Blue Jays’ Anthony Bass booed by home fans after anti-LGBTQ2S+ post

It appears a majority of Toronto Blue Jays supporters at the Rogers Centre don’t want anything to do with reliever Anthony Bass.

In his first appearance since sharing an anti-LGBTQ2S+ video on Instagram, Bass was laboriously booed by fans at the ballpark as he entered the game and began to warm up.

Anthony Bass comes into the game, greeted by a couple of separate choruses of boos. #Bluejays pic.twitter.com/NM3IpEA91i

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness) June 1, 2023

RH Anthony Bass in to pitch 9th for the #BlueJays his first appearance since his apology for re-tweeting a hateful post to the LGBTQ+ community. Booed by the sellout crowd even before his name was announced. Booed again after walking the leadoff man.

— Richard Griffin (@RGriffBaseball) June 1, 2023

After walking the first batter he faced, Bass would escape the inning unscathed, recording a strikeout. Toronto would lose the game 4-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Bass has been a trending topic on Twitter for several days since he shared the heavily criticized video on Instagram, with many fans and social media users calling on the Blue Jays to cut ties with the 35-year-old.

The video in question was shared by Bass on his Instagram story of a man named Ryan Miller, who instructed the audience to consider boycotting Target on behalf of Christianity and the bible.

RELATED: Blue Jays’ Bass sorry for sharing anti-LGBTQ2S+ video, says ‘ballpark is for everybody’

Target, one of America’s largest general-merchandise retailers, offers products promoting Pride Month, often celebrated in June. The retailer has since removed some Pride merchandise due to backlash allegedly involving death threats to its employees.

Bass briefly addressed the media on Tuesday afternoon at the Rogers Centre and did not take questions. In a 40-second statement, he apologized for the post he called offensive “to the Pride community” and admitted that he would use the club’s resources to “better educate” himself.

The reliever, who revealed that he had spoken to his teammates about the issue, added that “the ballpark is for everybody” to include all fans and “welcome everybody.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider has said the organization did not consider suspending Bass for the video.

Bass, who was acquired in a trade by the Blue Jays last year, has appeared in 21 games this season, pitching to a 4.26 ERA across 19 innings.