Baseball getting a little too prideful
Is it over yet?
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They say the month of June only has 30 days, but somehow it seems interminable. It’s bad enough that radical homosexual advocates have usurped the rainbow and the term “pride” as their personal property, but now they have seized the formerly lovely month of June.
Where will it end?
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Christian professional baseball players were recently steamrolled in the name of Gay Pride Month. Twenty-nine of the thirty Major League teams celebrated Pride Night this year, with the Texas Rangers being the sole exception. Many of these “celebrations” required players to wear special caps, uniforms, or patches promoting homosexuality.
For a moment, let’s stop to acknowledge what doesn’t make the headlines. It is not just the players who are forced to participate. Many team and stadium employees are also required to partake in promoting and selling the event, including handing out paraphernalia endorsing Pride Night, as a condition of their employment. These lower-level employees have no leverage. It’s either go along with a smile or risk losing your job.
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The players have more leverage. But when three San Francisco Giants decided to write Christian verses on their required Pride game hats, you would have thought they had committed high treason. Giants announcer Mike Krukow blasted the players with a threat: “I think they were in for a rude awakening.”
Major League Baseball, which would sell a sponsorship patch on its uniforms to Mephistopheles if the price was right, issued a stern statement about debasing a ball cap: “Writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s Uniform Regulations.” They then quickly added, to cover their butts, that this warning wasn’t due to the Giants players’ actions. Yeah, right.
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As for the MLB players’ union, which is supposed to be protecting its members’ rights? Crickets — nothing but crickets.
Moving east, an independent league baseball team, the York Revolution, had to forfeit a game because players refused to participate in its Pride Night. Instead of seeing the players’ point of view — that management is forcing its employees to go against their religious beliefs — the team doubled down: “To be clear, this action by the players is completely inconsistent with our vision as the Most Welcoming Place in York.” I guess the York Revolution organization doesn’t sense the irony in their statement, as they are plainly unwelcoming to their fans and employees who see morality differently.
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Finally, we had the Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations, Sean Hudson, saying the team does not promote pitcher Trevor Williams because of pro-Christian comments he has made in the past. To the Nationals’ credit, they quickly fired Hudson once the clandestine video of him making these comments became public.
As the interminably long month of June comes to a close, there is a glimmer of hope. The controversy has caused a backlash. Several red-state attorneys general are swinging into action to look into the shameful conduct of Major League Baseball. The feds are also waking up to the unlawful discrimination, with DOJ assistant attorney general Harmeet Dhillon saying, “They don’t mind when players are taking a knee and exhibiting all kinds of stuff on the job, but when people are pushing back on being forced to promote a sexual practice that is against their religion, they’re threatening them.”
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Gone are rainbows, “pride,” and the month of June. Maybe, just maybe, baseball won’t be taken away as well.
