MLB ‘must answer’ for warning after Giants pitchers’ Pride Night message: Sen. Hawley

Sen. Josh Hawley sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday demanding answers after the league issued a warning to three San Francisco Giants pitchers who wrote a Bible passage on their caps for the team’s LGBTQ Pride night on Friday.

Mr. Hawley, a Missouri Republican, expressed concerns about the players’ limited freedom of expression in a 700-word letter to MLB’s chief decision-maker.

“You must answer,” Mr. Hawley wrote, “for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith. … The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate.”

The Giants pitchers — starter Landen Roupp and relievers J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker — wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on their hats. The associated Bible verse refers to the Book of Genesis, where God describes the rainbow as a “sign of the covenant” between God and the Earth and promises not to flood the world again.

The players were not suspended or issued any financial punishment for the act. MLB officials called the warnings “routine,” noting that the league has issued similar guidance for players who have written messages to family members on their hats.

“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 said in a statement. “We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited.”

The explanation did not assuage the concerns of Mr. Hawley and other MLB critics, who pointed to the league’s actions during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. MLB officials let players to wear official “Black Lives Matter” and “United for Change” patches on their jerseys. “BLM” was also stenciled onto mounds at MLB ballparks.

“[MLB] suspended its own equipment rules so that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats. 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,” Mr. Hawley wrote. “Yet when three players added a handful of characters citing the Book of Genesis to their caps, the league reached for its rulebook.”

He requested a thorough explanation of the league’s rules on player expression, the policy on LGBTQ Pride expectations and a list of past warnings for players who wrote messages on their uniforms.

The senator was not the only politician frustrated by MLB’s decision.

“Trump won,” Vice President J.D. Vance wrote on social media. “We don’t have to do this anymore.”

Mr. Manfred has not publicly responded to Mr. Hawley’s letter, which requested an answer by Friday.

MLB is the only major professional league that enjoys an exemption from federal antitrust laws. Mr. Hawley implied that the league could face more scrutiny based on its recent actions.

“A league that benefits from such an extraordinary dispensation owes the public a corresponding measure of accountability, and it invites the closest scrutiny when it appears to wield its market power to punish Americans for their beliefs,” he wrote. “That exemption, in any event, has never been understood to shield the league from its legal obligation not to discriminate against its employees on the basis of religion.”