The Milwaukee Brewers opted not to play their game against the Reds on Wednesday in a show of solidarity to support protests in Kenosha.
There will be no baseball tonight in Milwaukee.
Following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha this weekend, and the protests the followed, the Brewers opted as a team to sit out Wednesday’s scheduled game against the Reds. The decision came on the heels of the Milwaukee Bucks deciding to sit out their game against the Orlando Magic.
According to Jeff Passan from ESPN, other MLB teams are having discussions on whether or not they will join the Brewers in solidarity and sit out games in the coming days.
The Brewers played games in the two days following Blake’s shooting, in which the unarmed man was shot seven times in the back at point-blank range by a Kenosha police officer. The Bucks also played a game the day after Blake’s shooting, but the protests in Kenosha turned violent on Tuesday night when a teenager armed with an AR-15 drove across state lines and murdered two people, wounding a third.
Footage of the shooting circulated on social media Wednesday morning that showed the shooter, who is white, conversing with police officers and walking around unharassed by law enforcement despite displaying an automatic weapon it was illegal for him to carry.
This pushed the conversation around Blake’s death to an entirely new level of disgust and promoted not only the Bucks to sit out on Wednesday but the rest of the NBA teams scheduled to play as well.
It’s important to note that what NBA and MLB players are deciding to do is not a boycott, it’s a strike. By definition, a boycott is a commercial withdrawal as a means of protesting. A strike is a work stoppage where labor is withheld as a means of protesting, the latter of which players are engaging in. They’re not withholding dollars with their action, they’re refusing to work until change happens (although revenue for owners is at stake as a result).
There is no word on whether other MLB teams plan on joining the Brewers in their strike or if games will be played across sports in the following days. NBA players are scheduled to meet on Wednesday night to discuss “next steps” while the Brewers future games remain in doubt.