Marlins and Mets walk off field after 42-second moment of silence to protest injustice
The Miami Marlins and New York Mets lined up as if it was any normal game Thursday. The Mets ran into the field to play defense. Lewis Brinson took swings in the on-deck circle. “The Star-Spangled Banner” even had played with every single player standing for the national anthem.
Brinson stepped from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box and every single player in the Marlins’ dugout stepped forward, too. In the opposite dugout, everyone did the same. For 42 seconds, they stood unified, and then they tipped their caps at one another and walked back to their locker room. The only thing left on Citi Field was a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt draped across home plate, placed there by Brinson.
Miami and New York joined the wave of protests spanning across North American sports following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The players decided to postpone the game.
“We thought collectively as two teams that it would send a powerful message for us to take the field at game time when you can see everything and the cameras are all on us, and have that 42-second moment of silence of those that have lost their lives and those that have been affected by this,” said Brinson, who is Black. “The shirt on the plate I think speaks for itself. The words on the shirt speak for themselves. Just having it in the center of everything and just know that both teams are unified.”
Marlins-Mets was one of seven games across MLB postponed Thursday as part of protests in the NFL, NBA, NHL, Women’s National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer. Players also led the postponement of Colorado Rockies-Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics-Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox-Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies-Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles-Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins-Detroit Tigers.
On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks sparked the movement to protest racial injustice and police brutality. About an hour before they were scheduled to play an NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic, the Bucks went on strike and refused to take the court for Game 5 of their first-round series. The NBA and National Basketball Players Association jointly decided to postpone all games Wednesday, and then again Thursday. Following the NBA’s lead, the WNBA postponed all games Wednesday and Thursday, most Major League Soccer teams opted not to play Wednesday, the NHL postponed its Stanley Cup playoff games Thursday and several Major League teams agreed to postpone games.
Miami and New York did not participate in any sort of strike Wednesday, even as half a dozen other teams agreed to postpone games, but Mets slugger Dominic Smith, who is Black, did kneel for the national anthem. After New York’s 5-4 win Wednesday, Smith spoke through tears as he discussed his decision and his feelings after seeing video of another Black man shot by police.
“I think the most difficult part is to see people still don’t care,” Smith said. “For this to just continuously happen, it just shows the hate in people’s heart. That just sucks, you know? Black men in America, it’s not easy. Like I said, I just wasn’t there today, but I’ll bounce back. I’ll be fine.”
Said manager Don Mattingly: “It’s been powerful. It’s tough to come back and catch the news, and seeing Dominic talking and just seeing the emotion pour out of him. And then watching Doc Rivers the other night talking about different things and just the emotion of that, and just seeing this. It’s just as human beings, it’s hard to watch some of the things we’ve had to watch and just like enough. Just say, ‘Enough.’ We’ve got to move forward. This can’t be a moment. It’s got to be a movement.”
Throughout Thursday, conversations took place between both teams about what they could do to join the movement. Shortstop Miguel Rojas and New York outfielder Michael Conforto began communicating about ideas, and Conforto said Rojas suggested the 42-second moment of silence. Rojas said the idea came from team-wide discussions, which included input from teammates, coaches, media relations, and even CEO Derek Jeter, who is biracial, and general manager Michael Hill, who is Black.
Mattingly spent the day talking with Brinson and relief pitcher Stephen Tarpley, who is also Black. Bench coach James Rowson, who is also Black, suggested to Mattingly he have Brinson lead off so the outfielder could place the shirt on home plate.
“I’m learning to like really truly listen to those guys and their feelings on different things that they either suppress or don’t feel like they can talk about,” Mattingly said, “or don’t want to talk about.”
Neither team offered much clarity as to whether the game would be played and both teams took the field for light warm-ups later than usual. Before the game, Brinson and Mattingly came out to the field, and talked to Smith and Mets manager Luis Rojas. Eventually, the two sides took the field as if a normal game was occurring before they made their joint statement.
Both benches emptied and lined up together, while Brinson stood alone at the plate with New York in the field. They waited for 42 seconds before they walked off the field and officially postponed the game.
Friday will be recognized as Jackie Robinson Day by MLB, honoring the contributions of the Hall of Fame second baseman, who broke MLB’s color barrier and wore No. 42 for his entire career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“We wanted to do something special, we wanted to do something different and, at the same time, send the right message and taking advantage of tomorrow that’s going to be Jackie Robinson Day,” Rojas said. “The 42 number means a lot for this game and for everybody in the United States.”
The collective statement followed a leaked video, which suggested commissioner Rob Manfred was pushing for the game to be played. The video, which was inadvertently uploaded to MLB.com and circulated on Twitter about an hour before first pitch, apparently showed Brodie Van Wagenen having a conversation about the commissioner’s thoughts on the planned protest. The New York general manager tells someone off camera Manfred was trying to find an alternate solution to an outright strike.
The solution, Van Wagenen said, was for both teams to take the field as scheduled, walk off and then return an hour later. In a later statement, Van Wagenen said the idea was actually owner Jeff Wipon’s
“Baseball’s trying to come up with a solution. ‘Oh you know what would be super powerful?’” Van Wagenen said. “‘It would be really great if we could just have them all take the field and then they leave the field, and then they come back and then they play at 8:10.’ I was like ‘What?’
“That’s Rob’s instinct and Rob, at a leadership level, doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it.”
In a statement, Manfred denied he was opposed to the protests.
“Over the past two days, players on a number of Clubs have decided not to play games. I have said both publicly and privately that I respect those decisions and support the need to address social injustice,” Manfred said. “I have not attempted in any way to prevent players from expressing themselves by not playing, nor have I suggested any alternative form of protest to any Club personnel or any player. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.”
MLB has not announced a date for the game to be rescheduled. Thursday was supposed to be the final time the Marlins played the Mets this season. Finding a day to reschedule the game is a concern for the league, especially after a game between the two last Thursday had to be rescheduled after a New York player tested positive for COVID-19.
On Thursday, it didn’t matter to Miami or the Mets.
“The whole thing was kind of player-driven,” Mattingly said. “Those guys unified in what they wanted to do and the message that they wanted to bring forward, and how they wanted to do it.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 7:24 PM.
