Their voice should be as one
Cubs can make a statement by sitting out together as a team
A couple of years ago, back when you could talk to athletes in person instead of on Zoom calls, I told a Chicago Cubs player he would one day regret a photo of him and his teammates yukking it up with President Donald Trump at the White House.
He laughed it off without actually disagreeing, and we never talked about it again.
I thought of that moment Wednesday night while listening to Jason Heyward, manager
David Ross, Jon Lester and Anthony Rizzo discuss Heyward’s decision to sit out the game in Detroit in support of the NBA and national sports protests of the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Raw emotions and anger spilled out from some of them, including Rizzo, who criticized unnamed politicians.
“I’ve gone through a lot with my high school and (bleep) still doesn’t change,” he said, referring to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. “It’s just the fact of the matter. Politicians don’t really give a (bleep) about us. All they care about is their own agenda and it’s just the way it is, and it’s upsetting.”
This, of course, is true. Politicians don’t care about any of them, except when it comes to having a photo-op with a championship team in the White House. If there were any question of that, all one had to do was listen to Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, who was asked
Thursday about the NBA players’ reaction to the Kenosha shooting.
“NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially,” he said.
The protests have nothing to do with money and everything to do with creating awareness of systemic racism in America after another tragic police shooting of a Black man. And when the Milwaukee Bucks decided to sit out Game 5 of their series with the Orlando Magic, it was the first domino to fall on a historic night in which the entire NBA and WNBA, six Major League Baseball teams three individual baseball players and five of six scheduled Major League Soccer games followed suit.
Games have been postponed for weather, terrorist attacks and pandemics, but this was the first time in memory so many players and teams refused to play to make a political statement.
In the case of the Cubs, Heyward’s stance immediately led to criticism on Twitter that he was being abandoned by his teammates at a time they all needed to stand together. Without knowing why he chose to sit and his teammates chose to play, the question was valid.
It was only after the game that Heyward revealed he had convinced his teammates not to sit, even as several apparently were willing to do so, and “not leave me hanging,” as Heyward
said.
“I had full support from them — teammates, coaching staff, everyone,” he said. “I encouraged them to go out there and play the game. I didn’t want anyone to sit here and say ‘No, we don’t need to play the game.’ ”
Heyward didn’t explain why he wanted to go it alone, but the timing of his decision, coming so close to game time after a meeting with Ross, apparently was a factor. Heyward said the Brewers’ decision to cancel was a “no-brainer” because they were close to “ground zero,” though Kenosha is only about 20 minutes farther from Chicago than it is from Milwaukee.
Either way, if Heyward was OK with his teammates playing — and in fact was encouraging them to play — there’s no reason to blame the rest of the Cubs for playing and not standing behind one of their leaders. But that’s a narrative that handily fits in with today’s Twittersphere, so don’t expect it go away.
So what’s next?
Was Wednesday’s call for awareness enough to bring more attention to the issue? Or is more action necessary?
Asked if the Cubs could boycott a game in Cincinnati, Heyward said he didn’t know what would happen next.
“I can’t see anything,” he said. “I couldn’t see this coming today. I’m living this. … Just like you guys are asking questions, I’ve got my own questions. That’s kind of what I put on my teammates tonight. I strongly believed that I couldn’t tell them to not go out there and play the game because I barely know how to handle this.”
Lester also said he had “no idea” what the Cubs would do next.
“In our world right now, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next minute,” he said. “We’re in a crazy time all around… We just have to play it day by day.”
With an off day Thursday, the Cubs waited to see how it played out in the rest of the sports world before making a decision. The NBA, the focal point of the movement, postponed all playoff games Thursday but reportedly agreed to resume. Seven MLB games were postponed Thursday, including the Marlins-Mets game in New York, where Mets players took the field for 42 seconds and left, a symbolic gesture that paid homage to Jackie Robinson.
Ross, whose eyes were welling up Wednesday night during his defense of Heyward’s decision, said he would stand by his players in whatever they decide to do.
Rizzo seemed to lean toward playing.
“Playing baseball is an escape for all of us, personally,” Rizzo said. “We’re in here together. I know we’re on TV playing every day, but for our own sanity we should be able to play together. It does a lot of good. As long as we can move forward and acknowledge there are things in this country that are not right right now, and we start acknowledging moving forward instead of trying to sweep it under the rug and move onto the next story, that’s a start.”
If the Cubs really want to send a collective message, they can do so by sitting out as a team. If they decide to play, Heyward should be back on the field with them.
Whatever they do from here on out, their voice should be as one.