen him pitch before, but signed him as a result of his impressive statistics at RPI. The team did not know his sexuality at the time of his signing. Upon his arrival Conroy began the process of telling individual teammates, and eventually owner Eric Gullotta. Conroy made his debut after publicly coming out on June 25, 2015 during the team's "Pride Night" game. Conroy pitched a complete game shutout while striking out 11 batters. Conroy finished the season with a record of 5–3 while maintaining at 2.70 ERA. He also earned 10 saves. In 2016, Conroy went 4–2 with a 5.02 ERA. Conroy retired from baseball in 2017.“ LGBT Sports history: Sean Conroy was pro baseball’s first gay active player”
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conroy, Sean 1992 births Living people Baseball pitchers American LGBT sportspeople LGBT baseball players Gay sportsmen Baseball players from New York (state) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Sonoma Stompers players LGBT people from New York (state) 21st-century American sportsmen

Early life

College Baseball

Professional Baseball

See also

References

External links