MLB has “warned” the three Giants players who wrote Biblical inscriptions on the team’s Pride caps during Pride Night at Oracle Park, according to Jim Buzinski of OUTSPORTS.com. MLB Chief Communications Officer Pat Courtney said, “The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations.” During Friday’s game, Giants Ps Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wore the rainbow Pride caps but “wrote the Bible verse ‘Genesis 9:11-16′ next to the rainbow ‘SF.’” P Sam Hentges, though, did not wear the Pride cap, “opting for the team’s normal hat.” Buzinski wrote the Genesis verse has been “used by Christians as a way to ‘claim’ the rainbow for their religion in opposition for its use as an LGBTQ symbol.” For MLB, a warning is the standard for a first offense, but if a player violated the rule again, the discipline “will escalate” (OUTSPORTS.com, 6/15).
LACK OF REPRESENTATION: In S.F., Ann Killion wrote “some of the snowflakes” on the Giants decided to “say a giant F-you to a good chunk of their fan base.” On a night that “was supposed to be about inclusion, they hijacked the event for their own purposes.” Hentges, who became the first Giants player to refuse to wear the Pride Night gear, said, “It’s just something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it.” Killion: “What about the people who support him, and his team? What about the city whose name is on the front of his uniform, a city that fully backs his team?” She also wondered why the Giants did not “react more strongly to having their uniform defaced” or make it clear that all players were “expected to participate, that it is part of their big-league, highly compensated obligation?” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 6/15).
LOSING THEIR WAY: OUTSPORTS.com’s John Casey wrote if any franchise in American professional sports “has no excuse for letting a night like this slide into a culture-war Bible study, it’s the San Francisco Giants.” In 1994, the Giants became the first professional sports team in the country to host an HIV/AIDS awareness game, which became an annual tradition for the club. In 2011, the Giants were also the first pro sports franchise to join the “It Gets Better” campaign, and in 2021, they became the first MLB team to put Pride colors on their on-field uniforms. Casey: “A team with this résumé should be the last organization in baseball where players feel comfortable turning a night meant to affirm LGBTQ+ fans into a referendum on whether they belong” (OUTSPORTS.com, 6/15).
