Giants President Buster Posey sucks at his job, gives tone-deaf Pride Night non-answers

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey had the equivalent of striking out looking with the bases loaded when he held a news conference devoid of news and where he avoided any comments on the team’s June 12 Pride Night fiasco, marred by three players scrawling a religious verse on the team’s Pride Night cap.

Posey’s performance was embarrassing and an insult to a fan base that wants answers on how the team could screw up its response to pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker writing the verse on their hats and a fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, refusing to wear the cap.

The team issued a tepid statement the day after the Pride game but as an organization has said nothing about what happened since. Tuesday is the team’s first home game in nine days and Posey addressed the media, knowing full well what he was going to be asked about. In short, he robotically kept repeating, in the face of legitimate questions, that he would say nothing about what transpired on Pride Night.

Here is a transcript showing how badly it went.

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Posey: “I’d like to recognize that the organization has shared its response to Pride Night, and I understand that there’s strong feelings on this topic. There’s differing perspectives, and out of respect to everybody involved, it’s not something that I’m going to revisit. I understand that some fans are upset and frustrated, and I can promise you this is something that we’ve talked about a lot internally and will continue to do so. You know, our focus is on the team right now, the upcoming draft, the trade deadline, and trying to win games, so anybody that has baseball questions, I’m happy to take baseball questions from you.”

The next question was about baseball, but media members then circled back to Pride Night.

Reporter: “You were a member of this organization for a long time, and every year there’s been a night to honor the gay community. Did you object to those nights when you were a player, and also did you or anyone from the organization talk to [manager] Tony [Vitello], talk to the players, and explain the importance of this demographic to your business, the importance of this evening for the fans?”

Posey: “I mentioned that I’m not going to revisit it, so we want to ask baseball questions. I’ll answer baseball.”

Reporter: “Did you talk to anyone in the community about any of this?”

Posey: “You want to go to baseball questions, I made my statement on it. I’ll answer baseball questions.”

Reporter: “But you have no response to the commissioner saying inadequate and unclear communication?”

Posey: “I’ll answer baseball questions.”

Related

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred blames Giants for mismanaging Pride Night hats
Manfred says the Giants did not convey to four players opposed to Pride Night hats that wearing them was an option.

Reporter: “Buster, why do you want to only answer baseball questions? There are some very important matters that the public is debating at this organization.?”

Posey: “I’m going to answer baseball questions.”

Reporter: “Do you feel it’s not your job as baseball president of baseball operations? I mean, is this something we should be talking to [CEO] Larry [Baer] about?”

Unknown Giants employee to reporters: “Guys, you just need to keep it baseball related.”

Reporter: “You guys have made this baseball related because you had Pride Night, you allowed players onto the field that MLB said should not have had writing on their caps, violated MLB rules, then MLB said that you guys didn’t communicate with the players properly that they didn’t have to wear the hat, so there’s been no response about that.

Giants employee: “We get it. Buster made a statement. If you guys have any baseball questions, you can answer those, or we done.”

Reporter: “Buster, how is the leadership with this team in terms of internal with the clubhouse in the front office, because people, including fans, might suggest that it isn’t where it should be, including the manager and the front office.

Posey: “I mean, other people can speak on me. I won’t. I’m not going to speak on myself. I feel like Tony’s has the clubhouse. I think he has the respect of the players in the clubhouse. Everything’s going to be heightened when our record [31-46] is what it is, but there’s no concern on my part that he doesn’t have the respect of the clubhouse.”

I am shocked that Posey handled himself so poorly. He’s the president of baseball operation and one of the faces of the organization. As a player, he was beloved by fans after helping the Giants win three World Series titles.

He’s had days to prepare for this and I would have expected that he at least would have had a statement that walked a fine line like the one Major League Baseball gave.

He could have spoken from the heart and promised to do better and said that he understood the pain that fans felt while also understanding that a locker room has many diverse opinions etc. Something that shows he has a clue about how much damage this has caused.

Instead, he sounded like a robot, repeating the same thing over and over again. It’s a terrible look for the organization that has long prided itself on being a beacon for LGBTQ inclusion.

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