David Baggs forges his own path as openly gay Red Sox exec

David Baggs knew something was wrong.

Not with his career path by any means. After stops in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay and San Francisco, he was working a rewarding job managing the new ticket sales academy for his beloved childhood team, the Boston Red Sox.

He was also overseeing a team of co-workers he respected in an organization that gave him immense pride as a Bostonian.

But he was harboring a secret. Baggs was a gay man working in sports and as he navigated that world during the first few stops of his career, he mostly kept his sexuality hidden. He recalled gradually coming out to a few trusted co-workers while with the Tampa Bay Rays but otherwise acknowledged that he didn’t want to ruffle feathers during a much different era for LGTBQ people in the sports industry.

Underneath an idyllic surface, that secret was eating away at him.

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He had noticed the environment gradually shifting for the better early on in his tenure with Boston. For example, when Michael Sam came out publicly prior to the 2014 NFL Draft, Red Sox executive Sam Kennedy tweeted, “I don’t know football but I do know courage.”

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Baggs read that and felt optimistic about how his new employers might react to his true self but still didn’t feel ready to take the big step of coming out to the organization.

“You’re being trusted with a new department. You just don’t know until you know,” he said.

Then in 2016, Kennedy invited Billy Bean to speak at the annual Red Sox front office town hall and tell his life story. Bean’s harrowing tales of the torment he endured as a closeted player in the 1990s visibly moved many of Baggs’ co-workers to tears. In the midst of such an emotional day, one moment in particular struck a chord with Baggs.

“Billy made a comment that there were only five openly gay executives within Major League Baseball. And I’m sitting there like, ‘What are you doing? You’re sitting here, you’re supposed to be hiring, recruiting, training young professionals and you’re not even showing them who you really are,’” he recalled.

Despite the guilt he felt, Baggs knew he also had an opportunity to change that statistic for the better. Shortly afterward, he came out over e-mail to Kennedy, who responded immediately by visiting him to hug it out and offer his full support.

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Baggs, an honoree on the 2025 Outsports Rising 50, then met with his team in the sales academy to come out to all of them in person and found similar responses of acceptance and approval. Eventually, he published his coming out story at Outsports and received a wave of congratulatory messages sent by everyone from team ownership to Red Sox season ticket holders.

Later that season, Baggs had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch standing next to Bean on Red Sox Pride Night. Even while working in baseball, it wasn’t every day that someone like Baggs had the opportunity to share a public ceremony with a player who inspired him to change his life for the better. 

“It was a fantastic moment and I’ll never forget it. Billy was a role model, a friend, and an idol of mine,” Baggs said.

Coming Home to a Ring

Growing up just north of Boston in the town of Reading, Mass., Baggs became a baseball fan at a young age. During his childhood, he realized like most New Englanders that “the Red Sox are a Bible of sorts.” 

Baggs endured most of the Book of Job parts of being a Sox fan during his childhood and eventually made it to the promised land thanks to the legendary 2004 World Series champions.

Two years later he was working in baseball himself. While living in Los Angeles, a friend informed Baggs that the Dodgers had an opening for an entry level ticket sales role. After a few months at Chavez Ravine, he moved across the country and began working in group sales for the then-Devil Rays as the 2006 season got underway.

After five years, he was back on the West Coast selling personal seat licenses for the new San Francisco 49ers stadium. During all this time, he never dreamed that he’d have a chance to work for his boyhood favorites. After all, the Red Sox were one of the best teams in baseball year after year and practically sold themselves to their rabidly loyal fan base.

But then the 2012 squad finished in last place in a season that descended to new lows seemingly every week. The Sox lost about 10% of their season ticket holders in one year and suddenly found themselves with a pressing need to create a new sales academy.

When word reached him about this department, Baggs answered the call and has never looked back. 

“It was a little surreal,” he recalled, “My mother was beyond excited. My father didn’t quite believe that this was all happening. And it was really a blessing to have that all come to fruition that year. I’ve been here almost 15 years. I couldn’t have asked for a better spot.”

His first season with the Red Sox turned out to be one of the most important years in franchise history. On Patriots Day 2013, Boston was rocked to its core when two radicals detonated bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Baggs still has a powerful memory of the first game back at Fenway Park after they were captured and the city could begin going about life again.

“There were people tearing up and [David] Ortiz got out there and said a lot of things which was awesome, to see him standing up for the city in the way he did. He’s a very emotional guy and it was great to see that. That was a very emotional April for sure,” Baggs said.

In the wake of this tragedy, the 2013 Red Sox connected with their home city in a way that few teams have in all of sports and rode the momentum to another World Series title. Baggs got to be at Fenway with his family and friends on the night the Sox clinched their first championship in Boston in 95 years.

“When you’re part of a fan base like that, to have moments like that…I’m having a hard time putting it into words but it’s just an experience I’ll never forget,” he said.

Figuring that his team in the sales academy would have to concentrate on mitigating losses after the embarrassment of 2012, Baggs found himself with an unexpected challenge. 

“When the team’s winning, it’s your job to maximize every last opportunity,” he explained, “Sometimes when the team’s winning, it’s harder because expectations are much higher.”

As the years have passed and the Sox’ fortunes have swung from last place finishes to another championship in 2018, Baggs has risen through the ranks of the front office, being promoted to Vice President of Season Ticket and Special Event Sales this past January. Through it all, he has maintained an understanding of what makes Boston sports fans tick.

“I tell our sales team here that ferocity when we’re losing is actually a good thing because that means that fan really cares,” he noted.

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A Full Circle Tribute

Over that same time as Baggs navigated his personal coming out journey, he watched Red Sox Pride Night grow from a modest 500 fan promotion in 2013 to an event that sells over 7000 ticket packages every year. This season, he also got to ride on the Red Sox Pride Parade float with Liam Hendriks.

“I never thought we’d have a player on the float,” Baggs said, “It matters. You can talk until you’re blue in the face but when people see it…I remember being on the float and somebody said, ‘Where are the players?’ And Liam’s like, ‘Right here!’ And the fan got all excited and did a photo with him. So it was just great to see and I’m sure Billy would’ve loved to see that.”

Just as Bean influenced his life in a profound way, Baggs has also tried to pay it forward with his co-workers by offering his services to the Red Sox Pride Employee Resource Group. He proudly observed that there are now several out LGBTQ front office members working at Fenway Park.

For several years, Baggs would decompress from the job by playing in Boston’s gay flag football league. Through it, he met numerous friends who have become part of his chosen family and engaged with The Hub’s gay community. Although he no longer actively plays, Baggs remains involved with securing donations and offering Red Sox experiences for fundraising events.

When Bean passed away in 2024, it hit him hard. Fittingly enough, since it was Bean’s appearance at the 2016 Red Sox town hall that changed the course of his life in baseball, Baggs had the opportunity to pay tribute to Bean when ownership asked him to speak at another town hall during that summer.

“I was a little nervous about doing it at first because I don’t want to do a eulogy in front of the whole town hall, but we turned it into a positive,” he said.

After Bean had such a profound influence on Baggs’ personal trajectory and inspired him to live his truth, he was now in the position of finding the words to amplify Bean’s legacy. It was a fitting bookend for one of the most important professional relationships of Baggs’ baseball life.

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