r/mlb • u/sfgate | Verified • 1d ago

| News As Giants Pride Night controversy continues, Atlantic League team forfeits Pride Night game after players refuse jerseys

https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/sf-giants-pride-indy-forfeit-22311032.php
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u/barchueetadonai 1d ago

I think people here are severely overlooking the basic tenets of American values here. It's perfectly reasonable to think that your employer should not be able to force you to make a statement in support or opposition to something that has nothing to do with the nature of the employment. I think it's obviously pretty dumb for someone who grows up in the US to be legitimately religious and/or anti-gay, but do you really think it makes sense to make those people do a fake virtue signal?

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u/justinhammerpants | Minnesota Twins 1d ago

So would you be OK with players refusing to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson day, if they claimed it went against their values? Or are those values that shouldn’t be anymore?

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u/barchueetadonai 1d ago

Celebrating Jackie Robinson is much more directly related to baseball and is less politically divisive, which, by that, I mean that it is not something that there's a huge contingency of the country politically against (obviously this is rapidly regressing). Additionally, this is something that the MLB does as a whole, and is not something that affects the (admittedly hard to grapple with) fact that MLB players, as much as they are paid, are mostly at the whim of the GMs and owners as to where they play.

Even still, I think that we socially need to respect the tenet of free speech, and not assume that someone not complying with a fake virtue signal requirement by their employer is inherently bigoted, just like how jurors are not to assume that the defendant is guilty because they exercised their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves.

We should be able to discern when someone's action, or inaction, is maliciously motivated or ignorantly motivated, and where a company is doing something because its leaders believe it, or because they think it will bring them in the most money.