Houston Astros Walk Off the Field in Racial Injustice Protest, Making a Powerful Statement About What Needs to Happen in America

With a powerful display that included laying a Black Lives Matter T-shirt down over home plate, the Houston Astros joined the chorus of professional sports walking off in protest of police brutality and systematic racism in America. The Astros took the Minute Maid Park field at the scheduled first pitch time for Friday night’s game against the Oakland A’s, stopped at their positions for a long moment of silence and then walked right off the field and back into their dugout.

With that, the game would be the latest in a series of major sports postponements in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. These protests have displayed the resolve and courage of professional athletes determined to help bring about change.

Those old insulting Shut Up and Play pronouncements are a thing of the past. It’s now about standing up and trying to make a difference.

“For me, I have multi-racial kids,” says Astros all-star outfielder Michael Brantley, one of a dwindling number of Black players in Major League Baseball. “I want this world to be a better place for them when they grow up. . .

“Raising four kids that are multi-racial, when they go to school, when they walk down the street, I want them to have the same equal rights that everybody else has.”

This powerful new wave of athlete activism started in the NBA when the Milwaukee Bucks decided they would not play a playoff game after Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Bucks’ stand caused all the NBA’s playoff games to be canceled for three days and soon WNBA, MLB and MLS players — and eventually even the NHL — joined in the movement.

With concerns over Hurricane Laura having canceled Astros games originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, this Friday night game against the A’s would be the first time the Astros could make their own stand. The players talked as a group at Minute Maid — and also discussed things with their former teammate and current Oakland player Tony Kemp. Shortly after 5 pm, they first went to Astros manager Dusty Baker with their decision.

“We felt this message was bigger than missing another game,” Astros outfielder Josh Reddick says.

Lance McCullers Jr. — the Astros’ scheduled starting pitcher — never threw a warmup pitch. Instead on Jackie Robinson Day at Minute Maid, Astros catcher Martin Maldonado laid a No. 42 (Robinson’s number, which all the players wear on this day) orange Astros jersey in the left side batter’s box and Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien laid a No. 42 gray A’s jersey in the right side batter’s box. The Black Lives Matter T-shirt was placed in-between the two jerseys over home plate.

The sight of the shirts just lying there at home plate in an otherwise empty field after the Astros and A’s walked off is one of more powerful scenes in recent Houston sports history. This was not just another night at the ballpark.

That was a player-driven move made it even more significant. The Astros did it as a group — with all of Houston’s players participating. The Oakland A’s had triggered their own protest, deciding not to play against the Texas Rangers on Thursday — and the Rangers supported the decision and joined in. A night later, the A’s supported the Astros’ own protest decision.

So did a manager who’s seen it all in more than 50 years in baseball.

“I was for it, I backed them,” Baker says. “I’m glad that they did it. A lot of people probably won’t be happy, but players have to satisfy themselves.”

General manager James Click says that Astros owner Jim Crane fully supported the players’ decision when he and Baker called Crane to tell him about it.

“I think it’s a tremendous gesture that shows a tremendous sense of camaraderie and duty,” Click says.

The Astros will now play a doubleheader of two seven-inning games against the A’s starting at 3:10 pm Saturday. The first game of the doubleheader will become the new Jackie Robinson honoring game.

“I read a quote by (Milwaukee Brewers outfielder) Lorenzo Cain and he said, ‘If Jackie was still here, would he be happy with the progress that we’ve made today?’ And the answer is no,” Brantley says. “This is a tough time. I think we still need to make a lot of change. Jackie did a lot of great things, but I think he’d want more.”

The Houston Astros did not play ball on Friday night. They did something much more important.