Free Republic

Growing up in Qualicum Beach, a town of 5,000 on Vancouver Island, Tyler Hoffman got hooked on baseball at 5 and was umpiring games by age 12. After graduating from "umpire boot camp," the Academy of Professional Umpiring in Florida, Hoffman launched his pro career in the minor leagues. Working games across the United States 200 days a year, he ate, worked, played, lived and breathed baseball — truly "one of the boys." But Hoffman, now 29, kept a crucial part of himself out of the locker room. "You just learn to bottle it up and deny that you're gay...