Before Thursday’s Major League Baseball season opener, all Washington Nationals and New York Yankees players on the field held a black length of fabric and observed a moment of silence for Black victims of brutality.
The players kneeled together for part of the observance, but everyone then stood for a pre-recorded performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Nationals Park video board played multiple videos related to the Black Lives Matter movement before the game, one that showed a montage of images from protests in the District, and another filmed by Black MLB players last month in partnership with the Players Alliance.
And players from both teams, including Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and several Nationals, also wore warm-up shirts before the game that said “Black Lives Matter.”
Professional sports in the U.S. are resuming for the first time after both the coronavirus shutdown and May’s and June’s widespread Black Lives Matter protests. Thursday’s game marks the beginning of a 60-game MLB season.
MLB players on teams like the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds have knelt for the national anthem before exhibition games in recent days.
Video: Players kneel while holding black cloth in support of Black Lives Matter, BUT as far as we could tell from the video, they all stood for the Star-Spangled Banner afterward #OpeningDay #Nats #Yanks pic.twitter.com/TALoR6zZYj
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2020
Playing for more than ourselves.#BlackLivesMatter // #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/su8AxUxTSt
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 23, 2020
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