Brewers vote to follow suit in deciding not to play
Players unanimous in stand against injustice
The Milwaukee Brewers followed the lead of the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday afternoon and voted not to play their game against Cincinnati scheduled for 7:10 p.m. at Miller Park.
Shortly after the news broke that the Bucks were not going to play their NBA playoff game against Orlando, which then became a league-wide series of postponements, Brewers players met at Miller Park to discuss whether to play. They voted unanimously to stand united with the Bucks on protesting systemic racism after the shooting of another Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white policeman in Kenosha.
It was not immediately known if the game would be rescheduled but the Reds are supporting the Brewers and agreed not to play rather than accept a forfeit.
The teams are scheduled to finish their series at 7:10 p.m. Thursday and that could now be changed to a doubleheader to make up this game.
The team released this statement about the postponement:
“The players from the Brewers and Reds have decided to not play tonight's baseball game. With our community
and our nation in such pain, we wanted to draw as much attention to the issues that really matter, especially racial injustice and systemic oppression.”
Brewers union representative Brent Suter had this to say about the decision not to play Wednesday night: “Our team and the Reds felt that with our community and our nation in such pain, tonight we wanted 100% of the focus to be on issues that are much more important than baseball.”
After the report surfaced that the Bucks would not play, and before the Brewers voted to join that stand, reliever Josh Hader was talking to reporters and was asked about what Milwaukee’s basketball team decided.
“I think it’s an enormous stand,” Hader said.
“It’s more than sports, and they showed it. It’s not about the game; it’s more than that. And this is a time where we need to really not stay quiet and show our power and our voices.
“(Racism) is something that we’ve been talking about since the day we got here and it’s something that we need to continue to talk about. It’s something that can’t just stay quiet, and it’s nothing that we can just put behind us. All of us need to have a voice and bring light to this situation.”
The Brewers have been using the motto “Justice. Equality. Now.” all season and that message was on the video board at Miller Park for several minutes Tuesday before the game against the Reds.
Players regularly have worn T-shirts that say “Black Lives Matter” throughout the season.
Before taking questions Tuesday about baseball during his afternoon Zoom session with reporters, manager Craig Counsell talked about the shooting in Kenosha.
“A Black man was shot, and his life is in peril, and frankly it shouldn’t be,” Counsell said. “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.”
As for the continued role that sports figures can have in this movement, Counsell said, “I think we just have to be a voice right now, and just encourage people to understand what’s happening. Everybody has to form their own opinion, and they have to use the information they gather to do that.
“But educate yourselves, and understand it as best you can. Understand points you don’t agree with. Sometimes it’s hard for us to do. It’s certainly hard for me to see any scope of the other side on this one, but educate yourselves. I think it’s all of our responsibility to do that.”
Now, the Brewers have taken on some of that responsibility by refusing to play Wednesday night.
Later in the day, the Seattle Mariners followed suit when players unanimously voted against playing their scheduled game against the Padres in San Diego.