The Scrap Yard Dawgs, a Texas-based independent professional softball team, entered the locker room Monday without knowing what was waiting for them. All of their phones were bombarded with text messages asking similar questions. “Have you seen this?” “Are you okay with this?” “What happened?”
Hours earlier, the team’s general manager, Connie May, tweeted a photo of the team’s players lined up for the national anthem. May tagged President Donald Trump in the tweet, making sure to let the featured image know, “Everyone respect the FLAG!” The tweet was finally removed.
The players, many of whom will represent the United States at the Tokyo Olympics next year, were furious. They felt as if their voices were taken away and used to make a political statement that they did not support. In the latest solidarity move, the entire team, their coaches, and some staff members vowed never to play for Scrap Yard Dawgs again.
Players may have left the Scraw Yard Dawgs behind, but they had no intention of moving away from softball, especially after what happened. So they did the following best: They started their own team.
Following the murder of George Floyd, athletes have come together to use their platform to make changes within their sport. NFL players and employees got commissioner Roger Goodell to say “Black Lives Matter,” and allowed protests on the sidelines after years of discouraging that behavior. The University of Cincinnati said it would remove Marge Schott’s name from its ballpark after the athletes spoke. This was the time for professional softball.
On Friday, former Scrap Yard Dawgs members started This Is Us Softball. It is the same list and trainers that made up the Scrap Yard Dawgs, but with a very different message.
“It is really the same team, we are only dropping the Scrap Yard part because we no longer want to represent the organization after how we were treated,” outfielder Haylie McCleney told Yahoo Sports. “So we are going to continue to play for awareness, empowerment and unity.”
The players explained how they intend to maintain those values in a video released on Friday. The video features This Is Us players explaining exactly what their new team is about.
Leaving the Dawgs junk behind was the obvious choice. May tried to explain the tweet in the locker room after the game, saying she believed it showed that the team was unified. Some of the team thought the apology was deaf.
Pitcher Cat Osterman was one of the first players to declare that he was done with the team, as was Kiki Stokes, the team’s first draft pick. Stokes was one of two black players on the list, along with Kelsey Stewart. The entire team followed after that.
“It wasn’t really a question,” says Stewart. “No one questioned the decision. I think Cat was one of the first people to say it, and after that everyone said, ‘Go, go,’ and obviously everyone supports Kiki Stokes and me. ”
May tried to apologize on the phone, but that only made things worse. At one point during the call, May apologized and then used the phrase “all lives matter.” That let the players know that I wasn’t listening to their concerns.
“I was on the call,” says Stewart. “And she apologized and kept saying, ‘But my heart was in a good place.’ She went so far as to apologize and then said ‘all lives matter’. At the time, people were saying, they really don’t understand what we’re trying to say. “
McCleney says he heard May use the phrase, “Sorry, but …” several times during the call. McCleney says the players felt “there was no authenticity” in May’s apology. McCleney adds that she is disappointed that May has not made a public statement on the matter.
The players’ biggest public statement came on Friday. With the creation of This Is Us, the players declared that they were not going to remain silent. They wanted to use their platforms to make a change.
“Not just in the softball community but in this country,” says McCleney.
Several companies contacted the team to help secure funding and equipment. The USSSA Pride, the team the Scraw Yard Dawgs played against on Monday, also offered its full support to the players, coaches and staff who left the organization. The Pride, which would play a seven-game series against the Scrap Yard Dawgs over the summer, publicly condemned May’s tweet and postponed the games as a show of solidarity after what happened on Monday.
“Pride is 100 percent behind us,” says Stewart. “They support everything we are doing.”
In launching This Is Us, both McCleney and Stewart hope that meaningful conversations about racism can take place. McCleney urges people to listen to black voices, saying, “If our GM was listening to black voices, she would have known that tweet was unacceptable.”
Stewart believes that such conversations are necessary for people to change their minds.
“It is time to open our hearts and minds and really recognize the situation, recognize that racism is real and be part of that change,” she says. “Have those tough conversations and don’t be afraid to change your mind after learning new information.”
For Stewart, one of the most daunting side effects of Monday’s tweet is the number of young girls who have told Stewart that they no longer feel like playing softball. Stewart wants them to know that she, and the rest of This Is Us, is fighting for them.
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