MLB Warns Giants Players for Defacing Pride Night Caps
Republicans are demanding investigations after Major League Baseball chastised Giants players for defacing Pride Night caps with a Bible verse reference.
Republicans and conservative critics are blasting Major League Baseball for warning three San Francisco Giants players who wrote a Bible verse reference on Pride Night caps worn during the team’s June 12 game against the Chicago Cubs.
The Giants have the longest-running Pride celebration in Major League Baseball. According to MLB, the team hosted professional sports’ first HIV/AIDS awareness game in 1994, launched its first official Pride Night in 2000, and became the first MLB team to incorporate the rainbow flag into on-field apparel in 2021.
As reported by The Athletic, starting pitcher Landen Roupp and relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wore Pride Night caps featuring a rainbow-colored “SF” logo but wrote “Gen. 9:12-16” on them, a reference to the Bible verse in which the rainbow symbolizes God’s promise never to destroy the earth again after sending the Great Flood to punish humanity for its sins.
Major League Baseball later warned Roupp, Brubaker, and Walker that future violations of its uniform policy — including writing messages on uniforms or equipment — would not be tolerated. However, there has been no indication that the players will face fines or suspensions.
MLB later clarified that the warning had nothing to do with the content of the message the three players were attempting to convey, even as some critics disputed the players’ interpretation of the biblical passage.
“To be clear, this routine verbal warning…is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message,” the league said. “We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited under Major League Baseball’s uniform regulations.”
The statement continued, “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad,’ ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom,’ and names of family members.”
Relief pitcher Sam Hentges did not wear the rainbow-logo cap, opting instead for the Giants’ standard black-and-orange hat. He later told the San Francisco Chronicle that his decision was rooted in his Christian beliefs opposing homosexuality.
“There wasn’t any hatred behind it,” Hentges said of his decision. “It’s just something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it.”
Hentges also noted that wearing the Pride-themed cap is an individual choice, suggesting that players who objected to the logo could have opted not to wear it.
“We have these hats and we’re supposed to wear them if we support it. If we don’t, then you don’t have to wear them,” Hentges told the Chronicle. “We have that choice.”
Conservative Christians and Republican elected officials seized on MLB’s warning to Roupp, Brubaker, and Walker, arguing that the players were being punished for expressing their religious beliefs.
Vice President JD Vance weighed in on social media, responding to an X post from Sports Illustrated by writing: “Trump won we don’t have to do this anymore.” It was unclear whether Vance was referring to Pride Night celebrations themselves or to expectations surrounding players wearing Pride-themed apparel.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred expressing “grave concern” over the warning, arguing that MLB “must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination” against Christians.
He asked the league to provide its uniform regulations, identify any instances in which Christians may have been discriminated against, and disclose all fines issued for uniform violations over the past five years.
Meanwhile, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, announced that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would investigate whether players were pressured to wear rainbow-themed apparel as part of Pride Night celebrations, according to the New York Post.
“The Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchises from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the League’s vehicle for pro-Pride messages,” Dhillon wrote in a letter announcing the investigation.
Dhillon later told the Post: “It doesn’t really matter how gay San Francisco is — these workers have rights. They have a right to not be forced into a situation like this. They have a right to seek a religious accommodation.”
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