Of all the people who decided to dive into the issue of Pride Night celebrations in sports this year, Rob Schneider was the one most people expect to hear from.
The former Saturday Night Live cast member has said and done some puzzling things in the past, like criticizing transgender people, and claiming that when he was young “kids weren’t sick” because vaccines didn’t give them autism. So, when Schneider stepped up on his favorite social media platforms to whine about Pride Night in Major League Baseball, it’s not surprising that he once again relied on erroneous information.
MLB has offered a Pride Night event since 2000, and some celebrations go back to 1998. But, the events are voluntary and not all teams have an organized event. The MLBPA (MLB players Association) has negotiated the rights for its members to show their support for LGBTQ if they wish in certain situations in organized manners.
All participating teams allow players to opt-out of wearing any “rainbow” garb during Pride Night celebration games. Players can choose to wear their traditional caps, and are not forced to participate in any form of activity related to LGBTQ causes.
That doesn’t satisfy Schneider and other critics of Pride Night events.
The former SNL cast member says MLB is “anti-Christian” and offered to pay any fines that MLB players incur for not participating in Pride Night. The problem? MLB doesn’t discipline players for not taking part.
Schneider pointed to a handful of players who received letters from MLB after they wrote bible passages on their caps. The bible passages are on the subject of marriage and man/woman relationships. But, none of the (few) players who wrote the passages has faced fines or suspensions, nor would they. Instead, MLB simply reminded the players that is against league rules to write ANYTHING on the visible part of team-issued uniforms. The policy is in place to ensure that players do not politicize or otherwise distract from the uniform and games.
Teams that choose to hold a Pride Night do so in cooperation with the players’ union (they are required to). The events are no different that when the teams honor cancer survivors or the U.S. military with patches, caps, arm bands, bats, or special uniform designs. In the case of those events, players can also opt-out, and some do.
No MLB player has ever been disciplined for not participating in Pride Night. No MLB player has ever been disciplined for writing a bible passage on his uniform or equipment. Schneider likely knows this, but he’s apparently too obtuse to understand the silliness of his offer to pay fines. It’s merely red-meat for those in the MAGA cult that see injustice everywhere that someone different than them celebrates anything.
This is not the first time Schneider has been sensitive about his religion. In 2024 he was offended by the opening ceremony of the Olympics because he claimed it contained drag queens. The people he referred to were women dressed in traditional garb of their culture.
“I am sorry to say to ALL the world’s GREATEST ATHLETES, I wish you ALL THE BEST, but I cannot watch an Olympics that disrespects Christianity and openly celebrates Satan. I sincerely hope THESE @Olympics get the same amount of viewers as @cspan”m Schneider ranted on Twitter/X.
Schneider spent four seasons on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. He is best remembered as “Rich,” the nickname-giving office worker in a series of sketches. His post-SNL career has been checkered with failures and critically-panned performances like Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and The Animal. He mostly stayed on-screen through favors from Adam Sandler, who often offers small roles to Schneider in his comedy films.
