The San Francisco Giants’ Pride night mess won’t go away, and things reached a boiling point before Tuesday’s game against the Athletics.
That’s when Buster Posey, the franchise’s beloved catcher-turned-President of Baseball Ops, sat in the dugout hours before first pitch and fielded questions from a group of … hungry … reporters.
Shockingly, they all wanted to talk about the Pride night fallout. And, somewhat shockingly, Posey refused to answer a single question about it.
Not one. Not even a little bit.
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Things got tense, and awkward, and so uncomfortable to the point that a Giants PR person had to step in and threaten to end the availability if the questions about Pride night didn’t end.
What a scene.
Take a look:
Giants’ Pride night controversy takes another turn
Reporter: Question about Pride night.
Posey: Baseball questions only.
Different reporter: Question about Pride night.
Posey: Again, baseball questions ONLY.
Rinse, wash, repeat. That’s it. Well, to be fair, we did get one Rafael Devers question mixed in, but that was it.
Side note: You know things are bad in San Francisco right now when Buster Posey is thrilled to hear a question about Rafael Devers.
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What a mess. What a bungled mess.
It all stems from the team’s June 12 Pride Night game, in which players wore rainbow hats. Four of them chose to also write Bible verses on the front of their caps.
The rainbow hats infuriated the right. The Bible verses infuriated the left. Shockingly, we were all mad at each other.
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The outrage bled into the political world (again, stunning), and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley penned a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred after the league reprimanded the players for writing scripture on the hats.
He accused Major League Baseball of what he claimed to be a “pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith,” and said the DOJ was opening an investigation.
Manfred apparently got the letter, and promptly lobbed the grenade over to Oracle Park, where he accused the Giants of poorly communicating what was and what was not acceptable on Pride night.
“Unfortunately, this year the Giants’ communication with players was inadequate and not clear,” Manfred wrote. “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.”
Manfred also added that the Giants and LA Dodgers were the only two teams allowed to keep using Pride emblems on uniforms and hats under a grandfathered exception because Los Angeles and San Francisco are home to large LGBTQ communities and both clubs wanted to show support for those fans.
Amazing. What a time to be alive!
We all caught up now? Good. Now, back to Buster Posey …
The Giants did put out a statement last week, which Posey hoped would satiate the media last night.
“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 said. “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.”
It’s a bad look for Posey. That’s the bottom line.
Yes, the line of questioning — and, specifically, the tone it was asked in as if the Giants had committed some sort of heinous act — was equally annoying. It’s insufferable. It always is.
But, Buster Posey is the PRESIDENT OF BASEBALL OPS. He’s a former team captain. He’s been the face of the organization for two decades. If you’re going to trot him out there and make him available to the media, he has to do better than that.
If that’s the best he’s gonna give us, then lock him in the suite and throw away the key. Don’t let him come out. Certainly don’t throw him to the wolves.
What’s the point? It’s only going to make things worse. And, of course, it did.
Frankly, I’m not sure anyone looks great here. The Giants look bad. Posey looks bad. Rob Manfred looks bad. Major League Baseball looks bad.
Nobody comes out of this thing smelling like roses. Everyone is pointing the finger and playing the blame game.
Perhaps — and I know this is crazy — we should just end these “grandfathered” in Pride nights altogether and simply let players do their jobs and play baseball? Crazy thought, I know, but it may just work.
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That way, the only “pain and anger” the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco feels will come from watching the actual team on the field.
And Lord knows, that’s enough this season.