Citing league policy, Major League Baseball has issued a warning to three Giants pitchers who inscribed Bible verses on their Pride Night caps during Friday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
“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 The Athletic and Outsports in a statement.
Starting pitcher Landen Roupp and relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker each appeared in the game with Bible verses scrawled on the evening’s special rainbow-colored caps, originally meant “in celebration of Pride and the LGBTQIA+ community,” per the Giants organization. Reliever Sam Hentges, who also appeared in Friday night’s game, opted not to wear the Pride Night cap at all and instead donned the Giants’ regular orange and black cap.
Asked about his cap following the game, Roupp told reporters that “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, 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.”
Roupp’s verse, Genesis 9:12-16, reads as follows:
“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.'”
The Giants’ pitchers are not the first MLB players to add Bible passage numbers to Pride-themed caps. Most notably, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw inscribed the same verse as Roupp on his cap for his organization’s Pride Night last season.