SAN FRANCISCO — In celebration of Pride Night, every Giants player wore a rainbow logo on their cap representing the LGBTQ+ community when they hosted the Cubs on Friday.
Starting pitcher Landen Roupp, however, made an alteration seen before by some big-league players, inscribing a Bible verse in silver adjacent to the rainbow logo.
The exact verse wasn’t immediately decipherable by television cameras, though it appeared to be the commonly used Genesis 9:16.
It is not an unprecedented move for one of the many religious members of Major League Baseball to take exception to their team’s Pride Night on the grounds that it conflicts with their faith.
The most recent example was Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, who refused to wear the Dodgers’ Pride Night cap earlier this month. Roupp didn’t go that far, but he took a similar action as Clayton Kershaw, who also inscribed the Gen. 9:12-16 verse on his cap.
In the past, former Giants shortstop Nick Ahmed took the same move, opting for the same passage, Genesis 9:16.
The verse repurposes the rainbow as a symbol of God, stating in part, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’”
Roupp, in his third major-league season, was raised in rural North Carolina and attended the private Faith Christian School in Rocky Mount before attending UNC Wilmington for college.
In Roupp’s social media, he displays the Bible verse Philippians 4:13.
The Giants have the longest-running Pride celebration of any team in the majors, becoming the first team in professional sports to host an HIV/AIDS awareness game in 1994. They hosted their first official Pride night in 2000 and first incorporated the rainbow flag into their on-field apparel in 2021.
In 2022, they and the Dodgers became the first teams to both wear Pride hats during a game.
