the first high five occurred between Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 2, 1977 in Dodger Stadium.

…It was a wild, triumphant moment and a good omen as the Dodgers headed to the playoffs. Burke, waiting on deck, thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate. Baker, not knowing what to do, smacked it. “His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back,” says Baker, “So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do.”

After retiring from baseball, Burke, who was one of the first openly homosexual professional athletes, used the high five with other homosexual residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, where for many it became a symbol of gay pride and identification.