Reversing course on what Orioles manager Brandon Hyde called a unanimous decision from his team to play amid professional athletes strikes in all the major sports to bring attention to issues of racial justice and police brutality, Thursday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays has been postponed, the Orioles announced.
"After continued reflection and further dialogue, Orioles players have decided not to play tonight's game against the Rays as they join athletes around the country in expressing solidarity with victims of social justice and systemic racism," the team said in a tweet.
For most of the afternoon, the Orioles and Rays were planning as if they were going to proceed with the game.
Hyde said he had individual conversations and small group meetings before he began a full-team meeting by explaining what was happening around the country and how his conversations with Rays manager Kevin Cash went before opening up the discussion to the players. They unanimously decided to play, Hyde said in his pregame media session at 5:10 p.m.
"I left it up to the players to really hear their thoughts and what they wanted to do, and our guys have decided that they want to play," Hyde said. "I'm going to fully support them in that. I would have supported them if they didn't want to play also. We had an open forum with our group, so guys could speak up, and the consensus was in our room, in our group, was that our guys want to play."
Over the past two days, athletes and their teams have been deciding not to play as a way to bring attention to the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake on Sunday in Kenosha, Wis.
Those who have decided not to play have done so because they believe carrying on playing would not lead to proper measures to prevent such events from happening again.
Hyde said he and the Orioles were "very conscious" of the idea that fully supporting the racial justice movement and still continuing to play might seem to be at odds.
"We've got a game in a little bit," Hyde said. "There's a lot more things that are going (on). ... There's so many more important things that are happening besides our game right now.
The meeting in the Orioles clubhouse was one in which the team's Black players shared personal experiences and how they felt about the issues facing the country, Hyde said. Those conversations, which also came to the forefront around opening day, have been happening since April or May, he said.
Still, he said the stories he heard were "hard to listen to."
"They're very, very moving, and growing up as a white male, it's sad and makes you angry," Hyde said.
Hyde spoke pregame Thursday wearing a shirt commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues.
"I want to support our African American players. I want to support the African American players around the league," Hyde said. "I want to support the movement, the racial equality movement. This is tough times right now. To listen to our players talk, and their stories, and their experiences, it's very moving. This is just a difficult time, that I'm learning a lot (in). We're doing the best we can in our clubhouse and I feel really good about everything that's going on in our little world, in our clubhouse. I want our guys to know that they have free expression, and be free thinkers, and that they always have my support."
NBA playoff games were postponed for a second straight day, as were NHL playoff games and scheduled games in the WNBA and MLS. Several of the afternoon games scheduled in baseball began, though teams in four games decided not to play, according to reports: The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals, and the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers.
After the Orioles initially decided to play, a fifth game between the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks was postponed.
The games involving the teams that decided not to play Wednesday _ the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres, and the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers _ all proceeded according to plan Thursday.
The Players Alliance, a group of over 100 current and former MLB players who are Black, posted on Instagram Thursday that their members will be donating their salaries for Thursday and Friday to the organization to support their efforts "to combat racial inequality and aid the Black families and communities deeply affected in the wake of recent events."
The organization's website lists Orioles players Cedric Mullins, Mason Williams, Dillon Tate and Dwight Smith Jr. as members.
Since sports restarted last month, discussions of racial justice have been at the forefront, continuing the precedent set when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality in 2016. MLB had a Black Lives Matter video play at every park on opening day, and NBA stars often used their media availability to note that the police officers in Louisville who killed Breonna Taylor have still not been disciplined.
The police shooting of Blake sparked a fresh round of demonstrations this week. The Milwaukee Bucks didn't take the court for their playoff game Wednesday, leading to other NBA teams scheduled to play deciding not to and the league postponing their games.
Three MLB games also didn't happen after the players decided not to participate. Some Black stars around the league _ including St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler, Chicago Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward, and Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Kemp _ sat out as their teams continued to play.
The Orioles and Rays played Wednesday despite it all, with Orioles players and Hyde saying the 6:40 p.m. start time left them only a brief period to react to the first wave of players deciding not to participate and following the Bucks' lead.
Hyde said he convened a group of all the team's African American players and members of their traveling party, which he characterized as a "great conversation" with "some very high-character, class guys that are very thoughtful," but the idea of not playing did not come up.
So, they carried what was a quickly developing and impactful story with them onto the field. Mullins said he felt frustration and sadness for Blake's family, and it was hard to push through the game.
After it, Hyde vowed to use Thursday for the larger team meeting that he wished he could have had before Wednesday's game. Mullins said Wednesday night that it was "a possibility" that the team could arrive at a different conclusion Thursday.
"We want to continue to make decisions as a team and show each other support throughout this whole process and the pain we're going through with our different communities," Mullins said.
Hyde said he had "no idea" what the players would decide, but he'd "support them, whatever they want to do."
The Orioles took a similar collective approach last month as teams decided how to best acknowledge the cultural calls for racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement when the regular season began.
Players and coaches wore Black Lives Matter shirts during batting practice, knelt in unison holding a black banner during a pregame video package on racial justice and stood with their arms over the next man's shoulder during the national anthem on opening day in Boston.
Mullins and other Black players in the clubhouse have found their own voices on issues of racial justice in this time as well.
