San Francisco Giants pitchers defend Bible verse protest on Pride Night after backlash
ATLANTA – Ryan Walker often gets messages from angry fans after poor performances on the mound. He begins to hear about his sarcastic decisions.
And the response has been flowing fast and furious.
“A lot of ‘comments’,” Walker told the California Post. “There was a pretty good mix there. It was to be expected.”
None of the four pitchers — Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, Sam Hentges and Walker — who protested in various ways during the Giants’ annual LGBTQ+ Pride celebration last week, however, expected to draw this level of attention.
“It was one of those things where we saw other baseball players do it, so we went along with it,” said reliever JT Brubaker, who along with Walker and starter Landen Roupp showed their opposition to their faith by writing versions of the Bible verse Genesis 9:12-16 on their caps next to the rainbow symbol the team wore every year.
Sam Hentges went all out wearing the usual black and orange Giants hat.
“Not just compliance, but these are our beliefs,” Brubaker continued in an interview with The Post.
“We realized there wasn’t going to be as much kick to it. … The players have done it in the past and it didn’t seem like it was blown up too much.”
This move received the attention of everyone from the office of the MLB league, which issued a warning to the three players who wrote Bible verses by changing their uniforms, to the Vice President, and JD Vance giving his support to the decision of the players.
The public uproar has seen the Giants issue an apology for any “hurt and anger” caused by their players’ actions, while adding that “people can choose for themselves by participating in the making of the team.”
“I expected some of them [negative] comments, but I expected it to be so big? It’s not,” said Walker.
“At the end of the day, we stand for what we believe in. It’s all love for those people. I enjoy playing for the city. I love playing for the Giants and Oracle.”
Despite the attack, Walker said he would do it again and hopes the extra attention will help spread his faith, which he said was instilled in him growing up by his father.
“For me,” he said, “it’s about being positive and getting people to read the Bible and understand what it really means.”
Brubaker, on the other hand, is ready to resume his normal, lesser-known life as a middle reliever. Still, he has no regrets.
“At the end of the day, I just want this done and over with,” she said. “We’re here to play baseball. This has been going on for about a week now. Just play ball, that’s all I want to do.”
Comedian Rob Schneider offered to pay any fines issued to the players (there were none), and Republican Senator Josh Hawley called for a federal investigation into MLB.
Some players, like Jeremy Affeldt, talked about changing their beliefs after playing in the tight-knit, diverse and tolerant city the Giants call home.
The Giants became the first professional sports team to put a princess flag on their field uniform in 2021 and get full participation from their players until this year.
The Pride celebration is also the oldest in professional sports, dating back to the first AIDS “Night for a Cure” in 1994.
“I don’t think so [playing in San Francisco] it changes my perspective on the word of God,” said Walker.
“We want to welcome anyone and everyone to that ballpark,” added Brubaker.
“They say we use it as a joke because God calls us to love everyone. He calls us to love everyone. And we love everyone.”
That, however, was not how the message was interpreted by some fans and members of the LGBTQ community.
Brubaker has heard positive feedback since the story went viral, but still, “there’s a lot worse out there.”
One team Brubaker didn’t hear from was the league office, which released statements Tuesday reminding players that “writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited under the Uniform Rules of Major League Baseball” while clarifying that the warning had “nothing to do with the content of the message.”
According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, a second violation will be met with a fine of $1,000 and $5,000 for each subsequent violation.
The league described it as “a general warning,” and Brubaker confirmed that he had not received anything in writing — or heard from any MLB officials.
Similarly, manager Tony Vitello said he was unaware of MLB’s warning until a communications executive informed him before meeting with reporters on Tuesday.
