I do an annual post about the start of the major league baseball season, but this year the season was delayed by major league sports shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day on April 15, when the players all wear uniform No. 42 and remember baseball’s most important pioneer of breaking down baseball’s color line and integrating baseball. That didn’t happen this year.
But Major League Baseball more than made up for it with Opening Day this year. Yahoo Sports reports, MLB to feature social justice uniform patches and ‘Black Lives Matter’ mound stencil on opening day:
Taking a cue from the NBA and NFL, Major League Baseball players will have the option to wear patches for social justice causes on their uniforms for opening day. Players will also be able to wear a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt and wristbands featuring an inverted MLB logo with a black player silhouette.
In addition to the patches, teams will be able to stencil “BLM” or “United for Change” on the back of their pitching mounds.
ESPN’s Howard Bryant reports the players’ patch options include “BLM” and “United for Change.” The push for this is coming from Philadephia Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen and the recently retired Curtis Granderson.
MLB has never been the place for athlete activism relative to other sports. But that seems to be changing ahead of its shortened 2020 season, scheduled to begin Thursday night with two games and a full slate on Friday.
In 2017, Bruce Maxwell of the Oakland Athletics was the first player to take a knee during national anthem. No one else in the game followed him, and to this day Maxwell — who now plays in Mexico — says he’s “bitter” about not getting more support from his peers.
Fast forward to 2020 and MLB seems a lot more open-minded toward social justice messages and players’ support of them. This week, we’ve seen members of the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Angels take a knee during the national anthem. (Above photo).
Thursday’s Opening Day games featured players and coaches taking a knee during the pregame for Black Lives Matter, holding a black ribbon-like fabric. Baseball is making Black Lives Matter center stage on Opening Day:
America’s pastime is sending a loud message as it begins its condensed season: Black lives matter.
For decades, fans have claimed baseball often mirrors society and in 2020, that rings true — and loudly.
Major League Baseball teams and players are using this Opening Day to place Black Lives Matters center stage.
“BLM,” accompanied by the MLB’s logo, has been stamped onto the pitcher’s mound of the World Series-defending Washington Nationals –and the Los Angeles Dodgers — on Thursday night. That’s the most prominently displayed ballpark location during a television broadcast.
The left sleeve of some of the four teams player jerseys — the Nationals, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants — have patches reading, “Black Lives Matter” and “United for Change,” alongside what the MLB says is an, “inverted MLB logo where the silhouetted batter is black.”
Both the Nationals and Yankees players came to the field during pre-game batting practice in shirts reading, “Black Lives Matter.” On the West Coast, the Los Angeles Dodgers posted a tweet showing Kenley Jansen, Edwin Rios, Kike Hernandez, Matt Beaty and Corey Seager wearing Black Lives Matter shirts ahead of their game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.
Prior to the playing of the National Anthem, teams took to the field and held a black ribbon-like fabric and kneeled — every player and coach.
New York Yankees at Washington Nationals.
San Francisco Giants at Los Angels Dodgers
Today, and every day, we come together as brothers. As equals, all with the same goal – to level the playing field. To change the injustices. Equality is not just a word. It’s our right!
Today we stand as men from 25 nations on 6 continents.
Today, we are one. pic.twitter.com/vKUGdRfwgQ
— MLB (@MLB) July 23, 2020
It’s all part of a new policy from the MLB, according to a document obtained by CNN, drafted after the league held discussions with the Players Association, the Players Alliance and individual players.
“MLB stands in solidarity with the Black community in the fight for racial and social justice,” the document reads.
“MLB recognizes more needs to be done. MLB will continue to listen to the Black community including MLB players, The Players Alliance and MLB and Club staff about this issue; enhance initiatives to improve Black representation in baseball on and off-the-field; expand charitable donations to social justice organizations; and continue to amplify the voices of our players.”
The league has also reversed its policy on messages written on player cleats. According to the document, players will now be able to, “express themselves with social justice messages and causes,” during the 2020 season.
Baseball may have been one of the first professional sports leagues to integrate, but it continues to reckon with the racism of its past.
In late June, my Minnesota Twins removed a statue honoring Calvin Griffith from outside the team’s ballpark. Griffith had once said to a crowd he’d moved his baseball team from Washington to Minneapolis because they had fewer Black people.
And the Boston Red Sox, The Final MLB Team to Integrate on July 21, 1959, placed a massive, 254-foot Black Lives Matter billboard running alongside the Massachusetts Turnpike by Fenway Park. The Boston Red Sox put up a Black Lives Matter billboard over the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“Recognizing that we have work to do ourselves, we wanted to show that we stand with those who are working to achieve racial equity,” Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran told CNN in a statement. “The billboard is operated by the Red Sox Foundation and one of the ways we plan to feature the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the baseball season as a way to amplify the voices of those who share our values, but may not share our platform.”
Donald Trump must be unaware of all this, or is not a baseball fan, because he simply tweeted “Welcome back baseball.” Where is the invective he has for NFL players who take a knee during the anthem and protest for racial justice? Donald Trump ‘looking forward to live sports,’ but still sees anthem protests as ‘disrespect’:
Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning he is “looking forward to live sports.”
But as he has pointed out multiple times, the president does not support athletes’ rights to peacefully protest during the playing of the national anthem before games.
At his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally in June, Trump riffed on kneeling during the anthem, saying, “I thought we won that battle with the NFL.” Those comments came about a week after he tweeted he would not watch the NFL or U.S. soccer if players took a knee.
Trump’s most recent threat to boycott watching sports came the day after members of the San Francisco Giants, including manager Gabe Kapler, knelt during the national anthem prior to an exhibition game. (Above photo).
I guess he won’t be watching baseball, either. Good riddance. He represents a bygone era.
Some quick observations. The oversized cardboard cutouts of fans (I presume season ticket holders) that some teams are using to fill seats behind home plates is a nice touch. But baseball uses computer generated imagery (CGI) for much of what you see during a television broadcast anyway, so why not CGI the fans? Just a thought.
Baseball is also using ambient crowd noise in the stadium, and the PA announcer apparently still has a job. Teams need someone to work the sound board to modulate the crowd noise when there is a good play or home run. There does not appear to be any “walk up” music selected by the batters, or even the organ player playing the traditional baseball riffs for the fans.
It appears that the team mascots may not be working this season, e.g., Mr. Met, the Philly fanatic, etc. And what about the presidents mascots racing in Washington, or the sausages mascots racing in Milwaukee? I watched the Cubs preseason game, and there was no singing “take me out to the ball game” tradition in the seventh inning stretch – the Cubs have to fix this.
We can’t lose these traditions to the COVID season, even if there are no fans in the seats. Please fix this Commish!
I am not at all convinced that baseball will be able to complete a truncated COVID season, let alone playoffs or a World Series. But I will watch, for love of the game.