MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told Sen. Josh Hawley that the three San Francisco Giants pitchers who wore Bible verses on their Pride Night caps were never disciplined and never would have been. Manfred defended the league’s warning as routine enforcement.
In a June 19 letter answering the Missouri Republican, Manfred ruled out any discipline for the pitchers and put the root of the controversy on the Giants.
Advertisement
“The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be,” Manfred wrote.
The Giants have worn the Pride emblem under a grandfathered exception since 2023, one of the two clubs allowed to keep it after the league stopped permitting special uniforms for most celebration days. The deal carried one condition: No player could be required to wear the cap.
This year, that exception somehow did not reach the clubhouse. Manfred said the Giants’ communication with players “was inadequate and not clear.” Some pitchers did not understand they could wear the standard cap and wrote messages on the Pride version instead. They wore the altered caps the full game. The oral warning went out afterward, before the league learned of the team’s lapse.
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp throws against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Oracle Park.
Manfred defended the underlying rule as content neutral. It bars players from writing, attaching or affixing any message on a uniform or equipment, and he said it has applied to notes as ordinary as a message to a player’s mother or a tribute to a deceased friend. The league does not want players to become messengers for political or social causes while in uniform, he said. The rule has to apply to every message to survive a legal challenge.
Advertisement
He also said MLB agrees players should not be compelled to take part in a celebration that violates their sincere religious beliefs.
The response lands amid mounting legal pressure.
The Justice Department referred MLB to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on June 19 over possible religious discrimination. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened his own investigation a day later and subpoenaed the league’s uniform records, due July 23. Hawley had threatened to subpoena Manfred and put MLB’s antitrust exemption under review.
The incident was on June 12 at Oracle Park. Starter Landen Roupp and relievers J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on their rainbow caps, a reference to God’s covenant after the flood. A fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, apparently knew of the exception and wore a standard cap. The Giants lost to the Cubs 5-1.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rob Manfred responds to Josh Hawley over Giants Pride cap warning
Read the full article here
