York Revolution, a minor league baseball team in Pennsylvania, forfeited a game on Thursday that was scheduled to be played during its annual Pride Night event.
The Revolution, who play in the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), announced the news in a statement released late Wednesday night.
“This decision was not reached lightly. Unfortunately, several of our players have refused to wear the scheduled Pride Night jersey and the club decided that hosting the event is more important than forcing players to wear jerseys they are not comfortable with and playing the game,” the statement read.
“As a result, and out of respect for the Pride Community and the York community as a whole, the York Revolution has decided that the game on Thursday, June 18 will be forfeited and that Pride Night will continue on as the feature element of the evening at WellSpan Park.”
The statement went on to denounce the incident as “completely inconsistent with our vision as the Most Welcoming Place in York.” The Revolution added that it was making a $10,000 donation to the Rainbow Rose Center to pledge support for its LGBTQIA+ representing partners.
The Revolution were initially set to play against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs on what would have been the team’s 11th annual Pride Night. The Pride-themed jerseys in question appeared to feature rainbow sleeves; the rest of the uniform remained unchanged.
“I’m disappointed that we’re at this point, and I recognize the players’ plight and their unwillingness to cross their line. I also think tolerance is not acceptance,” Revolution president and GM Ben Shipley told NBC News. “I was just asking for tolerance from the team, and they were unwilling to navigate that with me.”
According to Shipley, fewer than nine players on the Revolution’s 28-man roster were willing to play in the Pride-themed jerseys. Last year, seven players on the Revolution refused to wear the special jerseys on Pride Night, but the game went on as scheduled.
The Revolution’s decision to forfeit its Pride Night game this year comes in the wake of MLB teams’ botched attempts to promote inclusivity and support the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month. Last week, several San Francisco Giants players wrote Bible verses inside their rainbow-themed caps or didn’t wear the themed caps at all during the team’s Pride Night game against the Cubs. The MLB issued them a warning for violating league policy.
“The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations,” MLB’s chief communications officer Pat Courtney told The Athletic.
However, the MLB later clarified its stance by explaining that its warning was not disciplinary and “had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message.”
“We respect players’ right to free expression,” the MLB said in its latest statement. “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.”
