Twins ditch statue of racist former owner
completely false, as Rob recently acknowledged that the parties are ‘very, very close,’ ” Clark said in the statement. “This latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning.
“This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from Players and this is just another bad faith tactic in their ongoing campaign.”
Players launched a Twitter campaign against Manfred and the league, with many stars demanding to be told “when and where” to start playing. Two days of fiery comebacks later, Manfred met with Clark to have a discussion about the impasse in negotiations — after two months of unproductive back-and-forth — and a framework for relaunching the season was discussed.
“At my request, Tony Clark and I met for several hours yesterday in Phoenix,” Manfred said in a statement. “We left that meeting with a jointly developed framework that we agreed could form the basis of an agreement and subject to conversations with our respective constituents.
Clark didn’t see it as a framework, and the offer was countered with a 70-game plan from the union.
According to details reported about that 60-game proposal, players would: receive their contracted salaries prorated to the number of games they play (based on the original March 26 agreement); start the season around July 19; and expand playoffs in 2020 and 2021.
If the players do not agree to the offer, Manfred could (and would) likely still set the schedule for somewhere between 50 and 60 games.
While this signals more optimism a season might happen, recent spikes of cases of the novel coronavirus around the country could tell a different story. And the once projected plan to restart a shortened spring training in Florida — where a rushed reopening of the state has led to an increase in cases, particularly over last weekend where the number of cases rose more than 2,000 per day for two days — could be squashed.
The Phillies and Blue Jays both shutdown their facilities in Clearwater and Dunedin after the Phillies confirmed five players and three staff members tested positive for the virus. Another report surfaced the Mets were thinking of moving their spring training to Citi Field — the number of cases in the Big Apple have decreased enough for Governor Andrew Cuomo to OK the city to enter Phase 2 of its re-opening on Monday.
Even if the state of the coronavirus in other parts of the country seem to be improving, the health experts still warn a second wave of the virus could come in the fall, when baseball typically starts its postseason.
Former Twins owner Calvin Griffith was — perhaps until Friday morning, when the team announced his statute was removed from Target Field’s entrance — most famous for helping bring baseball to Minneapolis in 1961, guiding the movement of the then-Washington Senators to Minnesota.
But the former team owner should be known by his insidious reasons for moving west — to ensure that his baseball team played as far away from black people as possible.
In Griffith’s own words, reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune back in 1978, “Black people don’t go to ball games, but they’ll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you to death.” He trusted that the “good, hardworking, white people” of the Twin Cities would reliably support every Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett and Torii Hunter to come.
The Twins finally acknowledged Griffith’s role in their history and place in their future in a statement:
“When we opened Target Field in
2010 in conjunction with our 50th season in Minnesota, we were excited and proud to welcome fans to our ‘forever ballpark.’ As such, we wanted to pay permanent tribute to those figures and moments that helped shape the first half-century of Minnesota Twins baseball — including a statue of Calvin Griffith, our former owner and the man responsible for moving the franchise here in 1961.
“While we acknowledge the prominent role Calvin Griffith played in our history, we cannot remain silent and continue ignoring the racist comments he made in Waseca in 1978 [at a Lions club meeting]. His disparaging words displayed a blatant intolerance and disregard for the Black community that are the antithesis of what the Minnesota Twins stand for and value.”
The Pohlad family, which has held control of the team since Carl Pohlad purchased the team from Griffith in 1984, also pledged $25 million to currently unspecified racial justice causes in response to the police killing of George Floyd, which happened just four miles away from their stadium and statue.
The Daily News has reached out to the Pohlad family for comment on the specifics of their financial commitment.
Right now, praise for the Twins should be as restrained as their gestures. The Pohlads’ $25 million is just 0.6% of the family’s estimated $3.8 billion net worth — it’s comparable to the typical black American family (median net worth $17,150) donating about $100 bucks. Also, the Twins erected the Griffith statue in 2010, recent enough that even “hard-working white people” should have known better, which the organization all but admitted.
“Our decision to memorialize Calvin Griffith with a statue reflects an ignorance on our part of systemic racism present in 1978, 2010 and today.”
Admitting their role in past injustice, however limited, is a step forward. The Twins haven’t scored, but maybe they’re ready to start a rally.