Minor league baseball team cancels Pride Night game after players refuse to wear rainbows

[Polybius]

Source: NBC News

The Revolution’s game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs was to have marked the team’s 11th annual Pride Night, but players refused to don special jerseys that had rainbow sleeves.

“This decision was not reached lightly,” the team said in a statement.

President and GM Ben Shipley said his manager told him Tuesday that fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster — the minimum needed to fill out a lineup card — were willing to play in Thursday night’s uniforms.

Shipley said the discussion led to an unprecedented team meeting at which he was unable to talk players into wearing the rainbow sleeves.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minor-league-baseball-team-cancels-pride-night-game-players-refuse-wea-rcna350698

[SheltieLover]

1. I'd terminate every single one of them

[cab67]

2. That, unfortunately....

...would probably draw enough lawsuits to bankrupt the team.

They forfeited. They should also forfeit whatever pay they'd have gotten for the game. That's probably the best we can hope for.

[SheltieLover]

3. I guess it would depend on their contracts, but it sounds like insubordination to me

Asshats.

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. Nope. They violated their contract. All professional sports contracts state players must do PR work

to benefit the team on field. It would die in court.

Wearing the uniform given to them is required in their contract and this was a PR thing as well.

They just voided their contracts.

[SheltieLover]

7. That was my thought

But I have no idea how their contracts read.

I do know that for every single one of those players, there is an enormous amount of quality players who would be thrilled for a shot at the bigs & would be willing to wear rainbow hats. Of this I am quite certain.

They sound like a bunch of magat man babies to me.

[AZLD4Candidate]

8. All professional sports contract have clauses about uniforms and doing promotional work for the team

on top of that, these pricks just showed their beliefs mean more than the team. That alone warrants being released because they are not team members.

[SheltieLover]

9. I would expect such clauses in sports contracts

Bunch of I-me-gimmie assholes imo.

I hope they at least don't get paid for the game & that none of them make it to the bigs!

[cab67]

20. This may be true, but...

...the players would almost certainly sue anyway, and some right-wing legal outfit will represent them pro bono for violation of first amendment rights. Their case might be as worthless as a Trump promise, but the players will pay nothing while the team goes bankrupt defending itself.

Although I can't recall this happening with a sports franchise, it's happened with other businesses and even government agencies. Someone violates their contract to make some sort of right-wing point; they're terminated; they sue; they lose, but because some ideologue represented them at no cost, they spend nothing while the business spends enormously to defend itself. Or the business settles with the former employer, maybe losing less than if they'd gone to court, but still losing. And the former players get even more attention.

[ruet]

21. What if it was "Pro-Life" PR work? -NT-

[AZLD4Candidate]

22. Contracts are contracts. Swallow your pride, do it, then talk about how against it you are AFTER the game

How hard is it to say "I disagree with the message that the team is sending with this, but my team and ownership are doing it and since I am part of this team, I will do what is required by my contract. But I am against (whatever it is). With that said, I am 100% a (member of what team) and will do what we are working at doing: Win a championship."

The athlete said their piece, was respectful to the team, and lived up to their contract.

[Polybius]

15. It's all about the revenue though

Replacing them would likely make the team finish in last place, which would tank earnings.

[SheltieLover]

18. If course. This is, after all, the United States of Extortion.

Always about greed.

[MichMan]

5. Employees need to do what they are told.

[amcgrath]

6. cancel the game, not the night

Let them lose league points, forfeit them to the team they were scheduled to play. Lose the concession sales, hurt the sponsors, hurt the vendors, the security, the parking and the fans. No pay for the team.
It might seem rough on those not opposed, but let's put the homophobes into the spotlight, let them take some heat

[MLAA]

11. Hire a band and have a concert instead of the game. Then bench the homophobic players on a rotating

schedule since they don’t have enough decent humans to bench them all at once. Rinse and repeat. So much for America’s pastime.

[Wiz Imp]

12. That's what they did.

https://democraticunderground.com/100221314321

[purr-rat beauty]

10. The Baltimore Bigots?

Dude....the Bananas would wear full rainbow uniforms

Fuck these talentless pricks

Give me backflips!

[Wiz Imp]

13. Baltimore? It's York Pennsylvania.

[J_William_Ryan]

14. "...he was unable to talk players into wearing the rainbow sleeves."

Hateful bigots emboldened by the right’s war on diversity, inclusion, and individual liberty.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

16. Ironic to me that the team's name is the Revolution.

Back in the days of the Revolution, these players like would have been Tories.

[QueerDuck]

17. MAHA... Make America Hate Again

[Wonder Why]

19. Too proud to show Pride. Too bigoted to show humanity. Change the name from Blue Crabs to "Crabby KKK".

Last edited Fri Jun 19, 2026, 12:15 PM - Edit history (1)

[Shrek]

23. Apparently it happened last year

Seven members of the Revolution refused to wear the uniforms at last year’s Pride Night, Shipley said.

“We still played the game,” he said. “We didn’t make a big fuss of it.”

Not sure why they couldn't just do the same thing this year. Maybe they benched those seven and still had enough players to field a team? But the phrasing implies that last year the uniforms were effectively optional.