Pride caps got OutKick mad about players being political posterboys but they don't seem to mind Jesus Won? Weird.

Downvote me to oblivion if you want, but I'm just so sad at how the team I've always grown up rooting for has turned out, and I need to talk about it.

This always seemed like a team that would welcome all comers and all types of fans. Now, from the front office down to the players and the marketing department, the focus seems to be pandering to Christians who like to discriminate and no one else.

Baseball is one of our country's finest inventions and institutions. The team is one of the oldest, survived a move from New York to San Francisco, and has produced some of the finest players the game has ever seen. I loved watching Barry Bonds chase the Home Run records (scandals and all), and hearing my dad talk about the Battle of the Bay the year I was born. It was exciting, as a young man, watching them win 3 World Series in 5 years, to freeze out some nights in the outfield stands, hoping the next home run would get to us. I've always supported the team, even if they've been bad, even if I can't watch every game.

I'm a trans woman and married to another woman now. I was happy that the Giants have always had Pride nights, and that the league has embraced the queer community as a whole. I don't need to tell you about San Francisco and the Bay Area in terms of the community. I was looking forward to getting an SF Pride hat and rocking it no matter the standings. Before I even figured myself out, I always thought that if a gay athlete could rise to a professional level and get a shot at making a living for themselves, baseball and the Giants made sense as a destination.

I don't recognize this team anymore. I was so happy to hear Buster Posey getting his position, and now I can't wait for him to leave the league for good. Even the MLB top office and other teams have all navigated any kind of "issue" around showing respect for fellow humans, and they're even calling out the Giants for how they're handling these players who feel the need to wear their religion on their sleeves and make cherry-picked Bible verses their entire personality.

I don't get it. I don't want to get it. And now that we're selling this merch? No.

I hope we continue to lose and fail until they decide to accept fellow humans as humans. I won't ever happily root for the Dodgers, but I would have an easier time doing so now over continuing to back the team I have my entire life.

Sorry, fellow Giants fans, but this is where I draw the line in my fandom. I encourage you to think about where your lines are too. I hope they change one day again and I can feel good rooting for my favorite baseball team again.

I have never been ashamed to be a Giants fan until now. The selfish antics and bigotry displayed by members of our team during Pride night are despicable and embarrassing.
I have been a proud and dedicated Giants fan since 1985. We were season ticket holders at Candlestick. I have listened to at least half of the games every season during that whole time. This team has been a part of my identity for 40 years.
I also identify as Queer. The inclusive culture of the Giants over the years has been such a source of pride for me. To be a fan for the first team in sports to wear the pride colors during a game, the first sports team to have a woman appear in uniform during a game, the team dedicated to supporting Black Lives Matter, made me part of the best fan base in sports.
I have traveled hundreds of miles at least once a year from Oregon with my family to see a game for over 20 years. Every year a purchase a new Giants hat for the season. I have spends thousands of dollars over the years in my support of this team.
No more. This franchise will not get another cent out of me until we return to the inclusive culture that I have come to expect.
The Giants have always been different than other teams. Our culture has been distinct through all my years as a fan, but with this past week’s embarrassing showing by our players but I will no longer consider myself part of it.
I hope that this message will heard by the ownership, by the front office, by the leaders in the club house who all had a chance to interrupt and address their behavior and did not.
You all just lost a fan.

I’m thinking of how we treated Vin Scully on his final game (we were great, in case you don’t remember).

Two things, do you think Dodger fans will pay respect to Mike, maybe even show some class? Also, do you think the Dodger players themselves will remain after the game for the ceremony, assuming they’ll have the first round bye?

I’ve never known Dodger fans to behave well and I wish his Mike’s last game was against another team.

See you Sunday, for no other reason than to give love to Mike Krukow.

Been a Giants fan my entire life. I can put up with incompetence on the field, and mismanagement of players - but the lack of accountability and deafening silence from Buster and rest of the front office gives me pause.

Idk if I’m in the minority but it just seems out of touch for an organization in San Francisco to be nonchalant about it all.

Mods, delete if not allowed.

Reddit’s not the best for organizing anything offline. I wish I’d met some like-minded season ticket holders, but one of its charms is its anonymity. Feel free to DM me, we'll putter around in Willie Mays Plaza before the games this week.

I’ve written a few posts here. One about emailing your local representatives, one about “picnic protesting,” and very recently one about how Gabe Kapler is a mensch, comparatively speaking.

We went to the game the night after the inaugural ride of “Rainbow Roupp.” We bought tickets right behind the dugout, wore Pride gear, and brought some pretty mild signs. “Love Thy Neighbor” and “No Homophobia on Our SF Giants.” We know that Hentges, Walker, and Haase the catcher saw them. We made them for the players to see, no one else. Meaning we didn’t flash them intentionally in our section. Though staff in the Platinum Club gave us smiles, thumbs ups, and one said thank you and was excited we brought signs.

I talked to a fellow fan prior to the game who was sitting a few rows back of Larry Baer. She saw my Love Thy Neighbor sign, claimed Walker was a good kid, and that she’d recently prayed with him. I told her I was glad. I grew up Methodist, and asked her what denomination she was. She demurred and went back to her seat.

Sitting that close for the first time ever, I realized many of these players are young adults, kids really, and certainly not theologians. And in pro sports, the days of coaches teaching life lessons are largely over. After all, you can play in an empty high school gym or field because the game itself is the point. The moment you go pro, the fans in the seats are the point. You’re an entertainer now. You’re being paid to play for others, not just yourself. Maybe they’re just not mature enough yet to realize you don’t insult the people you’re paid to play for.

I’m not the center of the story. I’m writing simply as a concerned fan, someone who goes to 50 plus games a year because they love baseball. More when the A’s were in Oakland. As entertainment goes, baseball is a pretty good one. It’s not that anymore, at least not right now.

What I do know is the following:

- The Giants will try to outrun this over media cycles.

- There will be consistent attempts to belittle and minimize fans who’ve felt betrayed by the team. We've already seen plenty of this. It will continue.

- The revenue generated by fans who go to games is the cherry on top compared to revenue generated by TV, online, etc. We’re symbolic. A perception issue. We don’t pay player salaries.

All this feels kind of, well, shitty.

If anything, what this has done is given me even more respect for the boycotts and protests A’s fans put together. It was singularly the best fan-led movement US professional sports has ever seen. I don’t know how to do that here, however, and I’m certainly not the one to lead it. I’m not even sure the same tactics would work.

But here’s what we plan to do:

- We’ll continue to not spend money at the stadium. (We're already on the hook for our full season package.)

- We’ll continue to bring signs, wear Pride gear, and boo, sadly, our own players where appropriate.

- We hope someone here knows of a planned protest, a season ticket holder, or an organizing meeting.

- Not give up.

- As of now, withhold our season ticket renewal.

We realize now that our fandom of this team is irrevocably changed. And regardless of what the PR geniuses within the Giants organization think, something fractured over the past couple of weeks. While the impact won’t show up in the aggregate the organization is undoubtedly weaker today for what’s occurred.

In that regard, our collective protest efforts so far have been successful. And at the same time, the cost paid by the fans, LBGTQ+ fans, for it has been far greater.

That’s the greatest shame of all.

Regardless, I’ll never stop listening to Jon Miller & Dave Flemming. You don’t get a living Picasso & Van Gogh together in the same room very often.

Unfortunately, all they have to work with right now are various shades of brown.

Moved to the Bay Area for work last year. Started going to Giants games, got into the stats, bought the hoodie, the whole thing. Was genuinely enjoying how much this city loves a team that is 28-42. That is done now.

I want to talk about "freedom," because that word is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the org right.

The Giants sold Pride Night tickets. They sold Pride jerseys. They promoted this night for weeks. They made money off of it. They leveraged the LGBTQIA+ community to fill seats on a Friday night for a last-place team.

And then when four replacement-level employees used that same stage to disrespect and propagate oppression on the people the org just sold tickets to, the response was: "individuals have the freedom to do what they think is best."

That is not freedom. That is a business collecting the check and dodging the responsibility.

"Freedom" has been the go-to shield for this exact kind of thing for decades now, and it has been wrong every single time. Freedom means the government cannot come arrest you for your beliefs. It has never meant that your actions are exempt from criticism, consequence, or basic accountability. Telling a marginalized community to "read the Bible" while wearing their symbol on a night meant to honor them is not an exercise of freedom. It is an exercise of power by someone who knows there will not be consequences.

That is what "freedom" actually means here. It means the org thinks this community's dignity is negotiable. It means they will take the money, but they will not spend any capital defending the people they took it from.

You do not get to monetize Pride and then call bigotry "personal freedom." Pick one. Either this community matters to you, or it does not. If it does, then act like it. If it does not, then you are a comprehensively shity person.

I was just starting to like this sport. Now I genuinely want to know: is this just baseball? Because from the outside, it looks like a league that figured out Pride is good marketing but has zero interest in the part where you actually stand for something.

last week I emailed [TixOffice@sfgiants.com](mailto:TixOffice@sfgiants.com) and asked for a full refund on my single game tickets because I no longer felt comfortable supporting the team financially and my request was approved and processed today.

I know other people in the sub have been asking about this or have reached out to the team for refunds so I wanted to share my story.

I posted this recently as a comment but I’m tired of seeing the same thinly veiled defense of the Rainbow Four come up again and again so I’m posting it as a standalone thread.

All of these arguments saying “players should be allowed to disagree” and “players shouldn’t be forced to support something they don’t believe in” are utter nonsense and a smokescreen to justify and excuse homophobia and bigotry. Do you think that there’s never been a racist player who has worn 42 on Jackie Robinson day? Has every single player who wears camo uniforms on military appreciation day been 100% behind that message? Even foreign born ones? The idea that they should be allowed to express themselves and protest this in this way, especially when there’s a literal MLB rule that prohibits it is ludicrous. It is NOT a first amendment issue. The first amendment prohibits GOVERNMENTAL curtailment of free speech. Private organizations are not covered by this and we see this time and time again. Most recently, many people lost their jobs after speaking out about Charlie Kirk and whether or not you disagree with it, legally those employers had every right to do so. As Roger Munter put it: Not everybody in this country is perfectly happy with what they are asked to wear to work. It’s called “having a job.”

We absolutely do not have to tolerate intolerance and arguments that say otherwise are either ignorant or made in bad faith.

Shohei is a top 10 talent of all time but I’m so tired of hearing broadcasts refer to him as the best player to ever live. Even at his peak, he has never displayed the utter dominance as Bonds, nor has he ever struck such fear into opposing pitchers. This isn’t an anti-Shohei post, but this narrative that he’s “the best” to every play is ridiculous. Bonds’ bat alone is more valuable than Shohei’s hitting and pitching abilities combined. A players greatness should be measured by their overall contributions to the team, and I think it’s foolish to take 2022-2024 Shohei over any Bonds season from 2001-2004.

Shohei can prove me wrong if he puts up 10 WAR per season for the next ten years and wins 4 more MVPs.

Sorry I’ve just been hearing it over and over throughout the playoffs, did my monthly check of Bonds bRef page and got pissed. Recency bias is a bitch.

EDIT: I’m aware Mays’ name is floated around in the GOAT conversation. Love Mays and what he did for the Giants, but he played way before my time, so I can’t confidently make that argument based off stats and word of mouth. I saw Bonds play with my own two eyes, which is why I singled him out.

30/30

What a ride

sfgate.com just ran an article about how bad the chicken tenders are this year. Glad that someone called them out on this. IMO, the overall quality of food across the board has taken a dip, but not the price. As fans we pay a lot of money to go to the game and cheer a sub-par team that was on the brink of losing 100 games. Must be management trying to find ways to "break even". I love the Giants, but this year has been a rough one.

I have seen a lot of comments from people assuming that support for LGBTQ+ culture is inherently anti-Christianity. While there are people who hold that view and its counterpart, I believe most people understand that LGBTQ+ and Christianity are not mutually exclusive.

There is a lot of vitriol going back and forth on the subreddit right now. I'd like to encourage everyone to be kind, attempt understanding and offer charity to others who express distasteful points of view.

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
— Gospel of Matthew 5:44 (JESUS)

Edit: In case you have not seen Roupp's postgame inteview, the title of this post is meant to dunk on Roupp by repeating his own suggestion. Based on how he has expressed himself, has probably not engaged seriously with the text.

A lot of people from both sides have assumed my identity. For context, I am queer and incorporate Christian philosophy into my life. I am the same person who posted the Baseball is for Everyone shirt. That design and this one are available on

baseballisforeveryone dot org.

All profits benefit San Francisco Bay Area organizations supporting LGBTQ+ sports <3

Ive been a long time fan, going back to the windy days at Candlestick and cant remember a worse team/situation. Statistically, there have been worse offenses in the past for example, but if you look at the franchise as a whole, has there been worse?

Last place record with dubious achievements, like not sweeping a team until late June or not overcoming deficits after 6 innings.

Lots of bloated, almost unmovable, under performing contracts

Horrific pitching outside of Webb

A bumbling rookie manager, who just keeps getting worse. Who may be complicit in the actions of bad actors on the team

A GM who’s biggest claim to fame at the moment is having a brother who’s also a GM…for the Angels (Hmmmm brother GM’s of both last place teams in the NL and AL)

An ownership group so concerned with squeezing every penny out of everything, that it has led to one of the worst stadium experiences in baseball. expensive tickets, terrible food, bare minimum promotions that have been limited to so few that it’s near impossible to get one if you don’t line up HOURS before gametime. Even then, the scalpers get to them first.

Not to mention that this ownership group is a real estate investment group FIRST, which takes priority at the expense of the product on the field

And last but certainly not least, an environment of hate has been allowed to fester in the clubhouse. I loved how the Giants were a place that was welcoming to all. but now it’s just another instance in this country of an organization that’s actively promoting division and bigotry.

There are silver linings. We have Eldridge and JHL, coupled with a rising farm that seems to be in the upper half of MLB franchises.

But from ownership on down, has there been a worse total package example of this franchise in this team’s history?

I don’t think so