SF Mayor Daniel Lurie ‘disappointed’ in Giants players: ‘It was a rough night’

Just about everyone seems to be weighing in on the polarizing Pride Night at Oracle Park last week. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is the latest public figure to criticize the four Giants pitchers who protested the team’s annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.

Ryan Walker, Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Sam Hentges have sparked an outcry among San Franciscans as well other Pride Night supporters. Walker chose to wear the standard Giants hat rather than the special hat for the event, which has a rainbow-colored team logo.

The latter three added a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps to demonstrate their religious beliefs.

Lurie revealed he was “really upset and disappointed” by their decision.

“This is why we need Pride. We need to lean in and we need to keep educating people, even here in San Francisco,” Lurie said. “It was a rough night, but one that we need to learn from.”

He isn’t the first to call out the Giants hurlers. and Lurie likely he won’t be the last.

Longtime voice of the Giants Mike Krukow believes the players should have been more aware of the city’s strong beliefs and ties to the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think when you’re a player and you come into this environment, it’s your responsibility to know just how sensitive this city is in regards to that cultural freedom and religious freedom, and just the way that you live your life,” Krukow said on KNBR.

“And I think they were in for a rude awakening with the response, and it wasn’t just from the gay community; it was from the Northern California community that supports the gay community.”

The four Giants pitchers have also been reprimanded by Major League Baseball, not for their beliefs but for their violation of the uniform rules.

“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” MLB said in an initial statement.

“To be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message,” MLB added in an additional statement. “We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited.”

While the Giants players have been criticized in the court of public opinion, they have not issued an apology for their decision. Rather, the group has stood firm in their beliefs and remarks.

The EEOC will investigate the report that MLB warned Giants players after they displayed the biblical verses on their hats, said Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

“It is illegal to treat employees differently” on the basis of “protected characteristics, and religion is one of those protected characteristics under our federal laws,” Dhillon said in an appearance on the right-wing Newsmax outlet, encouraging unnamed plaintiffs to pursue legal action through private litigation or through her “friend,” Andrea Jacobs, the head of Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.