Baseball: Giant’s powerful statement on racism.
Considered quiet and private, Giants outfielder Jaylin Davis has published powerful stories and messages that he hadn’t previously shared publicly.
“It needs to be addressed,” he said, “so I don’t mind.”
Davis, 25, had the courage and strength to write a blog on racism in baseball, include his awful experiences from high school and college, and express his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The blog ends with Davis noting his instincts were to keep his thoughts to himself, “But unless we all find a way to openly talk and genuinely listen to each other about racism, we have no hope of rooting it out.”
The blog posted Saturday on the Giants’ website.
In a Monday phone interview with The Chronicle, Davis said he consulted with those close to him before blogging, including his mother, Tiki, and Giants outfield coach Antoan Richardson.
“I never really talked to any of my teammates about it when I was with the Twins or since I’ve been with the Giants,” said Davis, who was acquired in July in the trade that sent reliever Sam Dyson to Minnesota. “I felt like with peo
ple becoming more aware, it makes it easier to talk about and gets it out there, the subject of what we need to do to change.”
The reaction to the post has been universally positive, with people in and out of baseball weighing in to applaud Davis, including friends, Giants teammates and coaches from his alma maters, Northeast Guilford High School in McLeansville, N.C., and Appalachian State.
In fact, the current Appalachian State head coach, Kermit Smith, who didn’t coach when Davis played there, talked with Davis on Monday morning and invited him to speak with the team.
Davis was among many African American ballplayers to participate in a video in support of Black Lives Matter — it ended with this message: “One team. One dream. Be the change” — and did a separate video with players represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
In the blog, Davis wrote that after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd on May 25, he received texts from other Black players asking how he was doing. The support made it easier for him to share his thoughts publicly.
In recent weeks, manager Gabe Kapler expressed his desire to “encourage and have the difficult conversation in the clubhouse” about inequality. Asked if he’d participate in the conversation, Davis said, “If Kap wants me to get up and say something, I definitely wouldn’t mind doing it.”
Davis is the only African American on the Giants’ 40man roster. There are no African American coaches (Richardson is from the Bahamas), and Davis said he appreciates the presence of outfielder Billy Hamilton, a nonroster player who has been in the majors for seven seasons.
Less than 8% of majorleaguers are African American.
“I’m kind of used to it,” Davis said. “I feel every team I’ve played on, there’s been only a couple of African American guys, if not just me. Billy came to me early, introduced himself and said, ‘Hey, man, if you have any questions, let me know.’ I feel having a guy like Billy in the locker room has helped me a lot, helped me feel comfortable.”
In the blog, Davis wrote that when he was a sophomore center fielder at Appalachian State, in a game at Arkansas, he chased down a ball in the gap and heard two people in the crowd “yell something about a monkey and bananas.” He didn’t respond.
“I felt if I reacted, they’d know it got to me and that would make it worse . ... I just kept telling myself to stay focused on the game and tune everything else out,” Davis wrote.
The right fielder yelled at them and told the coaches in the dugout what had happened. The coaches asked if Davis was OK.
“I said I was, even though I wasn’t,” he wrote. “I was angry, hurt and in shock. Here it was 2014 and these guys felt safe enough to yell such an outrageous, racist comment in public.”
An older white couple later apologized to Davis and informed him the two who directed the racial slurs at him were ejected by security.
In a high school game, Davis was playing shortstop and the only other African American on the team played first base. The opposing team uttered the nword three times, twice by one person in the presence of the first baseman — the white firstbase umpire did nothing — and another used the nword in the handshake line.
A couple of teammates, twin brothers, confronted one of the players, and “the situation got out of control real fast,” Davis wrote, adding he found out several of the opposing players and a coach were suspended for the rest of the season.
These stories, though appalling, are easier to share than the ones with which Davis deals daily.
“The hardest are the undramatic, everyday ones,” Davis wrote. “There’s no story in walking on eggshells every day. Or in feeling the stares of people at an upscale restaurant. Or trying to calm the pounding in your chest whenever a police car appears in your rearview mirror. Or wondering if your little brother can swallow his anger as well as you can. The constant anxiety, isolation and degradation of racism are like molecules of carbon monoxide in the air. They’re invisible to the naked eye but as poisonous as the brutality caught on camera and posted on Instagram.”
Davis, a big part of the Giants’ future, according to Kapler and the front office, hit 36 home runs at four professional stops last season, including his first in the big leagues. With the Giants, he went 7for42 (.167) in 17 games.