Republicans Rally to Protect Baseball Players Who Wore Bible Verses on Pride Night Hats

Vice President JD Vance is among the many Republican politicians defending three baseball players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night hats.

San Francisco pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker inscribed Genesis 9:12-16 on their Pride Night caps in white lettering, referencing passages from the Book of Genesis that describe God’s covenant with Noah following the worldwide flood.

The passage reflects the first instance of a rainbow—a symbol for the LGBTQIA community.

Major League Baseball stated that the writing violated its rules and warned the players about future violations.

“To 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,” MLB told The Athletic about the incident.

“We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s uniform regulations,” MLB added.

“Trump won we don’t have to do this anymore,” he wrote.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., went further by sending MLB a letter citing his “grave concern” about the warnings issued.

“You must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith,” Hawley wrote.

Hawley noted that MLB previously created jersey patches reading “Black Lives Matter” and “United for Change,” and authorized “BLM” to be stenciled onto pitching mounds.

“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 added.

Hawley also referenced a prior incident where a Washington Nationals employee was fired after claiming during a hidden camera investigation that a player was not included in promotional materials for the team because of his faith.

The Missouri senator requested that MLB respond to his letter by Friday.

“The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate,” Hawley said. “Americans of every creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime will not single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league’s own choosing.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon criticized MLB on social media.

“The @USEEOC and state labor laws govern private employer disputes such as these,” Dhillon wrote. “Time to lawyer up!”

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said MLB should reverse its decision immediately.

“Let me get this straight, @MLB teams can host ‘pride night’ but players wearing Bible verses is an issue?” Britt asked on social media.

“Last I checked, freedom of religion was still one of the founding principles of our nation and enshrined in our constitution,” Britt added.