When the San Francisco Giants recently held Pride Night, said Hannah Keyser in CNN.com, three of the team’s pitchers decided to make a “culture war” statement. JT Brubaker, Landen Roupp, and Ryan Walker scribbled the numbers of Bible verses next to the rainbow-colored logo on their themed caps to protest the celebration of the Bay Area’s large LGBTQ+ community. The three Christian pitchers could have simply opted not to wear the rainbow cap, as a fourth Giants pitcher chose to do, but instead they decided to express their religious beliefs about homosexuality. Major League Baseball issued a mild warning that the players had violated a rule against personally modifying on-field attire without prior approval, saying its reminder “had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message.” Still, MLB’s response sparked outrage on the Right. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused the league of religious discrimination, and the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation. “Trump won,” chimed in Vice President JD Vance. “We don’t have to do this anymore.”
Tell that to the hypocritical left, said Becket Adams in National Review. Sportswriters and progressives promptly portrayed the pitchers as “villains.” But it wasn’t long ago that another San Francisco athlete, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, refused to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality against Black men. His demonstration was far more “conspicuous” than what the three Giants did. For expressing his views, Kaepernick was celebrated as a “civil rights hero.” Actually, said Scott Ostler in The San Francisco Standard, Kaepernick paid dearly for kneeling during the anthem. He was vilified by conservatives and “blackballed from the NFL at age 29,” ending his career. That was wrong, just as it would be wrong to punish these baseball players for “their peaceful protest.”
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