A minor league baseball team, the York Revolution, declined to play its Pride Night game on Thursday after players refused to wear uniforms that featured a rainbow design, team officials said. The team’s game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs was going to mark the Pennsylvania team’s 11th Annual Pride Night, but players refused to don special jerseys that had rainbow sleeves.
Team Officials Respond
Revolution president and GM Ben Shipley said his manager told him on Tuesday that less than nine players — the minimum number needed to fill out a lineup card — on the 28-man roster were willing to play in Thursday night’s uniforms. It led to an unprecedented team meeting in which Shipley said he was unable to talk players into wearing the rainbow sleeves.
Shipley expressed disappointment that the team was at this point and recognized the players’ plight and their unwillingness to cross their line. He also stated that tolerance is not acceptance and was asking for tolerance from the team, which they were unwilling to navigate.
The spirit of Pride Night would’ve been compromised if players had been forced to wear uniforms that celebrated the community, the Revolution said. As a result, and out of respect for the Pride Community and the York community as a whole, the York Revolution has decided that the game on Thursday, June 18 will be forfeited and that Pride Night will continue on as the feature element of the evening at WellSpan Park.
Other Pride Night Events Continue
Other Pride Night events are still set to go on as scheduled, free of charge, at the ballpark. That’ll include music, fan batting practice, and other on-the-field activities are still going to happen, Shipley said.
The team is set to return to action on Friday against Southern Maryland. Team officials criticized their own players for refusing to celebrate the LGBTQ community. To be clear, this action by the players is completely inconsistent with our vision as the Most Welcoming Place in York, according to the team, which donated $10,000 to a local gay community center.
Original reporting: NBC6 Miami — read the source article.
