Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred said June 19 in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that the league will not discipline three San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their “Pride Night” caps and that players do not have to wear any “Pride Night” themed uniforms, which the Giants previously failed to communicate.
“As a league, we agree with the principle that players or other Club employers—at their place of work—should not be compelled to participate in a celebratory event (particularly by wearing something on their person) if such participation would violate their sincere religious beliefs or values,” Manfred said.
Pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker wrote the verses during the Giants’ “Pride Night” game against the Chicago Cubs on June 12, after players were provided hats with the classic “SF” logo filled in with rainbow colors.
Starting pitcher Roupp, 27, wrote “Gen 9:12-16” in silver marker on his black cap, a verse that reads, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
“It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise he makes to us and his faithfulness and his mercy,” Roupp told reporters after the game. “Just kind of something I believe in and I stand firm in that and thankfully we live in a country where you know, we have freedom to believe what we want, yeah, and express what we want.”
Relief pitcher Brubaker, 32, wrote Genesis 9:13-15, and it was unclear what relief pitcher Walker, 30, wrote. Another relief pitcher, Sam Hentges, 29, refused to wear the “Pride Night” hat altogether, choosing to sport the standard black and orange Giants hat.
“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney told multiple outlets at the time.
The league later elaborated on this original statement, saying “to be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message.”
“The league’s claim that it merely forbids ‘writing of any kind’ on its uniforms does not survive a cursory review of the league’s recent history. In 2020, MLB turned its uniforms and its fields into a billboard for political and social messages ... it suspended its own equipment rules so that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats,” he said.
Manfred said clubs are allowed to hold celebratory or commemorative days that the league does not regulate, and that MLB only prevented clubs from utilizing special uniforms, which include patches, in 2023.
The Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers requested to have pride emblems be a grandfathered exception, which Manfred said the league allowed on the condition that they communicate with players to make sure they are comfortable with the altered uniforms and that neither club requires its players to wear them.
“This year the Giants’ communication with players was inadequate and not clear. Some players apparently did not understand that they had the option to wear their normal uniform,” he said. “Unfortunately [the warning] was issued before we became aware of the Giants’ lapse in communication. The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.”
On June 18, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon also sent a letter to Manfred, alleging possible violation of laws against religious discrimination through its warning to the three players.
She referred the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate further.
“This double standard—under which players may not inscribe Bible verses on hats for one game only but may wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ patches for one game only—calls MLB’s true motives into question and raises serious concerns about MLB’s compliance with Title VII,” she said in the letter.
She said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits the MLB from requiring employees with religious objections to serve as the league’s “vehicle for pro-Pride messages.”
The Epoch Times reached out to MLB but did not receive a response by publication time.
