Giants pitchers play the victim after defacing Pride hats last week
Ryan Walker and J.T. Brubaker spoke about the backlash to their anti-LGBTQ messaging.
Mark
There have been enough opinions on the San Francisco Giants’ Pride hat debacle to fill an entire parade procession during June, but the one party we haven’t heard from yet is the guilty party… until now.
Pitchers Ryan Walker and J.T. Brubaker were two of the players who scribbled Bible verses on their caps during Pride Night at Oracle Park last week, and they finally spoke about their side of the story that has swept the nation.
As expected, they played the victim card.
“It was just one of those things where we’ve seen other baseball players do it, so we went along with it,” said Brubaker. “We felt there wasn’t going to be as much kickback on it. … Players have done it in the past and it didn’t seem like it was blown up that big.”
It’s kind of false to say that it hasn’t made headline news in the past when something like this happened. Los Angeles Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw wrote the same verse, Genesis 9:12-16, on his Pride cap last season.
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No, that story didn’t go viral quite as much as this one.
First, Kershaw had worn the Pride cap without any Bible verse before. His willingness as a Christian to wear a symbol that simply said, “The LGBTQ community is welcome in the ballpark” no doubt led all the Dodgers players to do it in the past.
Second, while Los Angeles is very gay-friendly, doing it in… San Francisco? Are you nuts?
Third, Kershaw didn’t play in that game. All three of these Giants players did pitch.
Fourth, the actions of three are more noticeable than one, even when it’s Kershaw. Thinking that a trio of players could upend Pride and use Christianity as the typical shield was ignorant.
Now these pitchers are acting as if they’re the ones who are the forebearers of inclusivity after spitting in the face of that concept.
“I expected some of those [negative] comments, but did I expect it to get this big? Not necessarily,” Walker said.
“At the end of the day, we stood for what we believe in. All the love to those people. I enjoy playing for the city. I love playing for the Giants and at Oracle.”
Brubaker then went on to twist what the players did and argue that the Bible messaging was a sign that all fans are equally accepted by the players and the team.
“We want to welcome anybody and everybody in that ballpark,” said Brubaker.
“They’re saying that we’re using it as a mockery because God calls us to love everybody. He does, he does call us to love everybody. And we do love everybody.”
You know what actually would have shown that these three Christian pitchers for the SF Giants welcomed everyone to the ballpark? Wear the Pride cap without public objection and not write a Bible verse stripping the LGBTQ community of its Pride rainbow symbol.
If you had just worn the Pride hat without objection — or even, like a teammate and two Dodgers players the week before just worn a regular game cap — it would have given the LGBTQ community a more-positive “welcome” these players claim they wanted to offer.
And they could have written that or another verse any of the other 161 Giants games this season. And most appropriately: the Giants’ Faith Day on Sept. 23.
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