The Giants Pride Night was marred by bigotry; A’s aim higher tonight | Opinion
It’s Pride Month, and just as the many beautiful queer people that make up the LGBTQ+ rainbow come out and let their light shine, so do the bigots rear their ugly heads.
On a recent Pride Night, three San Francisco Giants pitchers wrote biblical verses on the special caps all the players were meant to wear to celebrate Pride Month. A fourth pitcher refused to wear the hat with the rainbow SF logo altogether.
Rather than take a stand for inclusion, Major League Baseball issued a vague warning citing a uniform policy that prohibits any messages written on MLB gear, dodging the real issue: players rejecting Pride Month. This sends a message that intolerance can hide behind technicalities.
That’s why it that matters that the Athletics will celebrate Pride Month tonight by remembering Glenn Burke, a talented player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics in late 1970s who also happened to be gay.
According to MLB legend Dusty Baker, who was Burke’s teammate on the Dodgers from 1976 to 1978, Burke’s sexual orientation was known by some within the Dodgers clubhouse. At an event in Sacramento this week to promote his new memoir, Crossroads, Baker said a woman he was seeing told him Burke was gay.
Baker’s reaction to this news a half-century ago was miles ahead of the Giants players last wee.
“He was still my brother,” Baker said. People who identify as LGBTQ+ are a community within our communities. They hold down jobs, pay taxes, do good works and they follow baseball. Pride celebrations are living celebrations of the sentiments that Baker felt toward Glenn Burke.
We are all one community.
MLB did more than dodge controversy in the Giants Pride Night debacle. It erased the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people who have always been part of the game, even if their stories are rarely told. This risks sending the message that exclusion or erasure of human beings is just another opinion, rather than a harmful stance with real consequences for real people.
MLB’s statements about neutrality and free expression miss the point. This isn’t about personal slogans—it’s about whether the league will stand up for LGBTQ+ inclusion or let performative protests go unchecked.
In his time, Burke couldn’t live his truth openly in the way everyone should. Sadly, his story did not become commonly known until after his death in 1995. A handful of other men who played in MLB “came out” after their playing days were over.
That’s sad and, it demonstrates why its important that the A’s are honoring Burke.
His story reminds us that acceptance is possible, even if it doesn’t come easily or quickly. Baker’s willingness to embrace Burke as a teammate and friend, regardless of who he loved, shows how progress happens — one relationship, one act of solidarity at a time.
Pride is about creating a world where everyone can be themselves without fear. When teams and fans celebrate Pride, they send a message of hope and solidarity to the next generation. Athletes who reject that message aren’t taking a brave stand—they’re missing the point of sports as a force for unity and progress.
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 11:36 AM.