Giants broadcaster goes ballistic on pitchers’ Pride Night Bible verse battle

Longtime Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow absolutely exploded at the players’ decision to include Bible verses on their hats during Pride Night.

Ryan Walker, Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Sam Hentges perhaps made one of the most controversial decisions of their careers — as three of the pitchers opted to write a Bible verse on their Pride Night hats, which featured a rainbow-colored San Francisco logo.

The Giants held their annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community last Friday — which descended into a nightmare for many after the four Giants players protested the event.

“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.”

“There’s an irony too because the Giants organization is getting dumped on as well, and that hurt me,” Krukow added. “It hurt me because I saw in 1994 that they were the first team to ever take on the challenge of going against public opinion and the outrage of even associating with the gay community, and they openly went out and said, ‘We support the gay community. We support until there’s a cure day. We are going to raise money to fight AIDS. We support the community.’ And they did it with love.

“… And the Giants were the first team at the ballpark to wave the pride flag, and that took on criticism from around the country. So it hurt me to see that there was criticism directed towards the Giants, because of all that they have done to help the gay community, and the relationship between the Giants and the gay community has always been amazing.”

Krukow is one of many resistors regarding the four Giants pitchers, who were given a warning by Major League Baseball about making alterations to their uniforms.

“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.”

The public outcry has been palpable in San Francisco, but Walker told the California Post the enraged response came as a surprise.

“I expected some of those [negative] comments, but did I expect it to get this big? Not necessarily,” Walker said.

“At the end of the day, we stood for what we believe in. All the love to those people. I enjoy playing for the city. I love playing for the Giants and at Oracle.”

The organization’s ties to the LGBTQ+ community are strong, but the latest spectacle highlights the controversial divide between the team’s beliefs and some of its players.

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