Second installment in an occasional series.
On Monday evening, June 22, 2020, all 18 members of Texas-based women’s professional softball team Scrap Yard Fast Pitch resigned in protest of team management’s tweet attempting to use a team photo to criticize Black Lives Matter and Colin Kaepernick. Team members vowed to never again play for the Scrap Yard organization.
Two members of the squad are black, but all 18 resigned, forgoing paychecks and national exposure during an unprecedented and brief window of lucrative national media coverage of their sport and the team. The players were supported in their actions by the coaching staff.
As reported in The New York Times, the 18 players have pooled their own personal finances to form an independent softball team through which they hope play the rest of the season. Given that Kaepernick, one of the greatest players of the current era, has been involuntarily exiled from football and without a paycheck for years, even since the NFL admitted it erred in banning kneeling during the national anthem, these 18 softball players’ are knowingly risking major losses in terms of career and financial security in order to stand with Black Lives Matter.
That personal, formidable sacrifice In the cause of justice for People of Color, is a sterling example of allyship. Read the The New York Times extended story for more details.
Photo of Olympic gold medalist and professional fast pitch softball star Cat Osterman, a leader of the team that quit in protest. Photo by palmsrick, used here under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
