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Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The San Francisco Giants and Major League Baseball have been mired in a somewhat contrived controversy since several players protested their annual Pride Night celebration by writing Bible verses on hats that featured a rainbow version of the team’s logo.
Some have wondered if the fallout from the drama, much of which has resulted from misunderstandings, some accidental and some purposeful, will have a long-term impact on the franchise.
Longtime Bay Area baseball beat reporter Susan Slusser thinks there might be one unique way the team will be impacted.
During an appearance on KNBR’s Murph & Markus, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter was asked if the situation would have a long-term impact on the team’s ability to attract free agents.
“Susan, you’ve been doing this for a while. You’ve covered teams beyond the Giants, and you have a good sense for baseball and the players because you talk to them routinely,” said Larry Krueger, subbing in as host. “We were getting into the details of the Giants’ decisions, Pride Night, the communication, and all of that. But if we back away a little bit, has the Giants organization done real damage in the eyes of players?
“Are they going to have a hard time attracting players because other players are looking at these guys being called bigots and attacked in the media for either not wearing the hat or writing biblical verses? Do you think, long term, the Giants are going to have a hard time attracting free agents because of what happened this year?”
“I mean, bigoted free agents, maybe, I guess,” Slusser replied.
“Look, Sam Hentges was the guy whose comments after that game—he chose to wear the regular Giants hat and not write a Bible verse, which is probably the right way to go about it, I think,” she continued. “Afterwards, he kind of held forth about morals and things like that, and it was pretty distasteful, some of those comments, to the LGBTQ community. He was a free agent who chose to sign in San Francisco. Probably not uppermost in your mind is thinking, ‘The Giants wear a Pride hat every year,’ but it is part and parcel, and he signed here.
“Certainly, it’s not a secret that San Francisco has a huge gay community, many gay fans. To me, this is a little bit on the players. If you don’t want to be a part of that, A, maybe don’t openly insult your paying customers after a game, but B, don’t sign here.
“Maybe that will happen. I don’t know. But that just seems honestly kinda crazy to me. You know where you’re coming. This is San Francisco. It’s not a secret.”
After Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker wrote a Bible verse on their Pride Night hats, Major League Baseball released a statement, saying “the writing on the cap violates our rules and, consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations.”
That statement helped kick-start a culture-war conversation, with many Republican political leaders criticizing the league and calling out the perceived hypocrisy of admonishing players for expressing their beliefs, with Vice President J.D. Vance even chiming in.
MLB then sent out a second statement, saying that its warning was unrelated to the specifics of the players’ messages and directly regarding any alteration to an official uniform.
The Giants didn’t help matters when GM Buster Posey refused to answer questions about the event and controversy, and KNBR hosts were barred from asking Giants CEO Larry Baer any Pride Night questions during a team-sponsored radio show.
Baer later said that the team could have handled things better, adding that “we take pride in being industry leaders in that effort with the LGBTQ community” and that the team “received floods of complaints” after “failing to address the issue with more than a statement.”
Since then, while loud critics in right-wing circles have continued to gin up concerns about the event and the treatment of the players, other members of the Giants community, like broadcaster Mike Krukow, have defended the team and San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ fanbase.
The broader conversation around Pride Night celebrations is likely to continue, as it’s red meat for certain people, especially in an election cycle. But it seems very unlikely that professional sports franchises in San Francisco and many other U.S. cities that appreciate diversity and acceptance will stop anytime soon.
The post Giants reporter Susan Slusser: ‘Bigoted free agents’ might be put off by Pride Night concerns appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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