On Thursday, Major League Baseball players continued across the league in protest of racial rights following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by police. They did so by choosing not to play seven games on Thursday’s schedule.
These games are:
The athletes, who would first choose not to play on Thursday, have released the following statement:
Social injustice and systemic racism have long been part of the fabric of our lives. We have a responsibility to use our platform, to lend our voices to those who are not heard.
We must continue the awkward talks and work towards a unified force for change.
These talks will push the boundaries and enable us to move forward with influential results.
All too often we hear about the fate of our neighbor and we fail to act. It is a long time ago that these communities were heard, seen, understood and supported.
We will not take the field tonight to help raise awareness for these social issues, not just tonight, but for our collective future. This is the first step in our relentless pursuit of meaningful change.
In New York, the Marlins and Mets took the field at first but were suspicious of a planned moment of silence that lasted the last 42 seconds – a reference to Jackie Robinson’s universally retired uniform number. All that remained on the field after the players left was a Black Lives Matter shirt over home plate:
On Wednesday night, three Major League Baseball games – Brewers vs. Reds, Dodgers vs. Giants, Mariners vs. Padres – were postponed when players joined their NBA brothers to protest racial injustice in America. Individual players like Jason Heyward and Matt Kemp sat out their gamesThere were originally 15 games on Thursday’s schedule, including four doubles. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports MLB and the MLBPA spoke Thursday morning to discuss players’ protests.
According to video, police shot Blake, 29, several times in the back as he tried to enter his vehicle. Blake remains hospitalized in serious condition, and family lawyers say he is now paralyzed. Blake’s shooting comes after weeks of unrest and protest following the murder of George Floyd, another Black man, by Minneapolis police. Tensions surrounding the Blake protests were tragically heightened when a Illinois teenager allegedly shot and killed two Protestants on Tuesday night.
