SAN FRANCISCO – One day after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred slammed the San Francisco Giants for a lack of leadership and communication with players over Pride Night uniforms, advancing a cultural and social firestorm that has engulfed the franchise, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey made himself available to the media in the home dugout.Posey’s response? No communication. And no leadership.The Giants’ former All-Star catcher opened the session with a brief statement and then declined to answer a volley of questions about the Pride Night controversy on June 12 in which four players wrote Bible verses on their hats with a rainbow logo or declined to wear the hat entirely.“I understand that there’s strong feelings on this topic,” Posey said. “There’s differing perspectives and out of respect to everybody involved, it’s not something I’m going to revisit. I understand some fans are upset and frustrated. I can promise you this is something that we’ve talked about a lot internally and will continue to do so. Our focus is on the team right now, the upcoming draft, the trade deadline and trying to win games. Anyone who has baseball questions, I’m happy to take baseball questions right now.”What was Posey’s response to Manfred’s charge that the team didn’t do enough to educate players about league policies and whether they were obligated to wear the rainbow hats? Or to the perceived lack of leadership displayed by Tony Vitello, the former University of Tennessee coach whom Posey made the unprecedented decision to manage and has appeared overmatched and overwhelmed in every aspect in his first season?Deflection.“I’m going to answer baseball questions,” Posey said.Posey even deflected a question asking why he won’t answer questions about an issue that has touched a nerve within the fan base and the larger Bay Area community. A team media relations representative interrupted to say that the session would end if the Pride Night questions persisted.The Giants also declined to make upper-level executives available such as CEO Larry Baer or chairman Greg Johnson and that the club’s statement from last week would be the organization’s only comment at this time.“The San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community … We also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations,” the statement noted. “We understand the choice by individual players has caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that. Those choices do not change our organization’s commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all.”The controversy began on June 12, when the Giants celebrated their annual Pride Night with rainbow-colored Giants logos on their caps, as well as pregame events and postgame fireworks. One Giants pitcher, Sam Hentges, declined to wear the hat and three others — JT Brubaker, Ryan Walker and the scheduled starting pitcher, Landen Roupp — opted to write a variation of verses from Book of Genesis on their caps.The players later received a warning from Major League Baseball regarding the messages, and in an expanded statement, the league made it clear that the warning was about the existence of handwritten messages, not their content, writing, “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,” and, “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.”This did not satisfy Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who sent a letter to Manfred, accusing MLB of what he claimed seemed to be a “pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.” The Department of Justice also launched an investigation into how the league handled the matter.Manfred responded with a three-page letter that detailed the specifics of the warning and reiterated it was for handwritten messages of any kind. The letter also explained why the Giants were allowed to wear special caps for Pride Night, saying the team enjoyed “grandfathered” status.