Giants' new message to fans does nothing to abate fury over players' Pride Night protest

From her family's season tickets within the Field Club above Oracle Park, Sarah Wiener had a blast at this year's Pride Night. 

Sure, the San Francisco Giants weren't particularly competitive in their loss to the Chicago Cubs, but for Wiener on that June 12 evening, the ballpark festivities were worth the trip: Vow renewals for LGBTQ+ couples in the community pre-game, then a dazzling fireworks show afterward. 

It wasn't until after she left the ballpark that she realized what had happened on the mound. Scrolling through social media, Wiener, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, saw that four Giants pitchers had protested wearing their Pride Night hats - one choosing not to wear it at all and three who scribbled citations to a Bible verse next to the hat's rainbow logo.

"It's literally happening in front of my face, and I didn't realize it was," Wiener said. "My best friend and I were sitting on Muni, both scrolling through BlueSky trying to figure out what was going on, and I was so furious because they literally did it to my face."

Wiener was one of many Giants fans who saw the pitchers' protest as an act of hostility to the gay community on a day meant to celebrate it, and took issue with the organization's tepid response. In the immediate aftermath, the team released a statement acknowledging that the players' choices hurt "many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that."

When manager Tony Vitello beat around the bush on the matter and president of baseball operations Buster Posey abstained from commenting - and while the Department of Justice threatened MLB over claims of discrimination against Christian ballplayers that even the four protesting pitchers didn't substantiate - fans remained incensed. Not just over the disrespect they felt, but by the organization's lackluster acknowledgement of the pain it had caused with its responses.

"You can't tell me you're embracing the whole community and it's not about hate, and then literally look me in the eye from 10 rows back and tell me you hate me," Wiener said.

Hundreds of fans expressed their dismay on social media and via emails and comments to the Chronicle and to the Giants themselves. Wiener was one of at least a handful of fans who emailed Giants chief diversity officer Roscoe Mapps.

In her letter to him, Wiener detailed that she is a third-generation Giants fan brought up at Candlestick Park and that her dismay came from a "place of deep affection for and disappointment" in the team.

"Mr. Posey said on his hiring that his emphasis would be on the ‘memory-making business.' I can say with confidence that a one-of-a-kind memory was made for me on Friday night, but it will not live in a place of affection with Mays and McCovey and the three championships he contributed to," Wiener wrote in conclusion as part of a longer letter.

"I have been a fan of this team through many seasons of my life, before I understood what it meant to be queer and after. I have made incredible memories with my family, and met the most important people in my life because of this team. I have not, until this weekend, found myself questioning whether that investment, both emotional and monetary, was wise. This was a profoundly hurtful experience that soured a wonderful celebration. I expect better of the organization I was raised to support, and I hope that the Giants will expect better of their players and themselves in the future."

Wiener sent the email on June 17. Mapps responded on July 10.

"Thank you for taking the time to write to me and share your experience. I read your email, along with many thoughtful messages sent to me, and I wanted to respond to you directly," Mapps wrote.

"Messages like yours help us better understand the human impact of moments like this. They continue to inform important conversations and reinforce our commitment to strengthen the trust we've built over many years. Meaningful action doesn't always happen as quickly as we'd like, but what you've shared is helping shape the work ahead."

Wiener would soon find out that Mapps' direct letter wasn't so direct. She posted the email on BlueSky and an acquaintance, Matt (who chose not to share his last name) replied with the exact same email, word for word, from Mapps in response to his own letter of complaint. 

"It might have been better to just say nothing at all," Wiener said. "It's more insulting to get basically nothing a month later than for everybody to say nothing and just move on."

Matt has been a Giants fan since 1992 and watches the Giants whenever they come to Colorado, where he lives now. After the Pride hat debacle, he not only has lost interest in going to Coors Field, but doesn't watch the games on television - he'll check the score on the ESPN app, he said. 

"I was going to see the Giants at Coors Field a few weeks ago, but didn't because the Giants have really killed my interest in them," he wrote in a message. "I'm not rooting for them anymore until they actually address the situation."

All Wiener wanted was an apology or at least acknowledgement that the team was doing all it could to prevent in future years the kind of hurt she and others experienced.

Mapps declined to comment when reached.

Fans, similar to Matt, have vowed not to support the Giants after the pitchers' Pride hat protest. Outsports, an outlet that reports LGBTQ-related sports news, reported that attendance is down around 5% since Pride Night on June 12, but it isn't possible to draw a direct correlation. There are multiple reasons to miss watching this Giants team as they've fallen deeper out of contention amidst their worst season in years.

The 15 home games since also haven't featured many marquee matchups, averaging 35,142 tickets sold per game in series against the Sacramento Athletics, Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies. The total paid attendance through the first 32 home games was 1,195,269, according to Baseball Reference, averaging 37,352 fans per game. 

Wiener hasn't reached a point of no return, yet.

"This is not new calculus that marginalized fans have to do, right? And I have it pretty easy in the grand scheme of things," she said. "I have friends who have said, ‘This is it for me. This is the final straw. I quit. I'm not watching any more Giants games,' and I'm sure that there is something that would be my final straw."

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