Sen. Josh Hawley is demanding MLB explain why it issued warnings to players who wrote scripture on their caps during Pride Night celebration, saying it fits a pattern of discrimination against Christians.
The MLB’s warning was a response to three San Francisco Giants players writing scripture on their team’s rainbow-patterned Pride Night hats.
Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker featured the Bible verse references on their hats during a June 12 game against the Chicago Cubs. Roup wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on the front of his hat. That verse refers to God’s design of the rainbow as a sign of His covenant with creation following the flood.
In response, MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney told multiple outlets that their displaying writing on their caps “violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations.”
Hawley, in a June 16 letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, wrote, “You must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith,” adding, “MLB has said this is a content-neutral policy and that MLB ‘respect[s] players’ right to free expression.’”
Hawley accused the MLB of being inconsistent regarding its rules of not allowing writing on uniforms. He cited 2020 when “MLB itself turned its uniforms and its fields into a billboard for political and social messages” including jersey patches reading “Black Lives Matter” and “United for Change” and allowing players’ cleats to express viewpoints, namely progressive ones.
“The league went beyond tolerating speech—it designed speech, promoted speech, and shoehorned social and political messages into the game broadcast to millions of Americans,” Hawley wrote. “Yet when three players added a handful of characters citing the Book of Genesis to their caps, the league reached for its rulebook.”
Regarding the reason for writing scripture on their Pride Night caps, Roupp told reporters, “It’s just what I stand for, and what I stand on: I believe in God.”
“It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and his mercy. That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that,” he added. “And I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want, and express what we want.”
Hawley cited an undercover interview in which a Washington Nationals executive admitted that the team excluded a player from its promotional materials because of his Christian faith. The executive was fired as a result.
The senator noted that the MLB has an antitrust exemption and owes the public accountability, particularly “when it appears to wield its market power to punish Americans for their beliefs. That exemption, in any event, has never been understood to shield the league from its legal obligation not to discriminate against its employees on the basis of religion.”
Hawley requested five things from the MLB, including a copy of the uniform regulation under which the Giants pitchers were warned, along with any internal guidance governing writing, markings, or symbols on player apparel and equipment and a list of each instance over the past five seasons in which the league warned, fined, or otherwise disciplined a player or club under that regulation, identifying in each case the message at issue and the action the league took.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has also suggested that the MLB could face possible litigation.
“The [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and state labor laws govern private employer disputes such as these,” Dhillon wrote on X. “Time to lawyer up!”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the MLB for Manfred’s reaction to the letter.
