The Texas Rangers were the only team to never play in a pride night in Major League Baseball, until last night.

June 27th, 2028 the Texas Rangers Play on Pride Night

Fans tuned into the Texas Rangers game last night might have seen rainbows on dugouts, on the field, and in the stands. That is because the Baltimore Orioles hosted their 2024 pride night. Something the Texas Rangers have technically never done. However in doing some research, that is not 100% accurate.

September 14,2003 Gay Organizations Buy Tickets for the Rangers Game

The first ever pride night was held by the Chicago Cubs in 2001. Back in 2003, several gay organizations in the North Texas area organized a day to go to a Texas Rangers game. You have probably seen commercials for the Rangers where groups or organizations can get discounted tickets to Rangers home games. On September 14, 2003 members of Dallas's gay and lesbian volleyball league, its gay rugby team, its gay softball leagues, and the Texas Gay Rodeo Association all bought tickets to the Texas Rangers game using the group discount. This became known as the only Texas Rangers 'pride event'. The night lead to a small protest outside and the Texas Rangers never promoted the event whatsoever.

Did the Baltimore Orioles Plan Pride for the Rangers on Purpose?

Why do the pride night last night in Baltimore? Technically all of June is pride month. However the city of Baltimore had their pride events the weekend before. So the Orioles should have probably done something that weekend when they were taking on the Philadelphia Phillies. The Texas Rangers did knock the Orioles out of the postseason last year, so this is probably some petty thing to get them to play in a pride night.

Texas Rangers Lose 11-2 on Pride Night

The Rangers got demolished playing in their first official pride night. A lot of that had to do with their starting pitcher Jon Gray. Who just said he had an off night and to not give the Orioles too much credit. He would go onto say, "Every time I play this team, I've killed it." Let's look at Jon Gray's record versus the Baltimore Orioles.

• 2-3
• 5.06 ERA
• 26 innings
• 15 earned runs
• 7 homeruns
• 7 walks to 22 Ks

Some would say that is an average record versus a MLB team and not so much that you "killed it". The Rangers have another three games in Baltimore this weekend with no more pride events scheduled. Saturday has been reported as a sell out and Sunday has been moved to prime time Sunday Night Baseball. Joan Jett is scheduled to be in attendance for Friday night's game. So if the rainbows made you skip out on the game last night, a lot is going down the rest of the weekend.