On Thursday, the Red Sox and Blue Jays postponed their game in Buffalo and released a joint statement.
“The continued police brutality and social inequity demand immediate attention and focus from all of us – not only Black Americans and Canadians," it read. "We fully respect the decision of our players to bring further awareness to the systemic racism that contributes to police violence against Black, Indigenous and people of color in our communities. We look forward to getting back on the field, and using our strongest platform, our game, to amplify our message demanding meaningful change.”
Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke spoke to reporters afterwards via Zoom to detail the day.
"Last night after the game there was some discussion on what went on in baseball, what went on in basketball and from those discussions, continued this morning," he said. "I know Jackie (Bradley Jr.) had some decisions to make on what he was going to do. After discussions with him, I know he talked to Chaim (Bloom) also, and Jackie had decided he was not going to play in today’s game. And along with that, a couple other discussions I had with players on what we should do. We knew we were going to meet today and talk about it. I also talked with Charlie Montoya of the Blue Jays to see what they were going to do because I read an article this morning on their team, they were going to meet also.
"So I wanted to make sure whatever we decided to do basically was OK with him and his crew also so meeting, came in here today, talked to most of the players, had the coaches talk. Tried to touch everybody and came up with the decision that we were going to back Jackie in his decision not to play and the players wanted to back him also and not play in tonight’s game."
As for what the team hopes to get out of not playing, it's a discussion.
“It’s like I said, I hope a discussion starts," Roenicke said. "The takeaway is, talk about this. Talk about this with your kids, with your family members, and maybe your business partners. And I know it’s important for us to play. And a lot of the comments that were made about – and Tom Goodwin brought it up, what if the kids that love this game and want to watch this game and they turn it on and we’re not playing today. He thought some of these things are important, that we’re playing for these kids, we’re playing for these communities, we’re playing for this country. And we know how important that is. So, for us not to play a game, it’s gotta be pretty important for us with all the things that are going on and the reason we’re playing during this season. These issues are so important that they should be discussed in all different areas."
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