Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Will Cain Show,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) responded to Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred’s letter questioning the league for its warning to Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker for writing Bible verses on their so-called “Pride Night” hats.
According to the Missouri Republican, Manfred admitted Major League Baseball was to “warn” players about writing Bible verses on their hats.
“Senator, it looks like passing the buck to the San Francisco Giants from Major League Baseball?” host Will Cain asked.
Hawley replied, “Well, it looks like they’re admitting that they’re wrong, Will, which is exactly the case. I mean, the commissioner admitted in that letter that he should not have ‘warned’ — quote, unquote — the players, that in fact they are entitled to not wear the uniforms. They are entitled to express their religious beliefs. And he said, as you just quoted, no player will ever be disciplined or fined for their religious beliefs. And I don’t, frankly, care who he blames for it, so long as he admits that he’s wrong, so long as players’ religious liberty rights are protected. And I just have to say, I think that this is a great outcome. It’s right that Major League Baseball admits they had a big screw-up here, and it’s right that the First Amendment is protected in Major League Baseball. I hope it will be going forward.”
Cain said, “And it goes so far — just to be clear, Senator Hawley, it goes so far, as I understand it, as the Giants cannot make their players wear the Pride uniform.”
Hawley answered, “That’s correct. I mean, that is what the commissioner — I want to emphasize this was the commissioner of baseball responding to me. He said that no player on any club will be required to wear these kind of political messaging uniforms. And, furthermore, no one will be discriminated against on the basis of their religious faith. Now, that ought to be common sense, Will. The fact that we had to go through all of this, I had to threaten to bring him in front of the Senate, put him under oath, he’s being investigated, the league is for other things, all of that is ridiculous.”
“It was stupid on the part of Major League Baseball to do any of this, but I’m glad they admitted they were wrong,” he continued. “Let’s get back to God and country and playing some baseball and stop all this woke garbage.”
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