Thursday, March 28, 2024

Orioles’ Adam Jones on MLB’s Lack of National Anthem Protests: ‘Baseball is a White Man’s Sport’

Adam Jones #10 of the Baltimore Orioles watches the game in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 29, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Adam Jones #10 of the Baltimore Orioles watches the game in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 29, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland.

*Ever since Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the national anthem made headlines, there have been entire high school football teams and soccer players doing the same by sitting or kneeling during the “Star Spangled Banner,” notes USA Today. But no such protests have been waged in Major League Baseball.

Why?

“We already have two strikes against us already,’’ Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones told USA Today, “so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us.

“Baseball is a white man’s sport.’’

The numbers don’t lie. According to USA Today, African Americans make up 68% of the players in the NFL, and 74% in the NBA. That number is just 8% in baseball, with only 69 African-Americans on the opening-day rosters and disabled lists this season.

Jones says he supports not only Kaepernick’s method of protest, but the cause behind it.

Via USA Today:

Jones, 31, one of the most outspoken and passionate African-American players in baseball, certainly empathizes with the injustices that minorities face every day in this country. He sees and hears too many incidents of police brutality in his own city that have unfairly targeted minorities, and was an important voice in the aftermath of protests that followed the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a series of events that compelled the Orioles to play a 2015 game in front of an empty stadium.

Jones would like to see change, too, but Sunday, just like every other day, he stood at attention during the national anthem before their game against the Detroit Tigers, with his right hand over his heart.

“He believes in what he believes in,’’ Jones says of Kaepernick, “and as a man of faith, as an American who has rights, who am I to say he’s wrong?

“Kaepernick is not disrespecting the military. He’s not disrespecting people who they’re fighting. What he’s doing is showing that he doesn’t like the social injustice that the flag represents.

“Look, I know a lot of people who don’t even know the words to the national anthem. You know how many times I see people stand up for the national anthem and not pay attention. They stand because they’re told to stand.

“That’s the problem. Just don’t do something because you’re told to do something. Do it because you understand the meaning behind it and the sacrifice behind it.’’

Whether you agree or disagree with Kaepernick’s method to draw attention to the inequalities in this country, Jones is dismayed how the public views Kaepernick compared to 49er teammates. Go ahead, check out the difference in coverage since Kapernick sat during the national anthem compared to his teammate, Bruce Miller. Miller was arrested last week and charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery against 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son. The 49ers later released him.

“Here’s my thing,’’ Jones says, “there’s somebody on the 49ers’ team that commits an act like that, accosts a 70-year-old man and his kid, and nobody’s talking about that. But they talk about Kaepernick doing something that he believes in, as his right as an American citizen. People need to talk more about that guy than Kaepernick.

“He’s not receiving the ridicule and public torture that Kaepernick is facing. Is Kaepernick hurting me? No. Is he hurting random people out there? No. I support his decision.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t respect his freedoms, then why the hell are we Americans? It’s supposed to be the Land of the Free, right?’’

Read the full article here.

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