As 2011 draws to a close, the major U.S. professional sports of football, basketball and baseball still have never had an active male player declare that they are gay.

There are still only handful who have even done so in retirement.

Among them is retired baseball pro Billy Bean who played for San Diego Padres, Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Dodgers during the 90s and came out publicly in the 2003 memoir Going The Other Way.

'I still feel that a lot of players are afraid to put themselves at the center of a storm,' Bean tells Gay Star News. 'Even they're comfortable with themselves and think half of their team would be fine, it's usually one of two of the guys who's bad and there's that fear there. Or maybe it's the front office and the team doesn't want a distraction.'

Bean, now 47, paid a place for staying in the closet. When he was playing for the San Diego Padres, his lover died unexpectedly. He could not mourn him for fear of being outed and it took an emotional toll that resulted in his baseball career ending prematurely after 12 years in the major leagues.

To this day, Bean is among just a little more than a handful of retired male pro athletes in major team sports in the U.S. have come out: football's Dave Kopay, Roy Simmons and Esera Tuaolo, basketball's John Amaechi, and baseball's and the late baseball player Glenn Burke.

But Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas, who retired earlier this year, came out in 2009 to lead the way in his sport. Two soccer pros also came out in 2011: American soccer pro David Testo announced last month that he is gay while Anton Hysen became Europe's most high-profile openly gay player earlier in the year.

'My feeling every time when that happens is it's a step closer,' he said of the soccer and rugby players coming out. 'It's a little more awareness. Soccer is such a huge sport in Latin America and Europe. It can only get us a little closer to what everybody is waiting for and that's with the big male team sports here.'

'It's going to take maybe just one special guy who can really move that ball forward,' he added. 'We'll see.'