Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

PHOENIX — Major League Baseball isn’t trying to push anyone, knowing the anxiety when someone’s personal life suddenly becomes public, but believes the timing is right.

The sport, segregated for 78 painful years, and has yet to hire a woman to be a general manager or field manager, is fully committed to embrace the first active gay player in Major League Baseball.

“I think the time is coming for a team to have an active gay player,’’ said Arizona Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall, who has the most diverse front office staff in baseball, consisting of 35% minorities. “I’m confident there are players playing now that are gay.

“I’m looking forward to that day when we can point to one or many players, and say, there’s an example of our inclusion, openness and acceptance.

“I think in this day and age, it’s accepted.’’

No active major leaguers have been openly gay. Retired outfielder Billy Bean and the late Glenn Burke acknowledged their sexual orientation after they retired, and minor league outfielder David Denson last year revealed he was gay; Denson hasn’t advanced past Class A in the Milwaukee Brewers’ system.

Coaches and coming out

“I think we’ve been ready to accept it for about five years,’’ LaTroy Hawkins, who spent 21 years in the major leagues, told USA TODAY Sports. “Do you mind having a gay player on your team? I wouldn’t care. Doesn’t bother me at all.

“We all have gay family members. And if you don’t (think so), you probably do. We all have our own secrets. It’s baseball.

“I guarantee it’s a bigger thing for the media than it is for us. If a guy comes out, just let him do the job, and leave him be. I’m sure 80 to 90% of guys don’t care. The other 10-20% wouldn’t say anything.’’

Certainly, there are gay players and coaches and trainers in the game today. Their teammates quietly talk about it. One manager recently brought a player into his own office and even asked him if he were gay. The player denied it. The manager, who was simply curious, was scolded for asking.

Yet, what was taboo years ago will be largely accepted now. When Denson came out publicly last summer, after counseling from Bean, he received standing ovations from fans at home and on the road. Umpire Dale Scott came out, too, and it barely created a ripple.

Ump Dale Scott overwhelmed with support after coming out

“It’s blown me away,’’ Bean said, “the way baseball has been embracing the timeliness of the message.’’

Bean, who spent nine years in the big leagues, only to retire prematurely because he was tired of living a secret life, prays that no gay ballplayer is suffering as he did. He still has the horrifying memory of his partner of three years dying before the 1995 season opener with the San Diego Padres. He never told a soul with the ball club, and kept on playing.

“I was living a completely secretive life in the closet,’’ Bean said. “I didn’t feel I was in a place I should be. I walked away from baseball without reason or telling anybody.

“It’s one of the biggest mistakes I made in my life.’’

When Bean came out in 1999, friends and former teammates and baseball officials told him it would have been perfectly fine to do so as a player.

Bean wasn’t willing to take that risk.

Catch-22: Coming out can quell gay slurs, but fear of homophobia hinders closeted athletes

“The great regret is I didn’t trust one of my teammates,’’ Bean said. “I was so afraid to change the (clubhouse) dynamic, I didn’t believe in myself.’’

And now?

“Some days, it still feels very uncomfortable,’’ said Bean, MLB’s vice president of inclusion and social responsibility. “There’s a whole spectrum of inclusion in baseball. Conservative and religious players have every right to the way they think, as much as someone who might be hiding what I was.

“I hope that hiding part goes away.’’

Baseball knows it will be historic when the first active player reveals that he is gay. It won’t be as significant as Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947,but for MLB, it will be significant in their strong push for diversity in the game.

“I think it will be an important moment in sports,’’ Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “and I think it will reflect the culmination of change in our sport, an environment that is inclusive as possible.

“We see the whole coming out issue, that’s a personal choice issue. We think our obligation is to create an atmosphere, if that’s what that person wanted to do, would feel comfortable doing so.’’