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What: “Going the Other Way”

Author: Billy Bean, with Chris Bull.

Publisher: Marlowe & Co.

Price: $23.95.

The Billy Bean featured in this book is not to be confused with the other Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who is featured in the heavily publicized book “Moneyball.”

What sets apart the Billy Bean without the E is that he is among a few former professional athletes who have admitted they are gay. Bean came out in 1999, telling a Miami Herald reporter that his partner in a restaurant was also his partner in life. Suddenly, Billy Bean was big news, featured on Page One of the New York Times and on ABC, where he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer.

Bean has an amazing story, and with help from co-writer Chris Bull, it is beautifully told in this highly readable, fascinating 256-page book. The courage Bean shows in telling his story is incredible. He spares few of the poignant details, including his emotions when his lover died of AIDS on the same day in 1995 that the San Diego Padres demoted him to triple-A Las Vegas.

Bean, a multi-sport star at Santa Ana High and an All-American baseball player at Loyola Marymount, played six years in the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers, Dodgers and Padres, and spent another four years in the minors.

Bean, who at one time was married, became more keenly aware of his homosexual tendencies after he was traded to the Dodgers in 1989. He lived in a condominium in West Hollywood and worked out at a gym there. Meanwhile, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda referred to Bean as “the boy of every girl’s dream.”

Bean had a career batting average in the big leagues of .227, which tells you he wasn’t a star. Bean may not be remembered for his baseball statistics, even though he did have his moments. But he may be remembered for his contributions to furthering gay causes, particularly in professional baseball.