Red Sox Manager Ron Roenicke Says to Parents If Their Child Asks Why the Sox Aren’t Playing Tonight, “I Hope the Parents Have a Serious Discussion with Their Kids and Tell Them What’s Going on. Because We Need to Discuss These Things More and to Listen More, and That’s the Only Way That We’re Going to Change.”
In a Zoom interview with WKXL’s Chris Ryan, Red Sox players—Xander Bogaerts, Kevin Pillar and Nathan Eovaldi–and Manager Ron Roenicke discuss the team’s decision to not take the field against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night to protest systemic racism and police brutality. The team’s action comes in the wake of the death of Jacob Blake, an African American, at the hands of a white Kenosha, WI police officer.
After Jackie Bradley Jr. — the Red Sox’s lone Black player — chose not to participate in Thursday’s game, the team decided to postpone it. The Red Sox held a team meeting to discuss the ongoing issue of racial injustice in the country.
Manager Ron Roenicke emotionally spoke about the team meeting which led to the decision to not play the game. The Red Sox wanted to support their teammate and to bring attention to racism in America. Roenicke spoke about the importance of baseball as a distraction to life’s problems, but discussions about societal problems like racism need to occur in our homes and business places.
“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.”
Outfielder Kevin Pillar, who is new to the team, spoke about how the Red Sox made a difficult decision to support their teammate, “We’re all family in this room. More so than ever this year that we are away from our actual families…The silver lining to everything that has happened this year is that it has made people more comfortable having these uncomfortable conversations.”
Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi spoke about supporting Jackie Bradley Jr. and coach Tom Goodwin.
Xander Bogaerts, who is from the Caribbean Island of Aruba, spoke about how surprised he was to learn about how his African American teammates had experienced racism.
