The Wild, Twins, and Timberwolves all postponed their games on Monday after the shooting of Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis area Sunday – the latter affecting the Nets, who were in town to play the Wolves and ended up winning the rescheduled game Tuesday afternoon.
One other New Yorker affected was Aaron Hicks, who sat out of Monday’s Yankees win over the Blue Jays after telling manager Aaron Boone he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play.
“I would say that Aaron is hurting in a huge way, and I think, in a way, felt like it was probably the responsible thing to take himself out in knowing that it was going to be hard for him to be all in mentally in what is a high-stakes, difficult job, to go out and perform for the New York Yankees,” Boone said Monday. “This is something in the immediate, this real emotion that he’s feeling. And right now, I’m going to support that. My consideration is with Aaron and his well-being and making sure that, as best we can, we support him and try to be there as best we can for him right now.”
Hicks returned Tuesday, and after the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays, he explained his decision.
“I just felt like it wasn’t right for me to play that game. It was tough to read that somebody just got murdered,” Hicks said. “He’s a father to his son, and he’s also a son to his mother. So, it’s extremely tough when situations like that happen.”
Hicks said he was “literally going back and forth” on the drive to Dunedin, but “by the time I got to the field, I just knew it wasn’t right for me to play,” so he went in before batting practice and asked Boone if he could have the day off.
Boone, as noted, was 100 percent behind it, as were Hicks’ teammates.
“It was incredible. Just them being able to say they’ve got my back, even if they don’t understand what it’s like and what Black Americans in this country have to deal with sometimes,” Hicks said, “It’s just nice to kind of hear, ‘hey, it’s all good, we’ll take care of this game for you,’ and it’s nice to have that.”
Back in the lineup Tuesday, Hicks hit fifth and went 3-for-4, and was happy to get back into the flow after a very rough Monday.
“I just felt like yesterday wasn’t right and today was the day I wanted to play. I wanted to go out, I wanted to compete, and competing is what gets my mind off it,” Hicks said. “It really was nice to go out there today and have a good game. I just want to keep it going.”
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