How About We Just Play Baseball?

Athletes have every right to reject Pride symbols that—as activists themselves loudly insist—signify an increasingly radicalized set of ‘queer’ political demands.

Detail from an image of what a third-party vendor promotes as a “San Francisco Giants Landen Roupp Genesis 9:12-16 Pride Night Hat.” Roupp, a starting pitcher for the Major League Baseball team, wrote a similar Biblical citation on his hat as an act of protest, during a recent Pride-themed Giants-hosted game.

Anthony Bass pitched in the major leagues for more than a decade, appearing in almost 400 games with seven different teams—including two stints with my own beloved Toronto Blue Jays. He had a great year in 2022. But otherwise, the right-handed reliever was your basic journeyman.

The way his career ended was not so basic, however. On May 29, 2023, two weeks before the Jays were set to host their fourth annual Pride Weekend, Bass reposted an Instagram video describing the sale of Pride merchandise as a “demonic” affront to his Christian faith. He also urged followers to boycott various commercial products, including Bud Light, which was then under fire for a (historically disastrous) social-media campaign featuring a uniquely irritating female-identified TikTok personality named Dylan Mulvaney.

The next day, somewhat predictably, Bass apologised. Following what one presumes to have been a script prepared by the Blue Jays organisation, he told reporters that “I’m accessing Blue Jays resources to better educate myself, to make better decisions going forward.” Because of course, that is absolutely how professional baseball players really talk.

Unhelpfully, Bass also indicated that his personal feelings about the issue hadn’t changed. He simply wouldn’t be discussing them publicly any more.