MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred assured Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that the Christian players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps during a baseball game this month will never be fined or disciplined for expressing their religious beliefs.“The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be,” Manfred wrote.Hawley shared the commissioner’s response on Monday, but the letter was submitted on Friday. The senator characterized the response as an admission that the professional baseball league was “wrong to threaten the Giants players over Bible verses.”
In a letter dated June 16, Hawley sought answers from Manfred on why MLB appeared to discriminate against three San Francisco Giants pitchers who etched “Gen 9:12-16” on their Pride Night hats during a June 12 game.Manfred confirmed the league issued a “routine oral warning” to the players for violating the uniform policy, which prohibits athletes from altering their apparel or equipment in any way.The commissioner noted the warning came before his office realized that the Giants team had a “lapse in communication.” Under MLB policy, Giants players were not required to wear the Pride hats if the LGBT emblem went against their religious beliefs or values. Manfred said the team did not adequately or clearly communicate this to the athletes.“Some players apparently did not understand that they had the option to wear their normal uniform and elected to add messages to their hats bearing the pride logo as a result,” he wrote. “The Giants players were allowed to wear the hats with the biblical references for the entire game.”Manfred denied the league discriminated or chastised the three players based on their religious beliefs, stating it was only trying to abide by the uniform policy “that keeps uniforms clean and avoids controversy.” He said both the positive and negative messages need to be prohibited if the rule is to survive legal scrutiny.“The rationale for the policy is that the league does not desire for its players to become messengers for political or social issues while in uniform playing baseball games because many messages have the potential to offend some segment of our fanbase — even if that was not the intent of the player,” Manfred said.The MLB commissioner failed to mention that the league relaxed its uniform policy in 2020, allowing players to include Black Lives Matter messaging on their uniforms following George Floyd’s death. Hawley mentioned this discrepancy in his letter.Last week, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon referred the MLB case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a possible investigation into alleged religious discrimination. EEOC Chairwoman Andrea Lucas neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the investigation.Apart from the federal government, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway indicated she will open an investigation into the league if she doesn’t get a response by this Thursday.FLORIDA SUBPOENAS MLB FOR ‘SELECTIVELY ENFORCING’ UNIFORM RULES TO REPRIMAND CHRISTIAN PITCHERSFlorida Attorney General James Uthmeier has already opened an investigation and sent a subpoena to the sports association. Following Manfred’s response to Hawley, Uthmeier said the investigation remains open.“Our investigation into MLB will continue,” he posted on X. “MLB thinks it can sweep this under the rug with a non-apology. Any sign of Christian viewpoint discrimination will be rooted out.”
