Major League Baseball has issued a warning to players not to write on their caps after multiple San Francisco Giants pitchers scribbled Bible verses on their Pride Night hats this past Friday.
“Gen 9:12-16” was inscribed next to the rainbow “SF” emblem on Giants pitcher Landen Roupp’s cap at the beginning of the game. Relief pitchers J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker also wrote Bible verses on their caps. Another reliever, Sam Hentges, wore the Giants’ usual black cap instead of the Pride Night hat.
“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer, said in a statement on Monday.
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball expanded on its statement.
“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 explained, according to The Athletic. “We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s uniform regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment…’
“We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad,’ ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”
According to the MLB Basic Agreement that players sign, “No alterations, writing or illustrations, other than as authorized herein, are to be made to any part of the uniform.”
Landen Roupp explained after the game why he wrote the Bible verse on his hat
“It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and his mercy,” Roupp said. “That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want … and express what we want.”
Roupp also said that the message meant “no hate at all,” it was just “what I stand for and what I stand in.”
For the record, Genesis 9:12-16 reads: “And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’”
Hentges told reporters he didn’t wear the Pride Night hat because he felt like he was “forced to support when I don’t morally support it.”