The story behind the ‘high five’: how a baseball player accidentally invented a new way to celebrate

If I asked you to name the most instantly recognizable celebratory gesture in the U.S., you’d probably land - with a crisp sounding slap – on the high five. It’s simple, satisfying, and somehow still feels cool, even if your dog can now be trained to do it too.

Remember this from the Emoji movie?

Where did the high five originate?

And, like me, you may have assumed that the high five has been around forever – surely Neanderthals were at it, right? – but the truth is that it wasn’t until October 2, 1977 that it really took off. Or at least that’s our best theory to date.

“It seemed like the thing to do.”

Dusty Baker

That day, during a Los Angeles Dodgers game, outfielder Dusty Baker had just hit his 30th home run of the season. As he rounded home, teammate Glenn Burke – standing on deck – threw his hand in the air. Baker, unsure what else to do, just slapped it.

“His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back,” Baker later said. “So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do.”

And that was it. A casual, impulsive move between teammates became a nationwide habit.

What other high five theories are there?

That single slap between Baker and Burke has been accepted as the official origin of the high five, though others have tried to claim it – basketball players, military vets, even Magic Johnson. There was also a fake backstory involving a guy named Lamont Sleets that turned out to be a prank by two comedy writers. ESPN called them out in 2011.

But the Burke-Baker version stuck, in part because it was real, and so meaningful. Glenn Burke was one of the first openly gay athletes in American pro sports, and the high five eventually became a symbol of pride in San Francisco’s Castro district, where Burke lived after retiring.

Burke’s baseball story is less celebratory. He was traded in 1978, played just 25 more MLB games, and by the early ’80s was out of the league entirely – ostracized, many believe, because of his sexuality. He came out publicly in 1982 and died of AIDS-related illness in 1995.

It’s ironic, and more than a little bittersweet, that this small gesture, born in a joyful moment, came from a man baseball mostly chose to forget.

Here’s the Half as Interesting video explaining the same story with visuals (double as interesting, you could argue):

So there you have it. A more recent ‘invention’ than you may have expected, but one I think you should make a point of using within an hour of reading this article!

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