A conversation: Retired African American MLB players on race, baseball, America | The Athletic ($)
Over the years there has been occasional talk about how Black athletes in other sports tend to be more outspoken, especially in the face of public controversies. In a groundbreaking roundtable, Doug Glanville, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, (former Rockies reliever) LaTroy Hawkins, Dontrelle Willis, and Torri Hunter discuss why that is. The full roundtable is well worth your time, and offers a peek in to the inner lives of these men. One exchange in particular I’d like to highlight:
(Doug Glanville): That’s one of the questions I pose to you: What do you think needs to be done? What do you think needs to be different? How would you approach it?
(Dontrelle) Willis: I think true conversation. People take stances before they even hear the question. Have enough respect and decency to listen. Right now, and this is why you see all the looting, people don’t even want to be speaking anymore. We’re tired of this. I don’t think it’s the best way. I agree with Ryno. It puts a lot of pressure and kind of takes away from what the real issue is. But at the same time, people are sick and tired. They tried to have this discussion with people of different backgrounds, different colors. And it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Part of the gift you can give these men is the willingness to listen and engage with what they’re saying. You don’t have to agree on the specifics of their diagnoses, or with their proposed cures even, but I encourage you to listen carefully, to seek to have a discussion with people of different backgrounds (or, in the case of a website where we often don’t know each other by anthing but our social media avatars, different beliefs entirely).
A sports-free country is the least of our worries | Twinkie Town
Over at our sister site, Twinkie Town, site veteran Hayden Audette has an interesting take worth considering considering the relationship between sports and our current moment. COVID-19 caused sports to be suspended and, while leagues are in the planning stages of coming back, there are still no (or at least very few) honest to goodness sports (which, by the way, makes Rockpiles harder and harder to write, but I digress).
Maybe this sportsless moment is, in fact, an opportunity to take a hard look at things we would rather not look at, from how we care for the elderly in America to injustice against Black people and other minority populations.
It's altogether possible you're reading this and you have strident disagreements with that assessment. I guess my question to you is, what have you used this sportsless moment to learn more about? Who have you begun to listen to or read that you haven't given the time to before? Where have you sought to bring hope, light, and joy in the midst of despair, darkness, and saddness?
Brewers: Miller Park sustains ‘minor damage’ after break-in | Channel 3000 (Wisconsin)
This guy pooped on the field, didn’t he?
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