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MLB Facing DOJ Probe Over Pride Night Backlash

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San Francisco Giants
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Major League Baseball is now facing a federal civil-rights probe after Christian players were warned for writing Bible verses on Pride-themed caps.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon put MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on notice Thursday that federal officials are opening a religious-discrimination investigation into the league.

The warning landed after several San Francisco Giants players added Bible passages to rainbow-logo caps issued for a game, triggering pushback from the league over what MLB described as a uniform-equipment rule.

Dhillon’s letter argued that MLB cannot turn players into unwilling messengers for Pride campaigns if doing so burdens their religious rights.

“The Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchises from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the League’s vehicle for pro-Pride messages,” Dhillon wrote in the letter.

She also questioned whether the league’s stated reason for warning the players held up.

Dhillon pushed past MLB’s uniform-rule explanation by pointing to other messages the league had permitted players to display.

“Yet, MLB has allowed players to wear uniform patches reading ‘Black Lives Matter.’ This double standard — under which players may not inscribe Bible verses on hats for one game only but may wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ patches for one game only — calls MLB’s true motives into question and raises serious concerns about MLB’s compliance with Title VII,” Dhillon argued.

Dhillon said the Trump administration would pursue employers that violate religious protections.

“The Trump Administration is committed to combatting religious discrimination,” Dhillon added. “The Department of Justice will use all available means to hold employers accountable for violating the religious rights of their employees.”

The flashpoint came during San Francisco’s Pride Night, when starting pitcher Landen Roupp marked his rainbow-logo cap with a passage from Genesis.

JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker also added Bible verses to their caps.

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Reliever Sam Hentges avoided the Pride cap altogether, taking the field in the Giants’ standard black hat.

Earlier in June, Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen made a similar choice by skipping the rainbow-logo cap on Los Angeles’ Pride Night.

After the Giants game, Roupp told reporters the Bible verses were not intended as an attack.

“It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us — his faithfulness and his mercy,” Roupp told reporters, according to Sports Illustrated. “That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that.”

A day later, the Giants tried to defend the event and cool the backlash at the same time.

“The San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community. Baseball should be a place where everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued,” the team said in a statement.

“We also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations. We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.”

Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer, later confirmed to The Athletic that the players had received warnings over “future violations.”

He said writing on the caps “violates our rules.”

The controversy immediately spilled beyond the clubhouse. The pushback also reached the broadcast booth, where longtime Giants voice Mike Krukow delivered an emotional defense of the team’s Pride Night on KNBR.

Krukow framed the issue through San Francisco’s broader history of supporting oppressed groups and gay residents.

“It’s hard to put it into perspective when you have so much emotion and so much of love for people who have been pinged at and oppressed and there was so much prejudice at you,” Krukow said.

“The gay community has had to deal with issues, as the black community, as any minority community has had to.”

He also reached back to the franchise’s AIDS fundraising work in the 1990s as proof that the club’s stance was nothing new.

“It’s your responsibility to know just how sensitive this city is in regards to that cultural freedom and religious freedom and just the way that you live your life. And I think they were in for a rude awakening with the response,” Krukow argued.

Republican officials and conservative figures then pushed back against MLB.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri pressed Manfred for answers about how MLB polices player expression.

“The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate. Americans of every creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime will not single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league’s own choosing,” Hawley wrote.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier signaled that his own office may be next to contact MLB.

Rob Schneider offered to put his own money behind the players if MLB punished them financially.

“I will pay the fines for any @MLB Christian player who wears a Bible verse on their uniform,” Schneider wrote on X. “@MLB is ANTI-CHRISTIAN.”

MLB had not fined the three Giants pitchers as of the latest reporting.

The baseball Pride fight was not limited to the majors.

In Pennsylvania, the York Revolution forfeited to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs after “a number” of players refused to take part in the club’s 11th annual Pride Night. The players have not been publicly identified.

Afterward, the Revolution pledged $10,000 to the Rainbow Rose Center, which promotes visibility and inclusion in southeastern Pennsylvania.

“To be clear; this action by the players is completely inconsistent with our vision as the Most Welcoming Place in York,” the team said.

The Pride Night event still went ahead, and the team offered ticket exchanges to fans who missed the forfeited game.

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