The league will also announce that Billy Bean, who played six seasons in the majors and came out publicly in 1999, four years after he retired, will work with the league on its inclusion efforts.

Image Burke was struck by a car in 1987, breaking his leg in three places, exacerbating a downward cycle of drugs, homelessness and crime. Credit... Mark Hundley/Associated Press

Bean followed a path first walked in baseball by Burke. Raised in Oakland and a star athlete at Berkeley High School, Burke was drafted by the Dodgers in 1972 in the 17th round. After a few seasons in the minor leagues — a time when Burke came to realize that he was gay — he made his debut with the Dodgers in 1976 at 23.

One coach who noted Burke’s combination of strength and speed compared him to Willie Mays. But Burke might have been more like Rickey Henderson — also raised in Oakland — whose Hall of Fame career began with the Athletics in 1979.

Yet Burke’s major league career lasted only 225 games, scattered over four seasons. He appeared, mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch-hitter, in more than half of the Dodgers’ games in 1977, when they reached the World Series. He started Games 1 and 4 of the National League Championship Series against Philadelphia, and Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees.

Few knew he was gay, but rumors percolated. Burke was wildly popular in the clubhouse, known for playing loud music, dancing and spot-on Richard Pryor imitations. He is widely credited with inventing the high-five.

The Dodgers were less enamored. Burke had a strained relationship with Manager Tommy Lasorda, whose son, Tom Lasorda Jr., befriended Burke. (The younger Lasorda died in 1991 from complications from AIDS, though his father routinely cited other illnesses, from pneumonia to cancer, and denied that his son was gay.) Al Campanis, the Dodgers’ vice president, offered Burke bonus money if he married, something he later said was not a bribe but a gesture rooted in tradition, as the Dodgers encouraged family stability and maturity on their roster.

In May 1978, just as teammates began realizing that Burke was gay, he was traded to the A’s for the veteran Bill North. It was not a popular move in the clubhouse.