{"id":366149,"date":"2026-06-18T19:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366149\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:47:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:47:45","slug":"after-mlbs-pride-night-warning-to-giants-players-sen-josh-hawley-sends-letter-to-rob-manfred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366149\/","title":{"rendered":"After MLB\u2019s Pride Night warning to Giants players, Sen. Josh Hawley sends letter to Rob Manfred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following Major League Baseball\u2019s warning<\/a> to three San Francisco Giants players who inscribed Bible verses on their caps during the club\u2019s Pride Night celebration, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) penned a letter<\/a> to commissioner Rob Manfred citing concerns over what he called a \u201cpattern of discrimination\u201d against Christian players.<\/p>\n

\u201cMLB has said this is a content-neutral policy and that MLB \u2018respect(s) players\u2019 right to free expression,\u2019\u201d Hawley wrote. \u201cBut this is dubious, given that MLB is openly promoting a political viewpoint and possibly compelling adherence to that viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB declined to comment on Hawley\u2019s letter, though it issued a statement earlier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo 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,\u201d the league said in a statement to The Athletic. \u201cWe respect players\u2019 right to free expression. \u2026 We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as \u2018Dad,\u2019 \u2018Happy Mother\u2019s Day, I Love Mom\u2019 and names of family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants players were not fined or subject to any disciplinary action by the league.<\/p>\n

Hawley\u2019s open letter to Manfred stemmed from Friday\u2019s series opener against the Chicago Cubs, when three Giants pitchers \u2014 Landen Roupp, J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker \u2014 inscribed some variation of \u201cGen 9: 12-16\u201d on their Pride Night caps. A fourth, Sam Hentges, declined to wear the hat altogether, opting for San Francisco\u2019s standard black hat with orange lettering.<\/p>\n

MLB Pride Night hats have included on-field apparel in which the club\u2019s logo on the hat is filled with a rainbow, a longstanding symbol for the LGBTQ+ community.\u00a0 The Bible verse the pitchers wrote on their caps refers to the rainbow<\/a> as a covenant between God and \u201cevery living creature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just about God\u2019s covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and his mercy,\u201d Roupp told reporters. \u201cThat\u2019s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I\u2019m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want \u2026 and express what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to fallout from the players\u2019 decisions, the Giants released a statement apologizing for the pain it might have caused to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community. Baseball should be a place where everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations. We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.\u00a0 Those choices do not change our organization\u2019s commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain grateful to our fans, partners, employees, players, and coaches who help make Pride Night a meaningful celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB\u2019s uniform regulations stipulate that a \u201cPlayer may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB players have, at times, broken those rules, however.<\/p>\n

In the last World Series, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays relievers wrote Alex Vesia\u2019s No. 51 on their hats<\/a> in a show of solidarity for the reliever, who missed the championship after the death of his newborn daughter. Earlier last season, following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Blake Treinen, a Dodgers reliever, drew two crosses with Kirk\u2019s name<\/a> in the middle of it on his hat. It hasn\u2019t been publicly revealed whether those messages resulted in a warning from the league.<\/p>\n

The three Giants players who wrote on their caps weren\u2019t the first to make a statement regarding Pride Night, which has been adopted by every big-league team except the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season, two Dodgers players, Treinen and Alex Call, did not wear the team\u2019s rainbow Pride Night hats<\/a>. Last season, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw inscribed the same Bible verse from Genesis on his hat<\/a> during the club\u2019s Pride Night. It isn\u2019t known if Kershaw was warned by the league.<\/p>\n

In 2022, five Tampa Bay Rays players \u2014 Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson \u2014 opted out of wearing the club\u2019s rainbow-colored hat and peeled off a rainbow patch<\/a> on the right sleeve of their team-issued jerseys. At the time, Adam called it a \u201cfaith-based decision.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In his letter, Hawley pointed to the Washington Nationals\u2019 decision to fire a community relations executive<\/a> after he was taped in a hidden camera conversation revealing internal deliberations about what he said was a social media ban on a Catholic pitcher. Hawley said the incident showed MLB\u2019s \u201canti-Christian bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The executive, Sean Hudson, said that pitcher Trevor Williams was not used in certain social media content following his condemnation of the Los Angeles Dodgers for hosting the Sisterhood of Perpetual Indulgence, a satirical volunteer group, at their stadium in 2023.<\/p>\n

In citing MLB\u2019s antitrust exemptions, Hawley has asked Manfred to respond to a list of five requests by June 19, including guidance on marking apparel and equipment, as well as policy on player participation on Pride Nights, among other demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freedom to live out one\u2019s faith does not end at the ballpark gate,\u201d Hawley wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Major League Baseball\u2019s warning to three San Francisco Giants players who inscribed Bible verses on their caps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1334,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,12902],"class_list":["post-366149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}