Mariners to premiere ‘Black Voices in Baseball’ panel Friday
As protests and demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter continue nationwide, and people join together to combat systemic racism, four Seattle Mariners players recently sat down with broadcaster Dave Sims for a candid discussion about their experiences as Black men in life and in baseball.
“If we’re the grown-ups that change the world? It will be like Jackie Robinson and what he did all over again,” Mariners infielder Dee Gordon said in a release. “I think it’s time for that.”
Gordon, infielders J.P. Crawford and Shed Long Jr. and outfielder Kyle Lewis joined Sims for the virtual panel discussion, “Black Voices in Baseball,” which premieres at 11 a.m. Friday on the Mariners’ YouTube channel.
The Mariners entered the year with 10 Black players on their 40-man roster — more than any other team in baseball — and Sims is one of only two Black play-by-play broadcasters in MLB.
“We definitely don’t take this for granted,” Crawford said in the release. “It’s probably something that’s never been done since the Negro Leagues. I’m proud to be a part of this. I’m proud to be playing alongside each and every one of my teammates right now. Coming up we were one of the two brothers on the team, if that, so being a part of this has been something special.”
The discussion, which premieres on Juneteenth, the annually celebrated commemoration of ending slavery in the United States, includes honest conversations about the panelists’ “experiences living in a racist society, their hopes for what we as a nation can be, and their apprehension about speaking up,” the release says.
“We’re scared to say this. We’re nervous,” Gordon said. “The reason we’re nervous is we’ve been told our whole life and our whole careers to don’t say anything. Don’t ruffle any feathers. Don’t, pretty much, stand up for yourself as a man and for your family’s name.”
Despite being the son of MLB pitcher Tom Gordon, who played in the league for 21 years, Dee Gordon spoke about keeping away from organized baseball until he was in high school because there were few Black kids playing.
Even professionally, only 68 of the 882 players on MLB Opening Day rosters last season — or 7.7% — were Black.
“You know, it’s been tough,” Gordon said. “Being a Black baseball player isn’t easy. At all.”
“You always have to be one step better, one step ahead all the time because you know, you make one little mistake and you’re done,” Crawford said. “It’s sad to say. But we don’t get the chances, all the other stuff that people get.
“My dad taught us always stay ready, always stay sharp, don’t let this opportunity slip away, at all, because you get one chance. You get one chance. You’re already down two strikes, this is your last strike. It’s just tough man.”
The panel discussion is another piece of an effort to promote lasting societal change, as people continue to gather nationwide in response to the police killing of George Floyd last month in Minnesota, when an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, and protest police brutality and racial inequality.
“If you want to stand with us, then stand,” Long said in the release. “But, we fought for so long we know how to fight it. So we’re going to fight and stand up for ourselves regardless whether you stand with us or not.”
