Holding The Line: Texas Rangers Sole MLB Team Without ‘Pride Night’

Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers may be four games under .500, but they’re high atop the league in refusing to bow to America’s woke overlords: Extending an enviable several-year record, they’re once again the only MLB team that won’t host an LGBT “Pride Night” in 2024. The practice was supposedly pioneered by the Chicago Cubs, who first came out with it in 2001.

Rangers majority owner Ray Davis (left) accepting the MLB Commissioner’s Trophy in 2023. The billionaire built his fortune in the natural gas business. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty via Forbes)

When asked the Rangers to justify their position, the team points to its history of sending volunteers to the Resource Center, an organization that serves the “LGBTQIA+ and HIV/AIDS communities in Dallas-Fort Worth.”  This week, responding to an inquiry from Associated Press, the Rangers said: 

“Our longstanding commitment remains the same: To make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball — in our ballpark, at every game, and in all we do — for both our fans and our employees. We deliver on that promise across our many programs to have a positive impact across our entire community.”

On Monday, former Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland applauded the team’s status as the league’s sole holdout against overlaying a night at the ballpark with a celebration of people’s varied sexual preferences. Holland, who was on the Rangers’ 2010 and 2011 World Series squads, responded to a tweeted report on the team’s unique “Pride Night” refusal with a GIF of the Texas Rangers mascot with the words “That’s a Rangers win.” 

https://t.co/WmxgtIIUlC pic.twitter.com/JkiInTqXnA

— Derek Holland (@Dutch_Oven45) June 25, 2024

When another Twitter user asked Holland why he “[felt] the need to go out of [his] way to put other people down,” Holland replied, “Why do we need to celebrate them choosing to be the way they are. Nobody cares if you’re gay or lesbian or whatever. Don’t need a whole month to celebrate. Have a day and move on.” Holland added that military service members and veterans — “real heroes!” — are more worthy of a month-long salute. 

Meanwhile, Will Davis, who recently traveled 200 miles from Marble Falls, Texas to see a game with his son’s youth team, spoke for many in endorsing the Rangers’ refusal to have Pride Night, telling AP: 

“It’s a private organization. And if they don’t want to have it, I don’t think they should be forced to have it. In something like this, this is a way for people to go as a state. We don’t want the political stuff shoved down our throats one way or the other, left or right. We’re coming out here to have a good time with friends or family and let it be.”

The LGBT crowd was already sensitive to the Rangers Pride-less status as the month began. Some were promptly triggered when the team chose the beginning of Pride month to rotate the slogan that appears in the banner atop the team’s official website. In a nod to its pursuit of back-to-back World Series titles, the website had used “Run It Back” for the past few months. As Pride month began, it changed to “Straight Up Texas.” 

The Texas Rangers — the only MLB team without a Pride Night — have changed their website banner. Here are screenshots from May 29 vs. today.

“Run it Back” has given way to “Straight Up Texas”

At best, it’s really unfortunate timing. At worst, it feels antagonistic. pic.twitter.com/qCv2YHqBIw

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) June 3, 2024

The team insists the change to a slogan the team has used for four seasons was not meant to troll the Pride crowd or (God forbid) celebrate heterosexuality — without which there would be no humanity on Earth. “It certainly wasn’t done intentionally or to make some sort of statement,” an unidentified team executive told Inside the Rangers. “That’s ridiculous.”