By now, most of you are probably aware of Torii Hunter’s recent comments in the L.A. Times regarding his thoughts on the idea of having an openly gay athlete.

If not, here’s what he said in a Dec. 29 on the difficulties gay athletes still faced in 2012:

“For me, as a Christian … I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it’s not right,” said Hunter. “It will be difficult and uncomfortable.”

When the inevitable backlash arrived, Hunter quickly claimed on Twitter that his quotes had been misrepresented. For his part, the article’s author, Kevin Baxter stands by his reporting and says he has Hunter’s comments recorded.

Also quoted in that L.A. Times piece was Patrick Burke, co-founder of gay advocacy group You Can Play. Burke, you may recall, was scheduled to meet with Yunel Escobar in Toronto last summer after the Cuban shortstop had been suspended three games for writing a homophobic slur in Spanish on his eye black.

When reached by telephone Friday in Boston, Burke, son of Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, told sportsnet.ca that he took a deep breath when he first learned of Hunter’s comments and that they were typical of what he hears from athletes.

“They (say) they have no problem with gay people, no issue with people being openly gay, but (they are) confused as to how they would react to having an openly gay teammate in their locker-room,” he said.

An awful lot of Christian athletes are confused about how they are supposed to react to gay teammates. Educate, educate, educate.

— Patrick Burke (@BurkieYCP) December 31, 2012

In Toronto, the Escobar incident was met with loud cries of outrage from some fans and members of the media. It was the biggest sports story in the city for days, if not an entire week.

In Detroit however, — where Hunter signed in the off-season as a free agent with the Tigers — his comments barely created a ripple. And until Jon Morosi’s column Friday on foxsports.com, the mainstream U.S. national baseball media had largely ignored it.

Burke says he hasn’t personally reached out to Hunter and is satisfied with the explanation the 37-year-old offered on Twitter.

But for other athletes, such as in Escobar’s case last summer, a more intensive course of action is required.

To that end Burke and Jose Estevez — a Spanish-speaking openly gay Boston College runner — flew to Toronto and met with Escobar for an hour and a half.

“You could tell — and I was mostly reading body language because my fourth grade Spanish wasn’t letting me keep up — but in the beginning I think Yunel started out a little defensive and kind of, ‘why am I here,’ but Jose’s got a very strong story and is a very sharp kid and an eloquent kid and he talked Yunel through the issues,” Burke recalled. “By the end of it, I think Yunel really was engaged in the conversation. I think he understood, I think he learned from it and at the end of it, they gave each other a big hug and wished each other the best.

“We have a really, really high success rate when you put us in front of athletes.”

Getting an audience with more baseball players before, not after, the next controversy is something Burke is keen to do. He says You Can Play has let Major League Baseball know they are available to conduct education seminars for the league as a whole or on a team-by-team basis.

He also says it’s too soon to pass judgment on how well MLB is addressing homophobia within the game.

“I’ll have a better answer for you in the coming months,” he said.

One thing Burke is certain of is that an active member in one of the four major North American sports leagues is going to come out soon, and it’s going to be a very big deal.

“I think everyone is looking forward to the day that that athlete is ready and willing to take that step,” Burke said. “I think it’s going to break down a lot of stereotypes and it’s going to give a lot of kids a role model. If you work in sports media, there are writers you can look up to. But if you’re a gay hockey player and you’re 15-years old in Toronto, there’s no one like you in that sense that you can look up to, that you can sit there and say, he did it so I can do it too. We need athletes who are willing to set that example and set that tone.”

When will it happen? Six months ago, Burke said it would happen within the next two years.

“So I guess we’re at a year and a half now,” he said, sticking by his earlier prediction.

And in Burke’s mind there’s no doubt which sport is best equipped to welcome that athlete.

“I know for a fact, hockey is more willing to embrace that player than any other sport,” he said, citing a 2006 Sports Illustrated survey in which 80 per cent of NHLers said they would be happy to support an openly gay teammate.

The other three major leagues polled between 52-61 per cent in the same survey, according to Burke.

“That was before my brother came out, that was before You Can Play launched. My guess is that number is anywhere from 95 to 100 per cent (in the NHL) now.”

Regardless of what number you think baseball is sitting at today, it appears tolerance for gay teammates is one area in which MLB should be working harder to catch up to their friends in the NHL.