Marlins want to ‘cause true change’ as calls for racial justice around country continue
Miami Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson admits his situation is a little different than others speaking up about the topic. In his words, Brinson, who is Black, “had everything I needed” growing up.
“I didn’t grow up in a bad neighborhood,” continued Brinson, a Fort Lauderdale native who went to Coral Springs High. “I didn’t grow up seeing things that probably [the New York Mets’] Dom [Smith] grew up seeing outside my front door. I never had the fear of my life coming out my front door.
“I haven’t really felt what he has felt.”
But Brinson also knows systemic racism is hurting people who look like him. The police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was the latest public example of that. Watching Smith’s emotional response to the shooting in his post-game press conference Wednesday added a new layer of reality to the situation at hand.
“Him getting emotional like that makes you know it’s real,” Brinson said. “It’s coming from deep down. It’s coming from the heart. It’s coming from experiences. I feel for him. I feel for everybody. I feel for the people who have to live through that every single day.”
Brinson, the Marlins and teams around Major League Baseball — a league typically viewed as a more conservative league when it comes to speaking out on social issues — are using their platform to make a statement regarding social justice and racial equality.
The Marlins made their statement on Thursday when they stood in silence and in solidarity with the New York Mets for 42 seconds at Citi Field in honor of Jackie Robinson before Brinson draped a Black Lives Matter T-shirt over home plate and both teams tipped their caps and walked back to their clubhouse. A baseball game was not played that day, one of seven called off Thursday and 11 overall between Wednesday and Friday.
They amplified their message to support the Black community on Friday when they donated $420,000 to the Jackie Robinson Foundation to set up a yearly scholarship fund for Black students in South Florida that will go into effect starting next year.
Their goal now: Keep the conversation going. Don’t let the moment fade away. Otherwise, their stand on Thursday will mean next to nothing.
“Although we’ve probably come a long way, we’re not far enough,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “It has to get better. The equality issues, the different forms of education, the opportunities, justice. All of those within that. As you look at Jackie, you can say, ‘Hey, we’ve come a long way.’ But we’re still seeing a lot of issues in that area. I think that’s where you see people saying, ‘We’ve had enough of this.’ It’s human rights, human equality.”
‘Just be supportive’
Brinson, one of three Black players on the Marlins’ 40-man roster, plans to be one of the leaders inside the organization to make sure the movement continues.
He’s part of The Players Alliance, a group of more than 100 current and former Black players who seek more opportunities and advancement for Blacks in baseball. According to USA Today, Black players constituted just 7.8 percent of Opening Day rosters.
Members of The Players Alliance donated their game checks from the Friday and Saturday to organizations that combat racial inequality.
“Just be supportive,” Brinson said. “Obviously, people have different views on what’s going on and that’s perfectly fine. You’re entitled to your own opinion, but just support us. I told my teammates ‘This is obviously a minority issue, but we’re all unified.”
And he has the support of his teammates and from the Marlins organization.
The Marlins are led by a biracial CEO in Derek Jeter and a Black president of baseball operations in Michael Hill. They have two Black coaches in bench coach James Rowson and first-base coach Billy Hatcher.
The club has actively encouraged players to share their viewpoints and said players’ voices weren’t going to be restricted as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to unfold following the Blake shooting and deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and more Black Americans by law enforcement.
Prior to their home opener, the Marlins placed a banner in center field of the “Black Lives Matter, United for Change” placard that general managers held up prior to the 2020 MLB Draft in June.
“This is a situation that is impacting everybody in America,” said relief pitcher Stephen Tarpley. “What’s going on is much bigger than the game itself. We are just trying to bring that awareness to everybody. ... I don’t think there is a set way of how we should go about this, because it’s something none of us have ever been through before. We talked about this. We don’t want things to necessarily become a moment or is celebrated on one day.”
Added outfielder Matt Joyce: “I don’t know if anybody has the perfect answer, but everybody is unified for change. Everybody wants to see things, especially in the social injustice area, improve. For me being raised in America and knowing not much else, it’s frustrating and to be honest with you, it’s a little embarrassing that this keeps happening. I think America, us as a country, I think we’re a lot better than that. ... We have to have an open ear. We have to be understanding. We have to do whatever we can to support each other, to help each other through this difficult time, and obviously this has gone on long enough in our country. We’re just trying to make the most powerful message, send the most powerful message as we can as a baseball community that we’re together on this, we’re supporting the movement and we’re doing the best we can with the platform that we’re given.”
‘We can’t stay quiet about it’
The message is being heard loud and clear.
It started in baseball Wednesday with the Milwaukee Brewers, who play about 40 minutes north of Kenosha, when they became the first team to postpone a game out of protest, doing so shortly after the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks didn’t take the court for Game 5 of their playoff series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.
Two more games — Seattle Mariners at the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers at the San Francisco Giants — followed suit. Several players, including the St. Louis Cardinals’ Dexter Fowler and Jack Flaherty, the Colorado Rockies’ Matt Kemp and the Chicago Cubs’ Jason Heyward, sat out their teams’ games on Wednesday as well.
“A Black man was shot, and his life is in peril, and frankly it shouldn’t be,” Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Tuesday. “We’ve got a systemic problem that we need to address, and we all need to educate ourselves. Whether you agree or disagree with what I’m saying, I think it’s important that we continue to think, we continue to pursue policy change, we continue to act, because there’s violence happening that just absolutely should not be happening. And we can’t stay quiet about it.”
Seven more games — Marlins-Mets, Rockies-Diamondbacks, Athletics-Rangers, Red Sox-Blue Jays, Phillies-Nationals, Orioles-Rays and Twins-Tigers — were then called off on Thursday at the asking of the players. The Houston Astros and Athletics also did not play on Friday.
“For a while there, it had gotten away from being America’s game,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker, one of baseball’s two Black managers. “This brought it back full circle … This is definitely America’s game. America belongs to all of us, no matter if you got here early or late. We’re all Americans and we’ve all had a hand in building this country, and we’ve probably all had a hand in tearing some of it down. Now it’s time to rebuild it back again.”
Added Yankees slugger and former Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton: “It’s not a time to just shut up and swing, shut up and dribble. This is the time to take reality for what it is and start helping to make a damn change because this is unacceptable what’s been going on. And it hurts, man.”
MLB said in a statement that it “remains united for change in our society and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice.” MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark said the MLBPA is “proud of the stand that our Players have taken, and we remain committed to supporting their efforts to effect change in MLB communities and beyond.”
‘Enough is enough’
Effecting change means extending these moments that have surfaced throughout the league to more than blips on the radar.
“I know the Marlins have been in the community, leaders in the community in this area and they want to continue to do that,” Mattingly said. “... We have to continue this to really make a difference and cause true change because enough is enough.”
For Brinson, that means his defining moment in this call for racial equality can’t be putting a Black Lives Matter T-shirt on home plate. He plans to go out in the community in South Florida — “go in the inner cities, go into Black communities, go into white communities, go into Spanish communities and make sure that everyone knows we’re here for you guys,” he said — to keep the movement going and hopefully see change start to come out of it.
“It has to be continual,” Brinson said. “Every moment or every chance that you get, this has to be emphasized and needs to be brought to attention. I know around sports there are a lot of stoppages and everything, but right now, it needs to really be the focus for everybody.”
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