Murphy, Dhillon go to bat for players in baseball’s Pride Night black eye

(The Center Square) – How Major League Baseball can force one viewpoint upon players and “attack” them for expressing another is a puzzler to a North Carolina congressman.

Three days after Republican U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy wondered aloud on social media, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon at the U.S. Department of Justice agreed in a letter penned to Commissioner Rob Manfred. Central to the issue was baseball’s Pride Night game in San Francisco on June 12, when multiple players for the Giants – wearing insignia with rainbow colors through the interlocking SF – wrote Bible verses on their caps.

Landen Roupp, born and raised in Rocky Mount in the district now represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, started on the mound against the Chicago Cubs. Relievers J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker also took the field with Bible verses on their hats, and reliever Sam Hentges didn’t wear the rainbow SF cap instead choosing the traditional uniform hat with orange letters.