Brewers-Reds game postponed as players protest racial injustice

Wednesday’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds has been postponed as players protest against racial injustice.

The Brewers follow the lead of the Bucks, who boycotted Game 5 of their playoff series against Orlando from the NBA bubble. After the Bucks’ stand, the NBA postponed all three playoff games originally scheduled for Wednesday night.

Protests erupted on the streets around Wisconsin after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.

“A Black man was shot. His life is in peril, and it, frankly, shouldn’t be,” manager Craig Counsell said before Monday’s game. “We’ve got a systemic problem that we need to address, and we all need to educate ourselves. Whether you agree or disagree with what I’m saying, I think it’s important that we continue to think, we continue to pursue policy change and we continue to act because there’s violence happening that just absolutely should not be happening. We can’t stay quiet about it.”

Brewers player union representative Brent Suter told reporters it was a collective decision between the Brewers and Reds.
“Our team and the Reds felt that with our community and our nation in such pain, tonight we wanted 100% of the focus to be on issues that are much more important than baseball,” he said.

“The players from the Brewers and Reds have decided to not play tonight’s baseball game,” the team said in a statement. “With our community and our nation in such pain, we wanted to draw as much attention to the issues that really matter, especially racial injustice and systemic oppression.”

Major League Baseball has yet to announce a makeup date for Wednesday’s contest.