SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JUNE 11: Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on during a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday, June 11, 2022, in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Josie Lepe/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
As one of Major League Baseball’s most visible and accomplished organizations, the Los Angeles Dodgers are rarely confined to conversations about the standings alone. The franchise’s profile often places its players in the middle of broader debates shaping the sport.
From league-wide policies and charitable efforts to clubhouse culture and on-field customs, Dodgers players are frequently asked to address issues that reach well beyond the diamond.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw Reenters Pride Night Debate
That dynamic resurfaced amid a controversy involving the rival San Francisco Giants, after multiple players either altered or declined to wear rainbow-logo caps during a recent Pride Night promotion.
According to CNN’s Hannah Keyser, three Giants pitchers — including that night’s starter, Landen Roupp — appeared to push back against the intended Pride symbolism. Roupp wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on his cap, pointing to a Bible passage about rainbows and reframing the design as a reference to God’s covenant after the Flood. Keyser reported that other players added similar Biblical messages.
The episode quickly fueled a wider debate, drawing responses from LGBTQ advocates as well as Vice President JD Vance. And as questions continue over what players should be expected — or permitted — to display on their uniforms, Dodgers icon Clayton Kershaw has once again found himself part of the conversation.
For years before the latest Giants’ event, Kershaw would modify his own hats with handwritten Bible verses when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. After MLB officials indicated that they warned the Giants pitchers that their own modifications went against official policy, they were asked if those same warnings had been sent to Kershaw in the past.
“I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year,” the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin wrote. “MLB declined to comment.”
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw Offers 1-Word Response To Teammate On Pride Night Warnings
But Kershaw reportedly told his former teammate, active Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, that MLB had never encouraged him to stop modifying his Pride hats with a one-word response to the question.
“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen told Shaikin. “He said, ‘No.’”
That response has raised questions about a double standard imposed by MLB following the controversy around the Giants’ modifications. It seems the league could be cracking down on its rules now that the issue has caught national attention, while it allowed a former superstar pitcher to make similar changes to his own uniform with impunity.
