The Nationals and Yankees knelt in unison before the first game of the baseball season as part of a kickoff ceremony Thursday night that featured references to the Black Lives Matter movement, the coronavirus pandemic, which includes a first pitch. out of Dr. Anthony’s place. Fauci – and the 2019 local team championship.
Players from both clubs wore Black Lives Matter jerseys during batting practice at Nationals Park, and the letters ‘BLM’ were stamped on the back of the mound in the center of the diamond.
In a poignant reference to the racial trial occurring in the U.S., the players and other members of both teams held up a long black ribbon as they were separated along the two foul lines. After placing the tape on the floor, everyone knelt down.
They all got up for a recorded performance of the national anthem.
Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, was invited by the Nationals to launch the first ceremonial launch, an appropriate choice during the current medical crisis. With a mask on the mound, Fauci sent his shot far from home plate, and the ball bounced past his “catcher,” Washington reliever Sean Doolittle.
Afterward, Fauci and Doolittle struck the gloves, instead of shaking hands.
Fauci’s effort made light-hearted comparisons to other public figures whose first releases went awry over the years, including Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, rapper 50 Cent, Olympic hero Carl Lewis, Miss Texas 2014, and the icon of the Canadian pop Carly Rae Jepsen.
Judge had the first hit of the season and moments later his teammate Giancarlo Stanton scored Washington ace Max Scherzer for the season’s first home run.
At the end of the first inning, Adam Eaton homered to Yankees newcomer Gerrit Cole.
The game went into a rain delay in the sixth inning with the Yankees batting while leading 4-1.
The Yankees players had decided Wednesday that they wanted to kneel for 60 seconds before the anthem. New York officials then asked Washington if that time could be added to the pregame script. The Nationals decided they wanted to join the Yankees.
“We have had conversations as an organization. We have had team conversations. We have had smaller group conversations. Conversations between them, “said New York manager Aaron Boone hours before the game. “And we have decided … as a team, we will have our own demonstration on the field.”
That display followed a series of videos shown on the field marker: about Black Lives Matter, which features major league players like Aaron Judge of New York and Howie Kendrick of Washington; about the Nationals’ postseason career; about the Covid-19 outbreak.
With no spectator present to appreciate the celebrations, the flags that marked the franchise’s first title were raised beyond right field and above the scoreboard, and “World Champions 2019” was written on a red carpet that was wrapped around batter’s boxes during pregame introductions.
Hours later, in Los Angeles, the Giants and Dodgers held up a black ribbon that wound along the baselines in a show of unity after pregame appearances. Hymn singer Keith Williams Jr stood in the new center field seat at Dodger Stadium to perform in place of the usual spot near home plate. Some of the Giants knelt during the performance.
In one video, Rachel Robinson, 98, whose husband Jackie broke the big league color barrier in 1947, made the traditional call: “It’s Dodger Baseball Time.”
On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump confirmed that he would pitch the first pitch when the Yankees host the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on August 15.
Trump, a New York native who has yet to launch a first launch while serving as president, made the announcement during his daily update on coronavirus at the White House.
“Randy Levine is a great friend of mine to the Yankees,” Trump said of the team president.
“He asked me to launch the first launch … It’s going to be interesting.”
Trump will be encouraged to learn that the game will take place in an empty stadium due to coronavirus-related health and safety violations: He was infamously booed by a crowd in Washington when he attended Game 5 of the World Series between the Nationals and the Astros of Houston in October.
