Several Major League Baseball teams who stepped up to the plate and showed their support to stop LGBT bullying on Spirit Day last week have come under attack by homophobic fans.

A number of teams, including the New York Yankees, the Atlanta Braves, and the St. Louis Cardinals, changed their profile pics Thursday to include a purple border in recognition of Spirit Day. They also tweeted their support, writing: “Go purple for #SpiritDay 10/17! Support LGBT youth and stand against bullying. Join us now: http://glaad.org/spiritday”.

This had some fans up in arms.

The Atlanta Braves’ Facebook page saw a string of homophobic comments.

One fan wrote: “How about leaving politics and promotion of an immoral lifestyle out of baseball. Just because you played like sissies against the Dodgers doesn’t mean you have to promote them.”

Another said: “Stand up to bullying, cool, everyone is going to support that. LGBT specifically, not necessary. Should we have green day for vegetarians? Black day for Muslims? Red day for the obese? Kinda stupid.”

A comment on the New York Yankee’s Facebook page said: “The politicization of MLB is disgusting. I’m against bullying, full stop. Why do I need to *specifically* against bullying of people with a certain disorder? And why does MLB need to be? Ridiculous.”

Another person wrote: “Wow, that’s sad that the Yankees are promoting such a twisted life style, especially in the youth! You want to stand up for bullying? That’s great. But this is just stupid.”

Despite homophobic remarks made by a small minority of screwball fans, there were many more who congratulated the teams for taking a stand against bullying, proving that while homophobia still exists in sports, bigots are becoming an increasingly dying breed.

Photo credit: theseanster93.