started with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting, and later kneeling, during the national anthem during the NFL exhibition season. He was soon joined by teammate Eric Reid. It extended to Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall before Thursday’s NFL season opener.By Sunday, there were four NFL teams with players expressing silent protests, including Martellus Bennett and Devin McCourty of the New England Patriots, who stood with raised fists following the anthem.
Yet, since that Aug. 26 day when Kaepernick gained attention for his protest against racial inequality in this country - with his season opener scheduled Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams - there have been nearly 250 Major League Baseball games played, and not a single player has taken a stand.
Or, in this case, a knee.
This is the sport that launched the civil rights movement when Jackie Robinson integrated the game of baseball on April 15, 1947, finally breaking the color barrier.
Now, at a time when even entire high school football teams and soccer players are waging silent protests by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem, there hasn’t been a single protest in baseball.
Perhaps someone is quietly sitting on the dugout bench, or even lingering in the clubhouse until the national anthem is over, but no one has publicly made their intentions known.
Why?
“We already have two strikes against us already,’’ Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones told USA TODAY Sports, “so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us.
“Baseball is a white man’s sport.’’
Indeed, African Americans comprise 68% of the player population in the NFL, and 74% in the NBA. That number is just 8% in baseball, with only 69 African-Americans on the opening-day rosters and disabled lists this season.
This doesn’t mean that anyone who protests racial inequality or police brutality will be released from their teams, or banished from baseball, never to wear a uniform again. Still, in the conservative world of baseball, whose players stand 162 times for the national anthem, playing in front of more fans than any sport in the country, they could face much more ridicule and ostracization.
Jones, 31, one of the most outspoken and passionate African-American players in baseball, certainly empathizes with the injustices that minorities face every day in this country. He sees and hears too many incidents of police brutality in his own city that have unfairly targeted minorities, and was an important voice in the aftermath of protests that followed the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a series of events that compelled the Orioles to play a 2015 game in front of an empty stadium.
Jones would like to see change, too, but Sunday, just like every other day, he stood at attention during the national anthem before their game against the Detroit Tigers, with his right hand over his heart.
“He believes in what he believes in,’’ Jones says of Kaepernick, “and as a man of faith, as an American who has rights, who am I to say he’s wrong?
“Kaepernick is not disrespecting the military. He’s not disrespecting people who they’re fighting. What he’s doing is showing that he doesn’t like the social injustice that the flag represents.
“Look, I know a lot of people who don’t even know the words to the national anthem. You know how many times I see people stand up for the national anthem and not pay attention. They stand because they’re told to stand.
“That’s the problem. Just don’t do something because you’re told to do something. Do it because you understand the meaning behind it and the sacrifice behind it.’’
Whether you agree or disagree with Kaepernick’s method to draw attention to the inequalities in this country, Jones is dismayed how the public views Kaepernick compared to 49er teammates. Go ahead, check out the difference in coverage since Kapernick sat during the national anthem compared to his teammate, Bruce Miller. Miller was arrested last week and charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery against 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son. The 49ers later released him.
“Here’s my thing,’’ Jones says, “there’s somebody on the 49ers’ team that commits an act like that, accosts a 70-year-old man and his kid, and nobody’s talking about that. But they talk about Kaepernick doing something that he believes in, as his right as an American citizen. People need to talk more about that guy than Kaepernick.
“He’s not receiving the ridicule and public torture that Kaepernick is facing. Is Kaepernick hurting me? No. Is he hurting random people out there? No. I support his decision.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t respect his freedoms, then why the hell are we Americans? It’s supposed to be the Land of the Free, right?’’
I have never seen Adam so emotional
Yet, since that Aug. 26 day when Kaepernick gained attention for his protest against racial inequality in this country - with his season opener scheduled Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams - there have been nearly 250 Major League Baseball games played, and not a single player has taken a stand.
Or, in this case, a knee.
This is the sport that launched the civil rights movement when Jackie Robinson integrated the game of baseball on April 15, 1947, finally breaking the color barrier.
Now, at a time when even entire high school football teams and soccer players are waging silent protests by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem, there hasn’t been a single protest in baseball.
Perhaps someone is quietly sitting on the dugout bench, or even lingering in the clubhouse until the national anthem is over, but no one has publicly made their intentions known.
Why?
“We already have two strikes against us already,’’ Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones told USA TODAY Sports, “so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us.
“Baseball is a white man’s sport.’’
Indeed, African Americans comprise 68% of the player population in the NFL, and 74% in the NBA. That number is just 8% in baseball, with only 69 African-Americans on the opening-day rosters and disabled lists this season.
This doesn’t mean that anyone who protests racial inequality or police brutality will be released from their teams, or banished from baseball, never to wear a uniform again. Still, in the conservative world of baseball, whose players stand 162 times for the national anthem, playing in front of more fans than any sport in the country, they could face much more ridicule and ostracization.
Jones, 31, one of the most outspoken and passionate African-American players in baseball, certainly empathizes with the injustices that minorities face every day in this country. He sees and hears too many incidents of police brutality in his own city that have unfairly targeted minorities, and was an important voice in the aftermath of protests that followed the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a series of events that compelled the Orioles to play a 2015 game in front of an empty stadium.
Jones would like to see change, too, but Sunday, just like every other day, he stood at attention during the national anthem before their game against the Detroit Tigers, with his right hand over his heart.
“He believes in what he believes in,’’ Jones says of Kaepernick, “and as a man of faith, as an American who has rights, who am I to say he’s wrong?
“Kaepernick is not disrespecting the military. He’s not disrespecting people who they’re fighting. What he’s doing is showing that he doesn’t like the social injustice that the flag represents.
“Look, I know a lot of people who don’t even know the words to the national anthem. You know how many times I see people stand up for the national anthem and not pay attention. They stand because they’re told to stand.
“That’s the problem. Just don’t do something because you’re told to do something. Do it because you understand the meaning behind it and the sacrifice behind it.’’
Whether you agree or disagree with Kaepernick’s method to draw attention to the inequalities in this country, Jones is dismayed how the public views Kaepernick compared to 49er teammates. Go ahead, check out the difference in coverage since Kapernick sat during the national anthem compared to his teammate, Bruce Miller. Miller was arrested last week and charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery against 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son. The 49ers later released him.
“Here’s my thing,’’ Jones says, “there’s somebody on the 49ers’ team that commits an act like that, accosts a 70-year-old man and his kid, and nobody’s talking about that. But they talk about Kaepernick doing something that he believes in, as his right as an American citizen. People need to talk more about that guy than Kaepernick.
“He’s not receiving the ridicule and public torture that Kaepernick is facing. Is Kaepernick hurting me? No. Is he hurting random people out there? No. I support his decision.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t respect his freedoms, then why the hell are we Americans? It’s supposed to be the Land of the Free, right?’’
I have never seen Adam so emotional
