[SBR Tony]

Major League Baseball and players have been in conversation about how to incorporate social justice elements into the sport, according to league and player sources, with the most recent conversation scheduled for Sunday.


It's unclear what form the elements will take, whether it be some kind of logo placed on uniforms or something shared and fronted by players.



Since the killing of George Floyd on May 25, many of the sport's players and teams have joined the national conversation about social justice. Andrew McCutchen, the Philadelphia Phillies' veteran, was among athletes and coaches who shared a byline and thoughts in a USA Today editorial in early June.


Los Angeles Dodgers players recently held a Zoom call led by Clayton Kershaw to talk about racial injustice, and their discussion resulted in a video released last week in support of Black Lives Matter.


Baseball mostly did not participate in the social justice conversation in sports after NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began to kneel during the national anthem in 2016. Bruce Maxwell, a catcher with the Oakland Athletics, kneeled during the anthem in 2017, but he has since said that he felt unsupported by peers and by those in the sport.


Baseball has rarely tackled issues of racial inequality with industry-wide uniformity. Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, but a full 12 years would pass before the Boston Red Sox became the last team to sign its first Black player, Pumpsie Green.


At the 1972 World Series, Robinson called for the hiring of the first Black manager in the major leagues, something that didn't happen until 1975 when Frank Robinson took over the Cleveland Indians.


In 1997, Major League Baseball held the first Jackie Robinson Day, at which then-commissioner Bud Selig announced that the No. 42 would be retired in perpetuity in honor of Robinson. Players were given the option of wearing No. 42 that day, and initially, many did not. But in the years that followed, it became the norm for all players to wear Robinson's number on that day.


MLB will commemorate Jackie Robinson Day this season on Aug. 28.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...lements-season

[SBR Tony]

Guess another sports I won't be watching

I'll bet them, but not watching.

[themike78]

Who exactly is this social justice for? Are blacks not allowed to play baseball?

[d2bets]

Guess another sports I won't be watching

I'll bet them, but not watching.

Way to take a stand against social justice.

[stake1]

I think they should all try the "Bruce Maxwell" approach. Then hope they like Mexico

[SBR Tony]

Way to take a stand against social justice.

I think we've seen enough of social justice, at least I have.
Every TV show, newspaper and anything under the sun talks about it. I get it, but when i watch sports, I want to watch sports
I don't want to see professional athletes that are paid to play ball and entertain me and other fans with a message about social justice, blm, or anything else.
If they want to run every commercial about it, that's fine.

[JMobile]

[stake1]

[stake1]

[Emily_Haines]

Can we get the black national anthem and maybe burn the American flag before the games as well

[lakerboy]

Guess another sports I won't be watching

I'll bet them, but not watching.

You can't watch anything

[pavyracer]

So all the sports will have messages. I suggest people who don't like it transfer their betpoints to me and head into The Saloon for the rest of the year.

[stake1]

Can we get the black national anthem and maybe burn the American flag before the games as well

I think they need to have the ceremonial first pitch on Thursday be at a white man's head. Let's get some justice. Some as they refer to as "repair-ations". No more "white ball" either. Black ball with white stitches. No more white bases or white home plate. All racist. Let's get some black bags and a yellow home plate. Cause all those crying injustice this and that fuckers are pussies

[ace7550]

Black batters get 4 strikes. Seems fair.

[stake1]

Tough call. Dominicans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans and the rest of Latin America? They do not consider themselves blacks. Could be a "race riot" between the few blacks and the many Latin's

[MinnesotaFats]

How about Kershaw and McCutchen give $400mm of their combined $500m in salaries to black people?

They could give 1 million black people $400 each and that would help!

They've each be left with over $50mm themselves.

NBA too....NBA could give 15 million black people $100 and that'd be $1.5billion.... that's a start for the BLM people

Messages are meaningless. Black people want MONEY from this. Not jobs, not opportunities, not murals...they want CASH.

[jjgold]

lol 15 blacks in MLB

[teecee]

Way to take a stand against social justice.

What are these athletes doing beyond paying lip service to racial injustice?

[jjgold]

What are these athletes doing beyond paying lip service to racial injustice?

nothing