Something was missing in the top of the eighth inning on Saturday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Tampa Bay Rays used two relief pitchers that inning — the left-handers Brooks Raley and Jalen Beeks — who wore jerseys without a patch on their right sleeve.
This was not a manufacturer's error or an equipment manager's mistake. The patch was the Rays' starburst emblem rendered in rainbow colors, like the "TB" logo on the team's cap, as part of the team's Pride Night promotion. Raley, Beeks and a few other teammates chose to wear caps and jerseys without the rainbow accents.
Credit the Rays for trying. They are one of three teams, along with the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, to incorporate Pride Night symbolism onto their uniforms. But while the Giants and the Dodgers had full participation, the Rays did not.
The Tampa Bay Times listed five players — the other three, pitchers Jason Adam, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson, did not play in the Rays' 3-2 loss Saturday to the Chicago White Sox — among those who did not wear the rainbow insignias. The team selected Adam, a 30-year-old right-hander, to explain the players' decision.
"A lot of it comes down to faith, to like a faith-based decision," he said. "So it's a hard decision. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here. But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it's just a lifestyle that maybe — not that they look down on anybody or think differently — it's just that maybe we don't want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who's encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior."
Adam added that "we love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here."
In an interview on Sunday, Rays President Matt Silverman said the issue had sparked dialogue in the team's clubhouse about valuing different perspectives.
"I'm proud of the fact we did this and so many of our players chose to wear the logo," Silverman said. "I'm also proud of the conversations we had during the run-up to this night and in the aftermath. That's a really good byproduct of this: to be able to actually have these conversations is really valuable and rare."