Fan who admired Willie Mays tells Giants they allowed ‘bigotry’ during Pride Night
For lifelong San Francisco Giants fan Jessica, the lack of a meaningful apology for the team's Pride Night debacle is hugely disappointing.
Mark
This is part of Outsports’ series of “Dear Giants” letters written by San Francisco Giants fans and sent to the team after their mishandling of this season’s Pride Night, with Bible verses written on Pride caps by three players intending to send an anti-gay message during Pride Night.
Jessica has been a San Francisco Giants fan long enough that she remembers Hall of Fame player Willie Mays playing centerfield at Candlestick Park. For those just joining the conversation, that’s the stadium once shared by the Giants and the 49ers on the Bay in San Francisco.
Candlestick Park played host to the Giants until 2000, when the more-recent downtown baseball park — now called Oracle Park — was built.
That’s a long time for Jessica to be a Giants fan. Yet she has seen enough in the last couple months to move away from the team, with the ensuing Pride Night debacle the team has engaged in.
While saying the team could possibly engage in a public-relations conversation about the team’s embrace of LGBTQ rejection on Pride Night, Jessica was pretty blunt about the team’s final straw that has led to her feeling abandoned by the team.
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This SF Giants fan named her son after a legendary Giants player. Her husband proposed at a game. Now she’s disappointed in the team.
“I’m afraid the window for the Giants management to make a meaningful apology has closed.”
The Giants do in fact have a Jewish Heritage Night, as referenced in Jessica’s letter to the team. This year it was on July 7 this season.
Dear Giants,
As a born-and-raised San Franciscan and lifelong Giants fan (my earliest baseball memory is of seeing Willie Mays in centerfield at Candlestick while on a field trip with my Kindergarten class) I am appalled by the anti-LGBTQ sentiment expressed by several Giants pitchers on Pride Night.
What’s next? Swas****s allowed on players’ caps on Jewish Heritage Night?
The Giants organization should be ashamed for permitting this kind of bigotry at the ballpark.
Jessica from Santa Rosa
If you are a longtime San Francisco Giants fan and sent a letter to the team expressing thoughts about their Pride Night debacle, DM us on social media or email us at team@outsports.com
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