Harrison Rich, San Francisco Chronicle, on Friday:

On Pride Night at Oracle Park, with the San Francisco Giants wearing special edition hats to represent the LGBTQ+ community, multiple players wrote Bible verses next to the team’s rainbow logo, while one chose to forgo wearing the cap entirely.

Starting pitcher Landen Roupp and reliever JT Brubaker wrote the Bible verse Genesis 9:12-16 on the caps they wore Friday night, the same passage that has been displayed by other players on their Pride Night hats during games.

Despicable anywhere, but especially in San Francisco, home to a massive LGBTQ+ community with enormous history throughout the city.

The Cron’s sports columnist Ann Killion, under the headline “Giants pitchers didn’t just deface Pride uniforms. They alienated their fans and city,” expands:

Like so much about hard right Christianity, the Bible verse that the players scrawled on their hats, to “reclaim” the rainbow, is being usurped in troubling ways. The Genesis verse reads:

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.”

Plenty of people who truly believe in a loving God would focus on the part about all living creatures of every kind.

All living creatures would include everybody, including LGBTQ people, a group of people who have been excluded and persecuted, who have been murdered — including in San Francisco — for simply existing, have found a measure of welcome and inclusion in small efforts like Pride Nights.

Killion rightfully asks:

Was manager Tony Vitello complicit in the protest? His starter, Roupp, wore a defaced cap. And then, in the bullpen parade of another disastrous game, every pitcher he turned to save one (Erik Miller) was also part of the Pride Night protest. Seems like a weird coincidence.

What about the owners? Cyd Zeigler at OutSports notes that the largest stake in the Giants is held by owner Charles B. Johnson, who’s donated millions of dollars to Republicans, “including anti-gay politicians like Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Paul LePage (R-ME) and many others.”

The team issued a mealy-mouthed statement about supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and the players were issued warnings by Major League Baseball, yet no one will face punishment.

The players should at least be benched for several games. Vitello, too. First, for allowing them to violate the team’s uniform and standards; and second, for playing them that night knowing they were planning to protest. If I were the owner, I’d look into releasing them. If they can’t handle wearing a rainbow baseball cap for a few hours, don’t play the game.