The Los Angeles Dodgers have long been one of Major League Baseball’s most successful franchises, which means their players often find themselves at the center of conversations that extend beyond wins and losses.
Whether it involves league policy, community initiatives or on-field traditions, Dodgers players are often asked for their input on the larger discussions surrounding the sport.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw Reenters Pride Night Debate
Most recently, that meant weighing in on a controversy surrounding their division rival San Francisco Giants, after several players modified or refused to wear rainbow-logo hats for a recent Pride Night event.
“This year, three pitchers on the Giants – including that night’s starter, Landen Roupp – appeared to protest the spirit of the symbolism. Roupp wrote ‘Gen 9:12-16’ on his hat, a reference to a Bible verse about rainbows — recasting the design as a reference not to Pride but to God’s covenant with the living after the Flood,” CNN’s Hannah Keyser wrote. “The others added similar Biblical messages.”
That decision has ignited a debate about the decision, with LGBTQ advocates and Vice President JD Vance weighing in. And as the debate continues over what players should and should not place on their uniforms, Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw has reentered the spotlight.
For years before the latest Giants’ event, Kershaw would modify his own hats with handwritten Bible verses when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. After MLB officials indicated that they warned the Giants pitchers that their own modifications went against official policy, they were asked if those same warnings had been sent to Kershaw in the past.
“I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year,” the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin wrote. “MLB declined to comment.”
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw Offers 1-Word Response To Teammate On Pride Night Warnings
But Kershaw reportedly told his former teammate, active Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, that MLB had never encouraged him to stop modifying his Pride hats with a one-word response to the question.
“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen told Shaikin. “He said, ‘No.’”
That response has raised questions about a double standard imposed by MLB following the controversy around the Giants’ modifications. It seems the league could be cracking down on its rules now that the issue has caught national attention, while it allowed a former superstar pitcher to make similar changes to his own uniform with impunity.