Controversial ex-baseball star John Rocker has furiously told MLB to ‘stop the gay sh*t’ as teams continue to put on Pride events at their stadiums this month.
The league traditionally stages ‘Pride Month’ in June each year as a way for franchises to promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity throughout both the sport and the country.
Yet certain initiatives in recent weeks have sparked controversy, including when the New York Mets showed the rainbow-colored Pride flag on their big screen instead of the American flag during a rendition of the national anthem on Friday night.
Los Angeles Dodgers players were also made to wear Pride-themed hats during their game on Saturday, with one player writing a religious message on his to dispute that rainbows were created by God to serve that demographic, while the Boston Red Sox received a backlash after staging a pre-game drag show earlier this week.
And amid outrage over the heavy LGBTQ+ promotion, Rocker has hit out at MLB for ‘lecturing’ baseball fans when they attend games.
The former Atlanta Braves pitcher said on X: ‘MLB needs to stop the gay sh*t. Baseball fans want a show, not a lecture.’
Controversial ex-baseball star John Rocker has furiously told MLB to ‘stop the gay sh*t’
The New York Mets controversially showed a Pride flag during a rendition of the national anthem Friday (left), while Dodgers stars were made to wear hats with rainbow logos Saturday
The Boston Red Sox also sparked outrage by hosting a pregame drag show earlier this week
Rocker, who infamously made a series of racist and homophobic statements in a 1999 interview with Sports Illustrated, was mainly praised online for his post condemning MLB’s Pride initiatives.
A large number of fans agreed with his statement, including one who replied: ‘So disappointed in MLB’.
Another commented: ‘We want this from all sports John. Just play the game, compete, and let us enjoy our escape from everyday life and politics.’
‘Truth! MLB is embarrassing itself,’ claimed a third.
While another fan put: ‘Shameful what the Mets did yesterday. Disgusting.’
In his 1999 Sports Illustrated interview, Rocker, who was with the Braves at the time, called Curacaoan teammate Randall Simon a ‘fat monkey’, used racial stereotypes toward Asian women driving on the road and claimed he doesn’t like playing games in New York because he has to ride the subway alongside next to ‘queers with AIDS’.
When asked by Pearlman if he’d ever play for the Yankees or the Mets, he gave an infamous quote calling it ‘the most hectic, nerve-wracking city’ and that he’d retire before playing there.
‘Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark (Shea Stadium, former home of the Mets) looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.
The former Atlanta Braves pitcher took to social media to hit out at MLB’s Pride promotion
Rocker (seen in 2013) is known for making controversial racist and homophobic comments
His infamous 1999 interview with Sports Illustrated, where he claimed he doesn’t like riding the subway in New York alongside ‘queers with AIDS’, sparked outrage at the time
Rocker added: ‘The biggest thing I don’t like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?’
MLB commissioner Bud Selig suspended Rocker without pay for the entirety of spring training – as well as the first 28 games of the 2000 season. After an appeal, the in-season suspension was reduced to 14 games.
Despite a number of teams getting involved in the annual ‘Pride Month’ tradition in recent weeks, baseball fans threatened to boycott MLB over the divisive stunt that took place in New York on Friday.
Prior to their game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mets sparked fury by displaying the LGBTQ+ symbol instead of the American flag as the Star Spangled Banner played out at Citi Field.
One user posted on X along with a video of the moment: ‘The Mets showed a pride flag instead of the American flag during our National Anthem. Boycott the MLB.’
‘That’s disgusting, @Mets,’ said another.
‘Think the @mlb is looking to be boycotted,’ wrote a third.
The Mets were heavily criticized for showing the Pride flag during the national anthem Friday
The New York Mets did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Saturday.
When Dodgers players wore baseball caps with colors of the Pride flag mixed into the team’s logo on Saturday, pitcher Clayton Kershaw made a slight tweak to his hat.
Kershaw, who is a devout Christian, inscribed next to the LGBTQ+-inspired logo ‘Gen 9:12-16’ – which is a passage from the Bible that claims the rainbow was not created by God to represent that demographic.
Instead, the passage reads: ‘And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”‘
That extract from the Bible, which comes just after the story of Noah and his family surviving a worldwide flood on an arc, suggests the rainbow is actually the sign of a covenant God made to never destroy the earth with a flood again.
