Billy Bean while Linda was pregnant, but separated when Billy was six months old. Linda married Ed Kovac, a police officer, and they had five children together. Bean attended Santa Ana High School, and won a state championship with the school's baseball team. He enrolled at Loyola Marymount University on an athletic scholarship to play college baseball for the Loyola Marymount Lions. After his junior year, the New York Yankees selected Bean in the 24th round of the 1985 MLB Draft. Though the Yankees offered Bean a $55,000 signing bonus, Bean followed through with his promise to return to Loyola Marymount for
Sport Billy of the Sport Billy franchise, licensed the property to American studio Filmation to create a cartoon based on the character. As a European character, Sport Billy's main sport was soccer, and this was reflected in the introductory sequence of the Filmation program. Sport Billy was adopted by FIFA as the Fair Play Mascot for FIFA World Cups, and a trophy of the character was presented to the most sporting team at each World Cup. The character was used as a mascot in many sporting youth programs internationally, promoting sportsmanship and fair play . The series consisted of 26 episodes. It