Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, made some new comments this week about last month's Pride Night debacle in which four Giants pitchers decided to protest the recognition of LGBTQ fans by way of their uniforms.

"The understanding with the two clubs that were grandfathered, in terms of using logos on the field, was that they would take responsibility to communicate with their players that they had the option to wear their own uniforms if they were uncomfortable with whatever logo it happened to be," Manfred said Tuesday at the annual Baseball Writers’ Association of America lunch in Philadelphia, per the SF Standard. "That didn’t happen. End of story."

The "two clubs" Manfred was referring to were the Dodgers and the Giants, who both have annual Pride Night games and have special rainbow logo hats for the occasion. Wearing the hats isn't mandatory for the players, as Manfred reiterated, however this wasn't adequately communicated and in order to express their distaste for the event, or for LGBTQ visibility in general, three pitchers scribbled a Bible verse on their caps that refers to Noah's rainbow — a verse cited by some evangelicals and conservatives to suggest, spuriously, that rainbows shouldn't belong to the queer community, or something.

The three players who defaced their caps, Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker, were issued warnings by Major League Baseball, because uniforms are not allowed to be embellished in any way at MLB games — including with phrases like "Hi mom!" or the like. A fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, exercised his right to not wear the Pride-themed cap and wore his regular Giants cap instead, which was perfectly legal under MLB rules.

Manfred said as much in a written response last month to Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who immediately took umbrage with the official warning, suggesting that the players First Amendment religious freedoms were being infringed upon.

"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," Manfred said at the time.

The entire controversy, and the handling of it by Giants' President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey — who has refused to address the issue or offer an official apology on behalf of the team — left a major distaste in the mouths of fans, LGBTQ or not, and has just been one of several toxic aspects to the team's current season.

In better news, San Francisco and the Giants are likely going to be the named hosts of the 2028 MLB All-Star Game, as was first suggested last year. As reported today, once negotiations are settled between the Players Association and MLB over the conditions for players participating in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the final decision will be made about the All-Star Game, with both events likely to happen on the West Coast so that transportation is easier for the players participating in both. (And because the Olympics will be happening in SoCal, MLB doesn't want to have to compete for attention down there by having the All-Star game in LA or San Diego, and Seattle just hosted it in 2023, so SF only makes sense.)

Previously: Self-Described 'Christian' Homophobes In Giants' Bullpen Deface Pride Night Hats

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