New Poll: 81% of MLB Ready for Out Player

Just as the 2014 baseball season is about to begin, ESPN released a new poll that revealed that the majority of baseball players are ready to accept an openly gay player in Major League Baseball.

The poll comes just after New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi stated in February that the MLB would be cool with an out player.

"I think so. I think our world has adjusted to that," Girardi said. "Obviously players want players that are going to help them win championships. That's what we want.

"You see that there's a lot of different cultures that come together," he continued. "There's different ethnic backgrounds, different financial backgrounds. I think players just want to win. Whoever the best players are in that clubhouse, get 'em in here."

The ESPN poll asked athletes: "Do you agree with Joe Girardi that MLB is ready for an openly gay play?"

An astounding 81 percent said they agree while just 19 percent said they disagree. The poll surveyed 143 anonymous baseball players.

"We come in here and we're all trying to do the same thing. Who cares what a guy does in his own time?" an anonymous NL All-Star said.

""Are there people who are going to give a guy a hard time? Yeah, but not too many. There will be a couple of jerks. But the majority of people are going to be like, 'So what?'" an NL infielder told ESPN.

LGBT support seems to be high among athletes. Shortly after Girardi's comments, and not long after Michael Sam came out, ESPN found in a poll that 86 percent of National Football League players would accept an out player on their team.

The poll found that most players weren't worried about a gay teammate, but were more concerned about the trouble "that players would have with learning how to relate to an openly gay teammate," ESPN writes.