Bean throws first pitch at Phils’ Pride Night

PHILADELPHIA — A rainbow flag fluttered from a flagpole in center field at Citizens Bank Park on Monday. Billy Bean, Major League Baseball’s vice president of social responsibility and inclusion, threw out a first pitch.

That was both fitting — it was the inaugural Phillies Pride Night — and a little misleading, since it was also the 15th consecutive year the organization has recognized the local LGBT community.

It all started when a fan named Larry Felzer approached the Phillies with a question. If he sold 500 tickets, could the LGBT fans get the same recognition on the scoreboard and elsewhere that any other group did? The answer was yes, putting the franchise far ahead of the curve, and the promotion has been a success ever since.

This year the Phillies set aside a date, in this case the series opener against the Nationals, without attaching it to a minimum number of tickets to be sold.

A dozen MLB teams now have LGBT nights, including the Mets and Mariners, who each had their first this season.

Bean, who was hired by MLB on July 15, 2014, admitted before the game that he’s always a little nervous about any sort of potential negative reaction, even though his personal experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s not to polarize anybody or alienate any of our fans. Most fans will come and not even be aware that that’s going on,” Bean said. “But there will be a large group of LGBT people who are absolutely aware and feeling supported and wearing shirts and know they’re in a supportive environment to express their true selves. So to me, the importance of it being the inaugural Phillies Pride Night is that we’ve had a decade and a half of successful nights that led up to this.”

Bean only visits teams when asked; this was his fifth time he’s …

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