The Baseball Players

There's a notable overall pattern here: a dog that wasn't supposed to bark is actually barking, at least a little bit. A few Major League Baseball pitchers, including two on the Dodgers team itself, have objected to the Dodgers' plan to give a hero award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This comes in a context, whereby as early as last January, well before l'affaire Bud Light, some National Hockey League players refused to wear Pride jerseys for their respective teams' Pride nights.

The most recent example came on March 7, when Minnesota Wild players chose to not wear special Pride Night jerseys that had been designed.

According to the link, though, this is actually a dastardly Russian plot.

According to a report from The Athletic, there is a connection to Russia in all of this. On March 10, The Athletic published a report titled "The NHL's Russia-Pride jersey problem, explained: Why Wild became latest to scrap plans."

The report explains how NHL players specifically from Russia have played a part in what has become a league-wide controversy.

However, the story goes on to say that fully five percent of NHL players are from Russia, so they must have an outsize influence on their 95% non-Russian teammates. And it cites non-Russian players who are also objecting:

Florida Panthers forward Eric Staal and defenseman Marc Staal did not participate in the team's warmups prior to Thursday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs after deciding not to wear Pride jerseys. The Panthers took their turn in hosting their annual Pride Night on Thursday.

The Staal brothers released a statement saying that they chose not to wear the Pride jerseys because it goes against their Christian beliefs.

. . . The San Jose Sharks held their Pride Night on Saturday and the team's players wore jerseys in support of the LGBTQ+ community during warmups. However, prior to the game, Sharks goalie James Reimer announced that he wouldn't be participating in warmups and cited his religious beliefs as the reasoning behind the decision.

. . . In an email to season-ticket holders, the [New York] Rangers revealed that they were planning to wear Pride-themed jerseys during warmups prior to their game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 27. Those jerseys, the team said, would be auctioned off after the game.

Instead, the team wore their traditional home jerseys when they took the ice for warmups before the Jan. 27 game.

Although as many as five percent of NHL players may have had problems with returning to Russia if they endorsed Pride merchandise, the actual roots of the NHL's problem are clearly more widespread, and the baseball players who are annoucning opposition to the Dodgers' plans are specifically citing Christian beliefs, not potential Russian retaliation. Brian Burch, head of CatholicVote, which has been in the lead for anti-Dodgers protests, said in an e-mail:

It’s now much bigger than the Dodgers. According to reports, the Major League Baseball players union is pressing the league to put a stop to teams pushing political agendas on players.

It has also been reported that a huge number of players will refuse to wear “pride” or “trans” flags if asked to by their teams.

I think the problem is that professional players work under contract. They have agents who manage their business affairs. The teams for which they play under contract can trade them or release them, so that they aren't tied exclusively to their teams' brand -- they have to maintain individual brands as individual entrepreneurs throughout their careers and even afterwards, when their endorsements continue to be valuable even when they retire.

The hockey players were clearly nervous even before Bud Light, but in its wake, baseball players have come to recognize that poor judgment in their teams' front offices can force them into endorsements that can be toxic to their careers and even hurt their retirements.

The saddest case is Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass:

This past Monday, Bass shared a video on his Instagram Stories that featured influencer Ryan Miller calling on Christians to boycott Bud Light over the Dylan Mulvaney partnership and Target for the Pride Merchandise collection. Two days later, he apologized.

The response from the Blue Jays front office was clearly meant to discourage anyone else from following suit:

The Blue Jays posted a short video of Bass on Twitter addressing reporters with a brief statement expressing remorse for boosting the visibility of a video on Instagram making a biblical case against spending money to support businesses that are pushing people, particularly children, to “darkness.”

. . . “I just spoke with my teammates and shared with them my actions yesterday. I apologized with [sic] them, and as of right now I am using the Blue Jays’ resources to better educate myself to make better decisions moving forward,” he added. “The ballpark is for everybody. We include all fans at the ballpark. We want to welcome everybody. That’s all I have to say.”

Commentators compared the video to a "hostage situation". Look at that facial expression in the photo at the top of this post.

The Blue Jay's subsequent reaction was remarkably heavy-handed:

. . . The Blue Jays issued a statement voicing support for the LGBTQ community.

. . . Toronto manager John Schneider indicated he believes there needs to be more than just an apology from Bass.

“We’re not going to pretend like this never happened,” Schneider said, according to MLB.com. “We’re not going to pretend like it’s the end and move on. There are definitely more steps that are going to follow.”

Is he gonna have to bend over and be gang raped by the team, or what?

At Bass's next home game appearance, he was roundly booed by the Toronto fans, although accounts indicate it wasn't clear whether they were booing him for his original support for a third-party opinion or for his subsequent cave. Clearly, though, the Blue Jays were able to make credible threats against him that the Dodgers have so far been unable to carry through with either their own Clayton Kershaw or Blake Treinen, who have both spoken out against the team's re-invitation to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (I suspect both met with their agents and legal counsel before they spoke out. Bass likely should have but didn't.)

As to the question of whether the Toronto fans were booing Bass for his initial statement or his recantation, I'm with the first. Canadians are pretty much with the program.