After some professional sports teams boycotted games over the killing of Jacob Blake, the Houston Astros put a new twist on social justice idiocy. Friday was Jackie Robinson Day throughout Major League Baseball, and the Astros thought it would make baseball's first African American player proud if he could see them boycott a game and mope around off the field like crybabies.
The late Robinson never took his ball and went home like the Astros did. He was out there every day for the Brooklyn Dodgers, standing up to hate and letting racist opponents know that he was going to do his part to integrate the game. He didn't take a day off when the going got tough.
The Houston snowflakes met with the Oakland Athletics to come up with a plan in lieu of baseball Friday. Both two teams stood on the foul lines, and they draped a Black Lives Matter T-shirt across home plate. Astros catcher Martin Maldonado placed a No. 42 Astros jersey on one side of the batters box, and Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien set an Athletics jersey on the other side of the batters box.
Both sets of social justice warriors observed 42 seconds of silence (Robinson's uniform number was 42), then they waved their caps to each other and hit the road.
USA Today sports writer Bob Nightengale admired the symbolic significance of what had happened: "The Astros had spoken, loud and clear."
Oh, really? What lesson did the Astros teach the youth of America with their "loud" and "clear" message? Something bad happens somewhere, you can't face up to it like men, and you refuse to do your job. When life gets you down, just stay down. If the Astros really wanted to make a significant impact, they could have turned their focus to raising support for victims of Hurricane Laura, as Houston Texans football star J.J. Watt did in 2017 for Harvey.
Houston outfielder Michael Brantley said, “This is a tough time. We need to make changes. Jackie did a lot of great things, but I think he’d want us to do more. I think taking a stand and having these conversations is going to help us do more.’’
As if boycotts now constitute what an MLB season is all about, Nightengale tried to shame the nine teams actually maintaining the integrity and maturity to do their jobs. On the other hand, he gives the Astros kudos for wanting "to show their protest in a poignant way."
Houston Manager Dusty Baker (in photo above) also has a wildly inflated view of what didn't happen in Friday's non-game, assuming the whole world was watching in awe:
“I’ve been through a lot of changes, social changes, but this is something that’s unprecedented. I think the whole world is behind these young people. When you see young people all over the world, standing up for equal rights and justice, it makes me think the world is not hopeless. ... We need to listen to these young people some more because it’s going to be their world.’’
A deluded Baker also believes ongoing protests can restore baseball to its former place as America's national pastime.
Nightengale said, "The hate has to go away, Baker and his players say, if this country is ever going to heal, and perhaps another night of silence will help create the needed awareness."
Since when does the inaction of athletes create healing on a national level? Whining snowflake athletes have instead confirmed -- to people who faithfully show up for their jobs every day -- that they are the last people who should be looked to for answers in a time of social unrest.
