CatholicVote defends Giants pitchers after MLB warns them over Bible references

CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said June 17 that Major League Baseball's (MLB) decision to warn three San Francisco Giants pitchers for writing Bible references on their Pride Night caps showed that the concerns her organization raised during a recent dispute with the Washington Nationals extended beyond a single team. 

"When CatholicVote demanded the Nationals fire their anti-Christian Director of Community Relations, we warned this bigotry exists in far too many places," Reinhardt wrote on X. "Now we know: these persons exist in the front office of the MLB itself. Religious freedom is not optional. We're ready to fight again."

The comments followed MLB warning Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker that their decision to write references to Genesis 9:12-16 on their team’s rainbow-themed caps during the June 13 Pride Night game violated league uniform rules, as Zeale News previously reported. 

>> MLB says Bible verses on Giants' Pride Night caps violated the league’s rules about uniforms << 

Last month, Reinhardt called for a Department of Justice investigation after undercover footage showed a Washington Nationals executive saying that pitcher Trevor Williams had been excluded from team promotional materials because of his Catholic faith. The executive was later fired, and the Nationals issued an on-air apology to Catholics.

In 2023, CatholicVote also challenged the Los Angeles Dodgers over the club's decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag performance group known for mocking Catholicism. Following the controversy, the Dodgers announced a Christian Faith and Family Day event.

Reinhardt said CatholicVote had prevailed in both disputes and was "prepared to do it again."

Bishop Robert Barron, a former member of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission and one of the most followed Catholic voices on social media, also weighed in on X. 

“Looks like Major League Baseball has given the President's Religious Liberty Commission more work to do,” he wrote. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred demanding the league explain its "apparent pattern of discriminating against Christians while promoting left-wing ideologies,” as Zeale News reported, 

Hawley noted that in 2020, MLB itself authorized "Black Lives Matter" and "United for Change" jersey patches, stenciled "BLM" on pitching mounds, and suspended its equipment rules to allow players to display progressive political messaging on their cleats — while now citing uniform rules to warn players for writing a Bible chapter reference on their caps.

On June 17, Hawley escalated his threat on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, saying that if Manfred fines any player for writing Bible verses on Pride Night caps, he will subpoena Manfred to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and scrutinize why MLB holds a decades-old antitrust exemption worth billions of dollars.