Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is demanding answers from Major League Baseball (MLB) after it threatened to punish several players for expressing their Christian faith.
In a Tuesday letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Show Me State’s senior senator requested the league account for its recent warning to a group of San Francisco Giants players over their decision to inscribe Bible verses on their “pride night” hats. The players wrote variations of Genesis 9:12-16, which details God’s use of a rainbow to symbolize His covenant that He would never again destroy mankind by flooding the Earth.
Following leftist backlash, MLB released a statement Monday, saying, “The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations.”
Writing to Manfred about the incident, Hawley cited a recent story involving a Washington Nationals executive who was fired after admitting on camera that the team discriminated against one of their Christian players. In doing so, the GOP senator demanded that the commissioner “must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.”
“MLB has said this is a content-neutral policy and that MLB ‘respect[s] players’ right to free expression.’ But this is dubious, given that MLB is openly promoting a political viewpoint and possibly compelling adherence to that viewpoint,” Hawley wrote.
Hawley went on to argue that MLB’s claim that “it merely forbids ‘writing of any kind’ on its uniforms does not survive a cursory review of the league’s recent history.” He notably pointed to how the league bent over backwards to alter its “uniforms and its fields into a billboard for political and social messages,” such as for promoting Black Lives Matter and suspending its equipment rules “so that players could display progressive political slogans on their cleats.”
“Yet when three players added a handful of characters citing the Book of Genesis to their caps, the league reached for its rulebook,” Hawley wrote.
The Missouri senator concluded his letter demanding that Manfred provide information and records to his office “by no later than” Friday. This includes a “complete copy of the uniform regulation under which the Giants pitchers were warned,” a compiled list of every time the league warned or fined a player or club under the rule over the past five seasons, policies or directives governing “pride night” team apparel, and authorizations for the display of BLM “or comparable messaging” on team apparel and equipment.
“The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate. Americans of every creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime will not single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league’s own choosing,” Hawley wrote.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has also indicated his office will probe MLB over whether it “practice[s] religious discrimination in Florida.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
