Baseball team REVOLUTION cancels Pride Night game after players refuse to wear rainbows
Minor league baseball's York Revolution in Pennsylvania declined to play its Pride Night game Thursday after playersrefused to wear uniforms that featured a rainbow design, team officials said.
The Revolution's game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs was to have marked the team's 11th annual Pride Night, but players refused to don special jerseys that had rainbow sleeves.
Thursday night's game will go down as a forfeit, the Revolution said.
"This decision was not reached lightly," the team said in a statement.
President and GM Ben Shipley said his manager told him Tuesday that fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster - the minimum needed to fill out a lineup card - were willing to play in Thursday night's uniforms.
Shipley said the discussion led to an unprecedented team meeting at which he was unable to talk players into wearing the rainbow sleeves.
"I'm disappointed that we're at this point, and I recognize the players' plight and their unwillingness to cross their line. I also think tolerance is not acceptance," Shipley told NBC News on Thursday.
"I was just asking for tolerance from the team, and they were unwilling to navigate that with me."
The spirit of Pride Night would have been compromised had players been forced to wear uniforms that celebrated the community, the Revolution said.