Good morning, baseball fans.
It has been two months since members of the San Francisco Giants decided that the organization’s Pride Night celebration was an appropriate time to intentionally opt into wearing the (completely optional) Pride hats in order to proselytize their religious beliefs (aka intentionally use the opportunity to further antagonize LGBTQIA+ members of the fanbase).
Because, you know, that’s what totally normal and well-adjusted members of a society do on a night meant to uplift a specific group of people.
Since that night, a whole lot of people have had a lot to say about the topic. Some in good faith, some using the moment to further an agenda of hatred and as an opportunity to further the backsliding campaign against the LGBTQIA+ community.
But you know who has had very little to say about it? The people that matter within the organization.
In 20 years, will I remember which players decided to scribble on their hats because their frontal lobes hadn’t fully developed yet and they thought it made them seem cool? No, probably not.
But you know what I will remember? The silence from the organization at large.
I’ll remember the way that Gerald Posey, a man I had previously respected for the better part of two decades, decided to call a press conference and then cowardly repeat the same bullshit phrase “baseball questions only” over and over again.
He did that with what I guess you could call a straight face to respected members of the press who, rightfully, expected an actual response from an organization supposedly representing the San Francisco Bay Area. That same San Francisco Bay Area that has decades of LGBTQIA+ history in terms of the fight for our rights and our basic human decency.
He looked us in the eyes and told us that an affront on our humanity by the organization that he essentially runs wasn’t even worthy of a response.
And it has not gotten any better since then. On any front. The 2026 team is a joke and the organization is an even bigger embarrassment. And they have not felt the need to even address the issue since maybe late June.
They are hoping we will forget. But they aren’t exactly giving fans any reason to even try to forget.
They are keeping up with one singular trend: the enshittification of everything imaginable to extract the highest amount of profit for corporate shareholders. The baseball is crap and the organization seems to just have outright contempt for a lot of their fans. (But of course, not our money.)
I have been struggling with this decision for two months. Because surely this team that I have loved since before I knew what love or baseball even were wouldn’t conduct themselves this way. Surely it has to have been an oversight and there’s something being worked on in the background.
But day after day of silence and outright hostility at times has come and gone with absolutely no attempt at repairing the damage that was done.
So it is with a heavy heart that I have to say that if they do not do anything to mend this, this will be my tenth and final season covering, or even calling myself a fan of, the San Francisco Giants.
It breaks my heart, because I worked like hell to get here. I wanted this so badly. I loved doing this. I loved writing about this team. It made me so proud.
But there is nothing to be proud of anymore. Which is ironic, I guess, since Pride is all about being proud of who you are and the struggles you’ve overcome to openly be your authentic self.
But I guess, when it comes down to it, I will also be proud of leaving. Because if you don’t stand up for what is right, then what is the point of anything, in the end?