The Oakland A’s statement regarding their postponing Thursday’s game vs. the Texas Rangers at Arlington on Thu Aug 27, 2020 (@Athletics) 

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s notified the Texas Rangers that the team would not play Thursday afternoon. The team voted to bring awareness to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Sunday. Three other games were also postponed. The Phillies-Nationals, Red Sox-Blue Jays, and the Twins-Tigers joined the other teams protesting systemic racism in America. The A’s statement is below:

“We will not take the field tonight to help raise awareness for these social issues, not just tonight, but for our collective future.”

The A’s discussed not playing Wednesday’s game, as a handful of MLB teams had done, but they ultimately decided to play because the discussion occurred too close to first pitch.
“It was really close to game time,” manager Bob Melvin said after the A’s 3-1 win Wednesday. “And we decided to play. I did give the option for anybody who did not feel comfortable playing not to play.”

First pitch was originally scheduled for 5:37 p.m. at Globe Life Field. The Rangers statement is as follows:

“We respect the decision by the Oakland A’s players to postpone tonight’s game. We stand with all those who condemn racial injustice and are committed to helping bring about an end to systemic racism,” said the Rangers organization in a statement.

The game will be rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 12 when the A’s are scheduled to return to Arlington.

Major league baseball, The NBA, WNBA, NHL have all had teams postponing their games. As a society, we have come along way since the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee to protest racism in 2016.

The killing of George Floyd was the match the lit the fuse. The shooting of Jacob Blake added fuel to the flame. It is time for the United States to end systemic racism in all settings. The time is now.