I understand it could be hard to fathom someone experiencing a flash of inspiration while watching a San Francisco Giants/Colorado Rockies game in 2026. However, I can report this happened to me last week. And the inspiration is no less remarkable than a strategy to save the Giants’ wounded reputation.
For context, I am relatively new to the Giants franchise. I am a born-and-raised Chicago Cubs devotee but began watching the Gigantes in 2019 when I met my partner. We have visited Oracle Park at least once every year since (except for the cardboard cutout year, of course). I marveled at the team’s 107-win season and chose the ballpark as my first post-vaccination outing. I miss watching Yaz and Hunter Pence play and I experienced the invention of the pitch clock and a recall system to check an ump’s balls and strikes. I have witnessed the baseball pants getting tighter and lederhosen length.
Like most Bay Area teams, the SF Giants have enjoyed the good life for long stretches of time. If one team isn’t doing great, another Bay Area team inevitably rises to take its place and give the region something to cheer for. Even with the Giants’ recent history of forgoing classic sluggers for a roster of people I lovingly referred to as “Nice Dads”, the Giants have still been a relatively competitive and entertaining watch for me over the last seven years.
In 2023 my partner and I attended the Pride Night at Oracle Park. We are not members of the LGBTQ+ community, but enjoyed our rainbow jersey giveaway and the community celebration just like we did a few years later at the Lunar New Year game for the San Jose Sharks. (I am also not an Asian American).
Three years later, we were on the couch watching the Pride Night game on June 12 for a matchup between both of our teams. Of course, this event has now become memorable for its player-driven controversy. As one of the home team’s pitchers took the field, we remarked to each other about the apparent Sharpie on the hat. We immediately assumed it was Bible verses, because we are living in the United States in 2026.
I remarked to my partner that I could clearly see a “G” written on the hat, so I now reconsidered that it could be from the Bible. I mean, quoting Genesis would be exceedingly lame, I reasoned. The book of Galatians is very concerned about circumcision, so that could be more possible than Genesis. But these Abrahamic scholars did indeed choose to quote the first book of the Bible and Torah and Quran, and specifically, the Bible verses that mention how God sent Noah a rainbow to express a heartfelt “my bad” over that ark-inspiring flood. An omnipotent “The More You Know”, if you will.
The insult from the Giants’ roster of pitchers taking the mound on June 12, either wearing rainbow-reclaiming verses handwritten on the team’s Pride hat or refusing to wear the themed baseball hat at all, has endured for the rest of the current season. Fans, both in the LGBTQ+ community and not, wrote passionate letters describing deep hurt and abandonment of the franchise. The fact that the Giants have a losing record and are consistently letting close games slip away has not helped morale.
However, a simple verbal slip-up from an announcer for the Colorado Rockies broadcast last week may provide a clear way out of this lingering controversy for the Giants franchise and its former star catcher turned executive Buster Posey.
Posey played his entire 12-year MLB career as a catcher for the SF Giants. He now serves as the President of Baseball Operations for his former team, a move that was once lauded and now seems vulnerable.
The Rockies announcers were discussing Posey and his uneven legacy when one of the on-air talent slipped and called him, “Busty Posey”.
And there it was. If the Giants were to ever hope to remove the corrosive egg splattered all over their face and make amends with the gayest city in America, it may come via an alter ego known as Busty Posey.
If you have ever attended a drag performance, you will understand how remarkably athletic drag queens are. This art form requires tremendous endurance, upper and lower body strength and the ability to command a crowd. Does this not sound like a professional athlete? Add to this list of similarities the fact that MLB players strut to the plate with a curated theme song for every appearance and I think I can rest my case. Oh wait, one more thing: Buster was literally a catcher. Someone get me to a board room with a mover and/or a shaker.
It remains to be seen how the SF Giants will approach Pride Night 2027, if they make any attempt at all. In the meantime, I will relinquish the Busty Posey idea for the low, low price of unlimited caramel corn and Coke refills at the ballpark and a front row seat to Busty’s first performance.
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