Major League Baseball (MLB) is facing mounting backlash over threatening to discipline San Francisco Giants players for inscribing Bible verses on their Pride hats — a move critics say reflects the league’s growing embrace of progressive social causes at odds with its fan base.
MLB said the players’ actions violated its uniform policy, which prohibits “writing of any kind” on uniforms, despite the league previously allowing political messages in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The league’s warning came after three Giants players — Landen Roupp, J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker — wrote a passage from Genesis 9 on the franchise’s “Pride Night” caps. The verses in white lettering detailed the Christian understanding of the rainbow as a covenant between God and every living creature after the worldwide flood described in the first book of the Bible.
GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., are demanding answers, citing a “pattern of discrimination” against Christian players in the league.
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“The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate,” Hawley wrote in a letter to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred on Tuesday.
The three Giants players have not yet been fined or punished by the league. But if the league decides to pursue disciplinary action, Hawley said in an interview with “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” Wednesday that he would subpoena Manfred to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and examine the league’s antitrust exemption.
Hawley argued that the league’s enforcement of its uniform policy during the “Pride Night” episode stands in sharp contrast to its encouragement of players to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
That year, several franchises in the league inscribed pitcher’s mounds and jersey patches with messages stating “Black Lives Matter” and “United For Change.”
Hawley also noted the league suspended its own uniform rules, allowing players to write progressive social messages on their cleats.
The league’s account also tweeted a picture of Giants players kneeling for the national anthem and endorsed the move with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
“While they bent over backwards for BLM messaging in 2020, they’re cracking down on religious freedom in 2026,” Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, wrote on social media Wednesday. “This isn’t neutrality, it’s political discrimination against faith.”
“Americans see the double standard,” he added.
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In 2021, the league pulled the 2021 All-Star Game and MLB draft out of Atlanta, Ga., in protest of a Republican voting law. The measure enacted new restrictions on mail-in voting, which Democrats argued would make it harder for Black Georgians to vote.
Former President Joe Biden and former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams endorsed the league’s decision.
Hawley also pointed to a recent scandal involving a Washington Nationals executive alleging that anti-Christian discrimination in the league is not an “isolated incident.”
Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson said the franchise did not include pitcher Trevor Williams in certain social media promotions over his religious objections to the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring a drag group that satirizes Christianity at its 2023 “Pride Night.”
“That executive has since been fired, but not before the anti-Christian bigotry was exposed,” Hawley said, adding that the league “needs to course correct immediately.”
“MLB has a sweetheart deal from the federal government,” he said. “They play by different rules than any other business in America. But now MLB is using its power to target Christians and trample free speech. It’s anti-American.”
MLB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has also warned the league that it risks litigation if it moves to punish outspoken Christian players.
“Time to lawyer up!” she wrote on social media Tuesday.
Fox News’ Ian Miller and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.