Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., received a letter from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred regarding the San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps, saying they wouldn’t be facing any discipline for what has now been labeled a controversial moment.
Hawley, making an appearance on “The Will Cain Show,” was happy with the response from Manfred and MLB.
“It looks like they’re admitting they’re wrong, Will, which is exactly the case,” Hawley told Cain. “I mean, the commissioner admitted in that letter that he should not have warned ‘the players.’ That they are entitled to not wear the uniforms, that they’re entitled to express their religious beliefs. And he said, as you just quoted, ‘No player will ever be disciplined or fined for their religious beliefs.’
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“I don’t frankly care who he blames for it so long as he admits that he’s wrong, so long as players’ religious liberty rights are protected.”
Hawley added that he believed this was a “great outcome” despite the fact that he needed to reach out to MLB about it.
“I want to emphasize this is the commissioner of baseball responding to me,” he explained. “He said that no player, on any club, will be required to wear these kinds of political-messaging uniforms. Furthermore, no one will be discriminated against on the basis of their religious faith.
“Now, that ought to be common sense, Will. The fact we had to go through all of this — I had to threaten to bring him in front of the Senate, put him under oath. He’s being investigated, the league is for other things. All of that is ridiculous. It was stupid on the part of Major League Baseball to do any of this, but I’m glad they admitted they were wrong.
“It’s right that Major League Baseball admits they had a big screw-up here, and it’s right that the first amendment is protected in Major League Baseball. I hope it will be moving forward.”
One Giants player opted out of wearing the Pride Night hat on June 12 at Oracle Park. Reliever Sam Hentges wore the team’s standard black and orange hat during the game instead.
But it was pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker who all wrote Bible verses during to the rainbow logo on the Giants caps during the team’s game that sparked controversy. Roupp penned “Gen 9:12-16” on his cap, which references a passage from Genesis describing the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant after the flood.
MLB had initially said the writing violated league rules against players altering their uniforms or equipment. And in the letter to Hawley, Manfred noted the rule was collectively bargained with the MLBPA, and it prohibits players from writing, attaching, affixing, embroidering or otherwise displaying messages on apparel or equipment.
“The policy is enforced without regard to the substance of the messaging,” Manfred wrote in his letter. The purpose of the rule is to prevent players from displaying any political or social messaging, but freedom of religion falls under the first amendment, which was Hawley’s argument, and others, all along.
“Let’s get back to God and country and playing some baseball, and stop all these woke garbage,” Hawley concluded.
OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske contributed to this report.
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