Welcome back to Talkin’ Gaysball where our favorite word to describe a pitcher is still “Doolittleesque…”

After several years of hosting Pride Nights at Truist Park, the Braves know the basic ingredients for their annual pre-game social.

All that’s needed is a dance floor, several hundred balloons, a DJ with a full arsenal of Zara Larsson, and a mixed drink concoction that works “rainbow” into the name to cover up the fact that you just dropped 20 bucks on what’s essentially a cherry White Claw.

When Atlanta listed the social on this year’s Pride schedule, you could’ve been forgiven for thinking it was going to be more of the same.

But it turned out they made one addition to the lineup that transformed a fun but rote evening into a moment that was more meaningful…

All Star pitcher Spencer Strider.

On the field, Strider had been known for a brief stint as the Braves’ ace, riding a mid-90s fastball to lead the league with 20 wins and 281 strikeouts in 2023 before succumbing to elbow injuries.

Additionally, with thighs that belong on a Planet Fitness poster reminding members to “never skip leg decade” and a mustache that makes it look like he’s about to call timeout and ask his catcher “Can anybody find me somebody to love,” Strider already had a certain appeal for gay Braves fans.

Then during Braves Pride Night last Thursday, he walked out onstage at the Coca-Cola Roxy next to his home ballpark and personally delivered a message to make those same fans feel embraced and welcomed.

Standing in front of a big screen with “PRIDE NIGHT” graphics and a script Braves sculpture, Strider enthusiastically represented both himself as a major league player and his organization as he reached out to our community.

“We want everybody to feel included and a part of the community here in Atlanta and at Truist Park,” he announced to the crowd of LGBTQ fans, “Baseball can be a part of that. That’s exciting and [we] definitely want to take this opportunity. So we appreciate you being here and go Braves!”

Those are words that we expect to hear on Pride Night from someone wearing a Braves polo shirt with a title like “Vice President of Community Outreach.” And they would be perfectly fine coming from a source like that, albeit a tad perfunctory.

When they come from a player in uniform who these same LGBTQ fans will be cheering during the game, they carry an extra sense of gravitas. Suddenly, the welcoming message becomes a moment that everyone in the building will remember from Pride Night 2026.

It’s genuinely special to attend a Pride promotion and come away with the knowledge that one of the guys on your favorite team is a legitimate ally.

For their part, the Braves amplified Strider’s participation in Pride with both an Instagram story and a mention on that night’s telecast. Hopefully this is the start of a longstanding connection between Strider and LGBTQ Braves Country.

At the very least, all of the baseball gays in our community have a new favorite pitcher to support —although queer Mets and Phillies fans can continue to do so with their inside voices.

Blake Treinen Has No Pride

Alas, Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen being an anti-gay jagbag during Pride is nothing new. Just ask The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

It’s not even eyebrow-raising that Treinen took the mound on Pride Night as the only Dodger declining to wear his team’s rainbow LA Pride caps. Like getting relegated to World Series mop up duty with a literal 18.00 postseason ERA, he’s done this before.

But what should be called out is that on a night where the team honored Glenn Burke and Billy Bean with a permanent memorial at Dodger Stadium, Treinen decided to make it all about himself.

In the aftermath of Dodgers Pride, any space to reflect on Bean and Burke’s contributions as LGBTQ barrier breakers was sucked up by all of the focus on Treinen’s cap and the culture battles it represented.

However, by choosing to do this, Treinen also inadvertently served to demonstrate exactly why his team was honoring Burke and Bean in the first place by being a prime example of the homophobic baseball culture they both had to navigate during their careers.

That culture was even more predominant in Burke and Bean’s respective eras, which further underscored how courageous both of them were just to exist in the MLB of their day.

In the long run, if Treinen is remembered at all by baseball history, it will be as Exhibit A of why celebrating gay trailblazers like Bean and Burke continues to be necessary. The Ben Chapman of Pride Nights. I can’t think of a more appropriate legacy.