President Donald Trump has long complained about players taking a knee before professional sporting events to protest police brutality.
But as Major League Baseball returned on Thursday night, every single player took a knee.
The protesters were started by former San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016.
Before the game, “BLM” was painted on the pitcher’s mound to show support for Black Lives Matter.
Both the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals wore “Black Lives Matter” warm-up jerseys.
The first pitch was thrown out by Dr. Tony Fauci, 79, whose pitch was not a strike.
Every player on the #Yankees and #Nationals takes a knee prior to the National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/kbYeanpusp — Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) July 23, 2020
Every player and coach on the Yankees & Nationals took a knee before the national anthem tonight in D.C. (via @MarkZuckerman)pic.twitter.com/PrPKv4Gs1Z — FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 23, 2020
Every Yankees and Nationals player and coach took a knee during the opening ceremonies of tonight’s MLB opener. Morgan Freeman spoke, addressing social injustice. pic.twitter.com/ldK3TMzRtT — Brad Galli (@BradGalli) July 23, 2020
Equality is not just a word, it’s our right. pic.twitter.com/LvmW9NqTT2 — MLB (@MLB) July 23, 2020
Dr Fauci’s #OpeningDay first pitch is a metaphor for 2020 pic.twitter.com/on8zSip91L — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2020
Game has been called. Yankees win, 4-1. This is 2020. — Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) July 24, 2020
Looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2020
Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football. They are planning a very safe and controlled opening. However, if they don’t stand for our National Anthem and our Great American Flag, I won’t be watching!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
YVXFLEX on July 24th, 2020 at 04:23 UTC »
What does this have to with trump? I thought this was about black lives?
ntr2_ on July 24th, 2020 at 03:49 UTC »
this was definitely not “in defiance of Trump.” he may disagree with it, but I’m pretty confident they weren’t thinking “man Trump is gonna hate this”
EDIT: If you can’t understand that their goal is to advocate for change in America and not “haha fuck Trump he’ll hate this,” then you’re discrediting their push for change as just a political stunt. Also, you’re complicit in America’s fucked up political divide, where people refuse to change their opinions and solely want to discredit people who disagree with them
wpascarelli on July 24th, 2020 at 03:20 UTC »
Just to clarify this, the players took a knee before the national anthem but were standing during the anthem. I believe Trump was mostly complaining about players taking a knee during the anthem, which did not happen in these baseball games.