Spare Me Your Pride. And Your Prejudice.

NOTE:  This musing recently appeared on our sister site The Double Overtime.  Please visit it regularly for coverage of sports of all sports plus occasional essays on business and technology.

Before I begin, I want to preface with the qualifier that I personally have many friends who are people of faith and many who are in far healthier and loving relationships with members of the same sex than I ever was with anyone of the other–at least legally.  I respect and indeed admire them all.

But I just do not see the need to make these into what are obviously marketing efforts to boost crowds at sporting events and I certainly can’t stand when they become mandated for players to take a public stand while they’re competing.   It creates the kind of attention that I don’t think even a last-place team like the San Francisco Giants would prefer.

ROUNDTABLE SPORTS’ Eduardo Solano did as decent a job as possible to objectively report what has transpired over the last few days:

Major League Baseball issued a warning to San Francisco Giants players after a controversy surrounding Pride Night uniforms created debate across baseball and beyond. MLB celebrates Pride Month during June, and many clubs designate at least one home game to recognize homosexual fans and communities. The Giants, located in a city with a large LGBTQ population, have historically made Pride Night a significant organizational event. During Friday’s game against the Chicago Cubs, Giants pitchers Landen Roupp and JT Brubaker wrote Bible verses on their Pride-themed caps. Another Giants pitcher, Sam Hentges, chose not to wear the cap.

The league responded Monday. MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney explained that writing on the caps violated league uniform policy and that the players were warned regarding future violations consistent with standard practice. “The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations,” Courtney told multiple outlets, including The Athletic.

Roupp referenced Genesis 9:12-16 on his cap, a passage that includes mention of a rainbow and God’s covenant. In comments to reporters, Roupp said his decision was not intended as an expression of hostility but instead reflected his personal religious beliefs and appreciation for the freedom to express those beliefs.

Roupp appeared to be more adept at his Biblical knowledge than the weaknesses of the Cubs, given that he’s lost his last two outings against them and got especially lit up (four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings) on the very night he felt the calling to share his beliefs.  I would therefore assume he also knows 1 Peter 5.3:

“Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”

The website GOD’S BLESSING knows more than I do, too, and here’s how it explains it:

1 Peter 5:3 is about the responsibility of church leaders to serve as examples of humility and to care for their flock rather than seeking power and control over them…not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

That’s certainly been my experience and it allowed me to open my eyes to values like those Roupp holds dear in ways I never thought I could.   And, frankly, that’s also true among my friends who celebrate Pride.  So I’m curious why the Giants felt such a compelling need to wear their Pride caps in competition and force the issue for folks like Roupp et al.

I have absolutely nothing against a team wanting to sell more merch, and in the Giants’ case given the missteps they’ve made in the past it’s a step in the right direction.  In fact, I attended a Dodgers Pride night and was truly jazzed by the Elton John-inspired uniforms the fans wore, and I was especially impressed with the baseball knowledge those fans displayed.  They did not feel  as compelled to speak up as was a beloved Giants personality, as THE BIG LEAD’s J.P. Hoornstra reported Tuesday:

Mike Krukow (, who) has spent more than three decades as a Giants broadcaster since his final season pitching for the team in 1989.. told the San Francisco Chronicle that the actions of the four Giants pitchers lacked sensitivity to those in San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ community..His son, Weston, is openly gay.

“I think that you have the right as a player to believe and say whatever you want,” Krukow told columnist Ann Killion. “But you have to take a broader look at the city you’re playing in. What makes San Francisco so great is the acceptance of others — ethnicities, opinions, cultures — and that extends to the gay community. “I would just hope they would understand the demographic of San Francisco and respect people for who they are.

It’s hard not to emphasize with someone in Krukow’s position, especially when he’s being essentially forced to speak up by the unforuntately ordained second banana in this country, as USA TODAY’s Elizabeth Flores also wrote Tuesday:

The incident gained the attention of Vice President JD Vance, who publicly weighed in on the matter via social media. In a reposted response to the Sports Illustrated social media post, Vance said, “Trump won; we don’t have to do this anymore.”

As a prodigy of one Peter Thiel, who came from the exact community that Krukow paid homage to, one would have hoped Vance might have chosen something even close to empathic.  But I guess anyone seems to prefer furniture over humans shouldn’t be held to such a lofty standard.

I’m surprised given where his boss’s head lies he hadn’t previously weighed in on news that broke in April that had me a lot more ticked off.  Perhaps it may have been because it was picked up by THE YESHIVA WORLD NEWS, which I doubt Vance subscribes to:

The New York Mets have scheduled heritage and community celebration nights for more than a half-dozen ethnic and cultural groups during the 2026 season. Jewish Heritage Night is not among them. The glaring omission was first noted by Kevin Deutsch on his Substack blog, “After October 7,” which covers Jewish-related news.

The team’s official promotional calendar includes themed evenings honoring Italian, Puerto Rican, Japanese, Korean, Irish, Dominican and Mexican communities, alongside Black Legacy Night and a Pride celebration. Jewish Heritage Night, which has appeared on the Mets’ schedule in previous seasons, is absent from both the team’s promotional materials and theme-game listings. According to team materials, the Mets have not hosted a Jewish-themed promotion since 2023…Jewish fans who have noticed the absence say the contrast with the rest of the promotional calendar is hard to ignore.

Forget the ideological debate for a minute.  Let’s just focus on the numbers, as I am want to do anyways.  As YWN detailed:

New York City is home to an estimated one million Jewish residents. The Mets’ fanbase draws heavily from Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island – areas with significant Jewish populations that have historically been among the team’s most loyal constituencies. (Do tell, I was once part of that subset myself).

That’s 11.7 per cent of the estimated 8.584 million New Yorkers per July 2025 census data. Or a between 50-ish to 100-ish percent higher proportion than what the Williams Institute was quoted as being that of gays in San Francisco. as reported in an April 2026 piece on INSPIRED PEARLS.com.

That’s not just an ethnic snub by the Mets—that’s a downright dopey missed merch opportunity.  Especially considering what already exists on the bootleg circuit.

The Giants who doth protested might have lobbied for a trade to the Texas Rangers, who defied MLB by opting not to have any Pride celebration at all.  Those underwhelming pitchers could have joined the regulars who are scheduled to share some thoughts today, per the ALL FOR TEXAS website: