Professional athletes all throughout sports are sharing their stories in light of another example of racial injustice that has come to the forefront with the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Blake was shot by a police officer in Wisconsin seven times in the back. It prompted sports leagues to postpone games, starting with the NBA on Wednesday, and made its way throughout sports, including a contest between the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays scheduled for Thursday night.
Boston Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and first base coach Tom Goodwin, both of whom are Black, shared stories with the team. And they both clearly had a large impact on manager Ron Roenicke, who spoke to reporters about the recent events Thursday.
“I’m listing to Jackie, I’ve got tears in my eyes. I’m listening to (Goodwin), I’ve got tears in my eyes. And you know, this is really an important time in our country, and what are we going to do? These guys have a platform to be able to discuss some things that are serious issues in our country that we need to straighten out,” Roenicke said. “And I think we know how important is baseball is, we understand that. That’s why we’re playing. We’re playing through the pandemic that’s going on so we know it’s all important. But we know that issues in life are more important.
“And listening to Goodie and Jackie talk, it makes a big difference in our lives. And it should make a difference in everybody’s lives. If you’re a kid and you turn on the TV tonight and you don’t see that we’re playing, and you ask your parents ‘Why aren’t the Red Sox playing?’ I hope the parents have a serious discussion with their kids and tell them what’s going on, explain what’s going on because we need to discuss these things more, we need to listen more. And that’s the only way we’re going to change.
“So, and not just households, it’s businesses,” Roenicke continued. “If you own a business and you know the Red Sox aren’t playing, ‘Why?’ You should have those discussions with your employees and explain the things that are going on and the things that maybe you haven’t talked about before because it is a touchy subject. But these are things that hopefully what we do here, and what has been done, leads to because there needs to be a change in this great country that we live in.”
Powerful words, Ron.
