Padres Postpone Play
The San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners, the team with the most Black players in all of Major League Baseball,voted not to play due to the shooting of Jacob Blake hours before game time on Wednesday evening. The Padres released the following statement after players and coaches cleared Petco Park’s infield.
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 27, 2020
“We understand the Mariners decision to postpone tonight’s game and we support the players’ efforts to use their platform to bring awareness to the very serious issue of racial injustice impacting our country today.”
Last Monday, the Padres experienced backlash because their young star Fernando Tatis Jr. swung on a 3-0 pitch and hit a grand slam. A week later, baseball in San Diego paused in protest.
The decision to boycott the game was part of a chain reaction that started with the National Basketball Association. Early this afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their scheduled playoff game, causing a ripple effect across sports. Six Women’s National Basketball Association teams staged a walkout of their own. Four other NBA teams postponed their playoff games. Five games in Major League Soccer were called off. Teams across MLB refused to play, including the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.
Sports Decide Enough Is Enough
Today the world of sports decided it’s time to demand justice. And on a day in history as important as this one.
On Aug. 26, 2016, our nation witnessed Colin Kaepernick protest racial injustices by sitting during the national anthem. He later made a bigger statement by kneeling, and leagues chose not to take a stand back then. Now exactly four years later, individual teams took action into their own hands.
Padres reporter Kevin Acee says that the Padres and Mariners may play a pair of seven-inning games beginning at 1:10 p.m. tomorrow, although this still remains uncertain as players and managers continue to meet and discuss further plans of action.
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