A longtime San Francisco MLB reporter is urging "bigoted" free agents to stay away from the franchise.
The Giants have been at the center of a Pride Night controversy. Multiple members of the Giants team wrote Bible verses onto their Pride Night hats. The Giants have since been warned by Major League Baseball that this won't be tolerated. Players are being urged to not write anything on the special hats moving forward.
Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey, meanwhile, refused to take questions from the media regarding the incident. The Giants are trying to move past this. However, not everyone is ready to.
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Longtime Bay Area baseball beat reporter Susan Slusser appeared on KNBR’s Murph & Markus this week. She was asked if the Pride Night controversy could impact how MLB free agents view coming to San Francisco.
Slusser did not hold back.
Longtime MLB reporter urges free agents to stay away if necessary
“Susan, you’ve been doing this for a while. You’ve covered teams beyond the Giants, and you have a good sense for baseball and the players because you talk to them routinely,” said Larry Krueger, subbing in as host, per Awful Announcing. “We were getting into the details of the Giants’ decisions, Pride Night, the communication, and all of that. But if we back away a little bit, has the Giants organization done real damage in the eyes of players?
“Are they going to have a hard time attracting players because other players are looking at these guys being called bigots and attacked in the media for either not wearing the hat or writing biblical verses? Do you think, long term, the Giants are going to have a hard time attracting free agents because of what happened this year?”
Slusser didn't hold back.
“I mean, bigoted free agents, maybe, I guess,” Slusser replied.
“Look, Sam Hentges was the guy whose comments after that game—he chose to wear the regular Giants hat and not write a Bible verse, which is probably the right way to go about it, I think,” she continued. “Afterwards, he kind of held forth about morals and things like that, and it was pretty distasteful, some of those comments, to the LGBTQ community. He was a free agent who chose to sign in San Francisco. Probably not uppermost in your mind is thinking, ‘The Giants wear a Pride hat every year,’ but it is part and parcel, and he signed here.
“Certainly, it’s not a secret that San Francisco has a huge gay community, many gay fans. To me, this is a little bit on the players. If you don’t want to be a part of that, A, maybe don’t openly insult your paying customers after a game, but B, don’t sign here.
“Maybe that will happen. I don’t know. But that just seems honestly kinda crazy to me. You know where you’re coming. This is San Francisco. It’s not a secret.”
