The sports world spoke up and shut down.

Many Black baseball players and select MLB teams followed the lead of the NBA by sitting out their games Wednesday night, shifting the focus of the season from covid-19 concerns to racial and societal injustice.

If video of the shooting of Jacob Blake seven times in the back by Kenosha (Wis.) Police made players pause, the killing of protesters by an automatic rifle-carrying teenager made athletes go full stop.

Ending police brutality is more important than sports

— Cole Tucker (@cotuck) August 26, 2020

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Cole Tucker said it simply on social media: “Ending police brutality is more important than sports.”

Pirates All-Star first baseman Josh Bell was outspoken about racial injustice issues during the sport’s shutdown by the coronavirus. Pirates center fielder Jarrod Dyson backed up his words by taking a knee during the national anthem on Opening Day on July 24 at St. Louis.

A month later — and four years after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee for the national anthem — they have to wonder whether the world was listening and whether anybody has learned anything.

“I’m forever grateful and lucky to be a #MLB player, but tonight, I needed to use my platform for something bigger than me and bigger than the game.” — Fowler, #stlcards OF, explaining his decision, posted this updated story: https://t.co/oTVCGJqCLnFull quote here: pic.twitter.com/gVCmfnixEI

— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) August 27, 2020

1. Play or protest?: The Pirates are two games into a stretch of playing 15 games in 13 days, and they followed Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter Tuesday night with a 10-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday afternoon.

Those woes belong on the backburner.

The Pirates are scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Thursday. St. Louis pitcher Jack Flaherty and outfielder Dexter Fowler both sat out the Cardinals’ 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, and more Black ballplayers could decide to do the same on Thursday.

#stlcards had 'mini-meeting' O'Neill said, right before the game was supposed to start, and decided as a team to play the game. Wong said they chose to play for Fowler, Flaherty and hoped they watched the win 'for them.' https://t.co/oTVCGJqCLn @stltoday #MLB

— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) August 27, 2020

It will be interesting to see whether Bell, Dyson and Tucker feel compelled to sit, and how the Pirates will handle that on a day when they have to play a pair of seven-inning games.

this is my familyhis sons... that’s my familythis is why i speak outi love this man and the entire family

real raw emotion ✊?? https://t.co/63DBR5ELJ1

— Jack Flaherty (@Jack9Flaherty) August 27, 2020

2. Frustration level: Nobody wears a loss worse than catcher Jacob Stallings, who has been a stand-up guy about doing interviews after some deflating defeats this season.

Last week, Stallings suggested the Pirates were pressing against Cleveland pitchers. Soon enough, they were hitting the ball and sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers.

But losing takes a toll, and Stallings allowed that the Pirates are frustrated after winning only seven of their first 26 games.

“I think it probably materializes itself differently for each guy,” Stallings said. “I think we’re all frustrated to a certain level, but playing frustrated doesn’t help anything. I think I learned that a little while ago in my career, and I don’t know, losing kind of exemplifies every negative aspect of what’s going on. So, I mean, it manifests itself in a lot of ways, and it’s definitely hard to combat when you’re not having good results.”

3. Trade talk: With the trade deadline only five days away, the Pirates are well aware of reports that general manager Ben Cherington is willing to trade anybody and everybody on the roster.

Players are trying to tune that out the best they can, and pitcher Trevor Williams believes that not having the media in the clubhouse (all interviews are done by Zoom calls) helps.

“I think we don’t see it as much,” Williams said. “Guys are doing a good job of staying off their phones as much as they can. It’s part of baseball. It is what it is.

“Like I’ve said many times, this is a year that can easily cause unnecessary distractions. Whether it’s the spike in covid results on teams, to (MLB commissioner Rob) Manfred potentially shutting the season down to cities shutting its doors to teams, it’s another distraction that can’t happen in our clubhouse. … If certain things happen, if the season gets shut down, they’ll let us know. We’re not going to be in the dark. If someone gets traded, they’ll let us know. It’s one of those where we can’t be worried about something that is out of our control.”

4. More trade talk: Where Williams was measured in his response to trade talk — given that he’s been mentioned as a potential target — Tucker was more candid in confronting the possibilities.

“We all have Twitter,” Tucker said, “so we know what goes on.”

And this has been a constant theme of an historically bad season, but these Pirates swear that the clubhouse chaos of last season has been replaced by positive vibes this season.

“I really enjoy coming to work, coming to the field and working out with everyone in that room,” Tucker said. “If we add anyone to that room, I’ll be excited about it. But I’ll be really bummed to see anybody go, to see myself go. I have no idea what’ll happen or what’ll go down. But we’re just trying to soak in and enjoy every moment we can because we’re around each other a lot more than normally this year so we’re getting to know each other in ways that we haven’t in previous years. Just trying to enjoy that and not getting freaked out about things you can’t control.”

5. Leading off: Perhaps the trade talk is why Shelton took exception to the use of the phrase “open audition” when asked about shuffling the lineup and trying out Tucker in the leadoff spot at Chicago.

Shelton has used four different leadoff batters, with Adam Frazier (16) getting the most starts, followed by Erik Gonzalez (five), Tucker (three) and Kevin Newman (two).

“I wouldn’t say it’s an open audition,” Shelton said. “We’re going to try different guys out there and see what works. Obviously we’re trying different subsets of lineups to try to get going, and we have not gotten going yet. So we’re going to try continue to try different things and try to get guys going.”

Tucker has made no secret that he loves batting leadoff. Then again, he also isn’t shy about sharing his love for playing shortstop, even though he’s playing strictly in the outfield this season.

But after Giolito’s no-hitter, Tucker said he rolled out of bed with the mindset that he was swinging at the first pitch. And he did just that against Dallas Keuchel, singling to center. Tucker went 2 for 3 with a walk, which led to him scoring the Pirates’ first run.

It’s a small sample size, but Tucker is slashing .296/.333/.556 with a double, two homers and six RBIs in seven career games batting leadoff for the Pirates.

“Anytime I’m in the lineup I want to show that I belong and that I can contribute — but in the leadoff spot especially,” Tucker said. “There’s a little chip on your shoulder when you bat leadoff. You lead off the game and you set the tone for the lineup. I really enjoy doing that and it’s something that I’m comfortable with, just from coming through the minor leagues. I don’t know if audition is the right word but you definitely get up a little bit more for it, that’s for sure.”

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---