WASHINGTON – Everyone, both the Yankees and the Nationals, knelt … before the national anthem.
The long-awaited opening night of the Major League Baseball featured a pre-game ceremony at Nationals Park that recognized a social issue that has grown in importance since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.
All Yankees and Nationals rosters were kept at their respective baselines as the Players Alliance video, with Yankees Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, as well as retired CC Sabathia broadcast. Then came the “moment of unity,” as conceived by former Yankee and current Phillie Andrew McCutchen: a 200-yard piece of fabric that stretched from beyond first base to beyond third base through the plate, each man holding it, as an Academy Award winner Actor Morgan Freeman voiced words to be shared as each stadium opens:
“To achieve effective change and create a new canvas of optimism, empathy must lead the charge. This moment means our charge. Our brotherhood Our unity Equality and unity cannot exist until there is empathy.
“Today, and every day, we unite as brothers. As equals, all with the same goal: to level the playing field. To change injustices. Equality is not just a word. It is our right! Today we introduce ourselves as men from 25 nations on six continents.
“Today we are one.”
With that, they all knelt, some on two knees, others on one, before getting up for the national anthem.
The teams then turned to prepare for the game, with Yankees players sporting patches on their left shoulders (above the patch saluting recently approved owner Hank Steinbrenner) reading “Black Lives Matter,” “United For Change” or both of them.
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