HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- Astros manager Dusty Baker said Friday afternoon the team had not yet discussed whether they would play the night's game against the Oakland Athletics.
The A's and Texas Rangers had already postponed Thursday's game in Arlington, after the Oakland players decided not to take the field.
Meanwhile, the Astros have been off since the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks spurred widespread protest across sports, with the NBA postponing playoff action from Wednesday through Friday, and a handful of Major League Baseball teams and players deciding against playing.
The Astros are supposed to take the field at Minute Maid Park on Friday night to open a home series against the American League West leading A's. Their player's union representative, Lance McCullers Jr., is scheduled to pitch.
But the Astros did not make any players available to media members before Friday's game, as they normally do, and it still wasn't clear as of late Friday afternoon what the Astros might do.
"Nobody's mentioned it to me," Baker said. "It can't come from me, necessarily. It has to be something that the players feel in their hearts to do.
"It doesn't help that we've had two days off. It doesn't help that (the A's) were off yesterday and it doesn't help today is Jackie Robinson, either. So I'm not sure what everybody has planned. I'll find out in a little while."
The Astros have been vocal advocates of social justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing in May. Many of them have worn the now popular Black Lives Matter t-shirts and have expressed desire for changing to policies to combat racism and police brutality.
Baker, one of just two Black managers in Major League Baseball, called it a "bold, but necessary move" by the teams and players who decided not to play this week.
Baker had not seen the video of Jacob Blake being shot in Kenosha, Wisconsin until he was off work Thursday. His son showed him the video, and Baker said he found it appalling.
"It's getting worse and worse in the country," Baker said. "Something has to be done and something has to stop. Senseless shootings, senseless killings. … You're supposed to feel safe in this country. You're not supposed to feel threatened or afraid. This is something, fifty-something years ago, we were going through the same thing. And here it is now, it could be worse than then."
