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by Julian Spivey  In 2016, Chris Sale, while pitching for the Chicago White Sox, took a knife and shredded a White Sox throwback uniform that he found both ugly and uncomfortable. His team told him he had to wear it, so he threw a tantrum and destroyed it. The White Sox organization sent him home and suspended him for five games for destroying team equipment. Sale was in the middle of his fifth straight All-Star season with the team and arguably the best pitcher in baseball at the time, and his team sent his ass home. Landen Roupp didn’t like his San Francisco Giants rainbow logo cap, so he wrote a Bible verse inscription on it. Writing on uniforms is against Major League Baseball policy. The Giants did nothing. Roupp is a nobody. He has a career losing record and an ERA over four this season on a bad, underachieving team. If the White Sox could stand up to their best player over a throwback uni because it was the team uniform, why didn’t the Giants organization, especially in San Francisco, arguably the gay capital of the United States, do so to a losing pitcher during Pride Month? Cowardice. That’s why. And it’s cowardice on the part of the organization, its manager Tony Vitello, and Major League Baseball itself. The biggest story in Major League Baseball right now is how Roupp and his teammates, JT Brubaker, Ryan Walker and Sam Hentges, embarrassed the game, the Giants organization and turned their back on the gay community and gay baseball fans everywhere by writing Bible verses on their caps (or in Hentges’ case refusing to wear the rainbow logo hat, instead wearing the Giants usual logo cap) for the game during the organization’s Pride Night. Roupp wrote, “Gen 9:12-16” on his hat near the rainbow ‘SF’ logo, a reference to Genesis 9:12-16 about God’s covenant with Noah and all living creatures, establishing the rainbow as a permanent sign of His promise. God pledges that He will never again send a flood to destroy all life on Earth, using the rainbow as a reminder of the agreement.” It’s not an anti-gay verse for sure, but it’s one used by Christian conservatives in their effort to reclaim the rainbow’s symbolism, according to the Los Angeles Times. The rainbow has been used in LGBTQ+ communities as a symbol of gay pride since the rainbow flag was introduced by activists fighting for their freedoms in San Francisco in the 1970s. On a night in which the organization was celebrating Pride Night and likely had a large number of LGBTQ+ people in the stands, Roupp and his teammates ultimately decided they needed to exclaim what they wanted the rainbow logo on their caps to stand for, which is essentially their way of shouting, “No Homo,” for all of the world to see. And Vitello, the team’s manager, didn’t do a damn thing about it. He chose to start Roupp despite obviously seeing the cap, and then, in unison, in relief later in the game, brought in Brubaker, Hentges and Walker, using all four players on his team who chose to protest the rainbow logo. Roupp took the loss in the game on Friday, June 12, against the Chicago Cubs, giving up four runs in 4.2 innings pitched. Major League Baseball sent warnings to Roupp, Brubaker and Walker about writing on their caps, as it’s against MLB policy, but took no further steps (which I understand is typical). However, MLB needed to stand up for the gay community and, at the very least, fine these athletes for their breach of protocol, as it had a negative impact on the game’s values. Imagine if these athletes had written something on the Jackie Robinson Day No. 42 jerseys because they didn’t feel comfortable with what Robinson represented? At the end of the day, it’s not about religion, as people are making it out to be, especially now that conservative politicians want to speak with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred over the fact that the league issued warnings to the athletes involved for breaching their religious liberties. It’s just a damn rainbow. Nobody is asking these athletes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Wear the uniform provided to you by your organization as is, or go the hell home. That’s how it should be. What about John 13: 34-35? “I give you a new commandment. Love each other just as much as I have loved you. For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another everybody will know that you're my true followers.” Roupp, Brubaker, Walker and Hentges seem to like cherry picking the Bible, because they chose themselves over their LGBTQ+ brethren on Friday night.
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