“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. We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s uniform regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment…’ “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad,’ ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”

Right. The episode puts me in mind of my Dad’s favorite epitaph,

“Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.”

In other words, you can be technically correct but your insistence on getting your way can prove needlessly fatal anyway.

The Giants were the first professional sports team to host a game that raised awareness and money for the HIV/AIDS epidemic with “Until There’s a Cure Day” in 1994. The team then jumped on that slippery slope in 2021 when it became the first team to incorporate the rainbow symbol celebrating non-conformist sexual behavior on their on their caps for their annual Pride game.

Imposing political correctness on employees by forced political conformity and speech is legal (the Giants are not the government) but unethical. Personally, I would quit a job that made me do that, and in the past, I have refused directives to, for example, give to a charity my employer supported. Roupp, Brubaker and Walker, plus reliever Sam Hentges, who opted against wearing the Pride Night cap in the game, chose the perfect mode of protest. Break the rules, and make the game punish them for referencing the Bible. It’s a Cognitive Dissonance Scale masterpiece!

See, for most baseball fans, the Bible is high in positive territory. Punishment for quoting the Bible will always be in negative territory no matter what the reason. The players forced baseball to align itself with an unpopular position while they remain firmly in the plus- portion of the scale.

In my ethics seminars, I always discuss the act that is ethical but illegal: it is civil disobedience. You break the rule and suffer the consequence to make society aware of a bad law, in this case, sports pandering to specific interest groups and forcing its players to express support for something they may not want to support. That’s a First Amendment violation when the government does it. It’s just wrong when a company, organization or sports team does it.