Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...SAN FRANCISCO – Noah Wallace and Matt Foley ordinarily would join the thousands of fans streaming inside Oracle Park to root on the Giants on an idyllic summer night.
Instead, they stationed themselves at Willie Mays Plaza and held up orange poster boards criticizing the Giants’ handling of a Pride Night cap controversy from back on June 12.
“NO BIGOTS IN SF,” read Wallace’s sign.
“BAD and BIGOTED,” Foley’s poster echoed.
They peacefully stood amid a dozen protestors while surrounded by 24 palm trees adorned with rainbow-colored fabric for the ongoing Pride celebration.
“We went to 30 games last year and 15 this year, but we’re not planning on supporting the Giants until the team says something more than they’ve said,” Wallace said 30 minutes before Tuesday night’s homestand opener against the A’s.
Aside from the Giants’ brass couching its comments, much continues to be said by others, from the multiple pitchers who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps nearly two weeks ago, to the U.S. Justice Department and politicians who drew an explanation — and an alarming accusation against the Giants — from Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred.
No, a massive protest or boycott didn’t welcome the Giants’ home after last week’s road trip to Atlanta and Miami. But this is still Pride Month. San Francisco’s famous Pride parade is coming Sunday down Market Street. Feelings are still hurt and even scarred amid the LGBTQ+ community.
Terrri Hupfer, draped in a Pride flag and a Giants’ issued Pride T-shirt, drove 90 minutes from her Delta home to join Tuesday’s pregame gathering, which was organized online and drew more media and police than defiant (or supportive) fans.
“I always felt the Giants were a team representing San Francisco, a diverse city with a lot of queers here. I felt the Giants supported them as much as other patrons,” Hupfer said. “The fact is the Giants administration has not responded at all, other than making a wishy-wash, lukewarm statement.”
Pride Night was one of more than 50 special event nights the Giants schedule for home games every season. The Giants celebrated Mexican Heritage Night on Tuesday, followed by Irish Heritage Night on Wednesday. Jewish Heritage night in July 7. September 23 is Faith Day.
The Giants acknowledged after the June 12 Pride Night game that “the choices by individual players has caused pain and anger to many in the LBGTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.” Specifically, pitchers Landen Roupp and Ryan Walker wrote “Genesis 9:12-16” on their caps, JT Brubaker put “Genesis 9:13-15” on his, and Sam Hentges opted not to wear the Giants’ Pride cap in which the SF logo is embroidered in rainbow-flag colors.
Roupp said after that night’s 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs: “It’s just about God’s covenant and a promise that he makes to us that his faithfulness and his mercy. It’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that. Thankfully, we live in a country where we have the freedom to believe what we want and express what we want.”
Hupfer said, “It was such a slap in the face to happen on Pride Night.”
Giants manager Tony Vitello claimed before the game Tuesday he had “no idea” beforehand about his pitchers’ cap-altering plan.
Poor communication is what Manfred cited in a letter he wrote to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who expressed concern that players were being discriminated against and potentially disciplined
“After the game concluded, my office issued a routine oral warning about the uniform policy violation — unfortunately it was issued before we became aware of the Giants’ lapse in communication,” Manfred wrote in a letter posted by Hawley on social media. “The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.”
Players have the option of wearing their normal hats rather than a Pride-related cap. Vitello stated Tuesday that his polarizing pitchers “let everybody know here they did receive communication” about uniform options.
Asked if Manfred presented a fair assessment of the Giants’ communication, Roupp told this news organization Tuesday that he was “not going to comment on it anymore.”
Buster Posey, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, also declined to elaborate on the organization’s cap stance. Surrounded by some 30 reporters in the dugout before Tuesday’s game, Posey insisted he would only answer baseball-related questions after making an initial statement regarding the Pride-cap controversy.
“There’s differing perspectives and out of respect to everybody involved, it’s not something I’m going to revisit,” Posey said. “I understand some fans are upset and frustrated, and I can promise you this is something we’ve talked about a lot internally and will continue to do so.”
That quote amounted to a “nothingburger” according to one longtime Giants fan, who wore the Giants’ Pride pin and T-shirt and wished to remain anonymous. “I understand he may have been under marching orders not to talk about Pride Night, but I’m very disappointed in ownership and the management team for not making a stronger statement about defacing uniforms and caps,” said the fan, who identified himself as a gay, Christian male living in San Francisco.
Added Foley: “Posey, Vitello – there’s no way they didn’t know what’s going on. This leadership team in incapable of keeping the team in check, and on top of that they’re a terrible baseball team.”
By the time the Giants jumped to a 2-0 lead in Tuesday’s second inning over West Sacramento’s A’s, the protestors had faded from the plaza. Meanwhile, the game went on like business as usual between the former Bay Area neighbors — a rivalry commemorated at the concession stands with “Highway 80 Series” T-shirts, alongside Pride merchandise.