{"id":352628,"date":"2026-06-18T05:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=352628"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:31:08","slug":"josh-hawley-has-grave-concern-about-mlbs-pride-night-hats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/josh-hawley-has-grave-concern-about-mlbs-pride-night-hats\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Hawley Has \u2018Grave Concern\u2019 About MLB’s Pride Night Hats"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Senator Josh Hawley<\/strong> (R-Mo.) wrote a dramatic letter to the Major League Baseball commissioner after three players were warned for writing Bible verses on their Pride Night hats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI write with grave concern over your reported decision to issue a proper warning to a few Major League Baseball (MLB) players for publicly expressing their Christian faith,\u201d Hawley, 46, wrote to commissioner Rob Manfred<\/strong><\/a> on Tuesday, June 16. \u201cThis follows a high-profile undercover investigation that exposed at the very least one MLB team discriminated against a player based on his Catholic faith. You have to answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination inside MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, three San Francisco Giants pitchers \u2014 Landen Roupp<\/strong>, J.T. Brubaker<\/strong> and Ryan Walker<\/strong> \u2014 wrote a variation of verse Genesis 9: 12-16 on their Pride Night hats, which establishes a rainbow because the everlasting sign of his covenant with Noah and all living creatures on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fourth Giants pitcher, Sam Hentges<\/strong>, refused to wear the hat altogether.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYour organization has reportedly issued warnings to those players,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cMLB has said it is a content-neutral policy and that MLB \u2018respect[s] players\u2019 right to free expression.\u2019 But that is dubious, provided that MLB is openly promoting a political viewpoint and possibly compelling adherence to that viewpoint.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cThe league\u2019s claim that it merely forbids \u2018writing of any kind\u2019 on its uniforms doesn’t survive a cursory review of the league\u2019s recent history. In 2020, MLB itself turned its uniforms and its fields right into a billboard for political and social messages. It created jersey patches reading \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 and \u2018United for Change.\u2019 It authorized \u2018BLM\u2019 to be stenciled onto pitching mounds. And it suspended its own equipment rules in order that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n .S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).<\/span> Kayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hawley argued that it was his mission to \u201cexpose\u201d the league\u2019s alleged \u201canti-Christian bigotry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe liberty to live out one\u2019s faith doesn’t end on the ballpark gate,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAmericans of each creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime is not going to single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league\u2019s own selecting. I trust the league shares that commitment, and I stay up for your prompt and complete response.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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