My daughter asked me why the game is not happening. I had to tell her. Because the players don't want to play. I don't want to tell her. I don't want to go into it. She is little, and she should not have to know all the terrible things that are happening around her, when all she asked is if the A's are playing tonight. All those complicated and emotional becauses. All those becauses that started long before any of us were born, but still torment us to this day, because we have never fully reckoned with them, and we have gotten lazy, attempting to push into the future the hard work of admitting what our problems are, and attempting to find real and lasting solutions to them.
The A's are not playing because a man was shot, a father of small children, who had to witness him being killed. They're not playing because no apology was made for the disproportionate use of force. They're not playing because the county sheriff got up on the morning after protests about the inappropriate use of force and lectured the people protesting instead of, amongst community leaders, searching for unity of voice. Because deputies under his command allowed private citizens to deputize themselves and one of those militia members, improperly trained and under the legal age to carry his weapon, killed with impunity, without consequence, and was allowed to drive away without being stopped or questioned. Because the protest itself was considered illegal, but the extrajudicial murder of protestors by a paramilitary force was initially praised, and because craven demagogues continue to praise it, as perhaps even the practical necessity of the times we live in.
Because we have abdicated our responsibilities to each other, our responsibility to care for one another, if only for the practical necessity of being able to live in a society with one another. Because we can not seem to agree on the basic facts in front of us, much less the necessity of listening to experts' advice on how to solve them.
But I am left with little choice now. I cannot *not* explain why.
The A's don't want to play because something happened, and they want to make a statement, and get people to think, and put pressure on their elected representatives and public servants to change the way that they operate. They don't want to play because they think if they play, people will think everything is normal, and things are far, far from normal. Not even close to normal. We are living in a proto-authoritarian state; the warning signals are everywhere; if we don't do something to stop it, that most American of things, baseball, will be the only thing that remains of America, and baseball, boy, let me tell you, is about the least important special thing about the wonder that has been our American Republic.
And no, it is not Donald Trump's fault. He hasn't done a single damn thing to make it better, no, but it is not Donald Trump's fault. It is our fault. It is our fault for attempting to explain all those uncomfortable becauses. Because we have for too long burrowed into our personal echo chambers, and find now that we cannot agree on the most basic of facts. Not having baseball, no, that's not going to make anything better. But admitting we have a problem is the first step to getting better. Admitting we have a problem with how we use lethal force, and how we allow others to use it, and admitting that it is disproportionately allowed to be wielded by some in power against those that have none with no consequence when it is in error.
So I am annoyed that I have to tell my child all these uncomfortable becauses. I am annoyed that we cannot just have something in life which is untouched by politics. But if I am not at least ten times as annoyed that police in Kenosha don't know how to arrest somebody without shooting them seven times and paralyzing them for life, and at least a hundred times as annoyed with deputies for allowing private citizens to walk around and do Call of Duty cosplay in the middle of a riot, and at least a thousand times as annoyed that a media personality would be allowed, even in private, much less over publicly broadcast airwaves, to praise the actions of all.
If you have any anger left, I would be absolutely amazed. You know, if we are doing this right.
So I'm going to tell you, the reason the A's can't play is, you're thinking about why the A's can't play, instead of why you're in a society where sports players can't, in good conscience, do what they love. Call somebody, convince somebody, change somebody's mind. Get them to see if they can't that, at the very least, any person in America, no matter who they are, has a right to their life and liberty unless they infringe upon the life and liberty of others, and even then, they must be brought before a court of law, before a jury of their peers, and duly convicted of their crimes.
It's time to sign off from Athletics Nation, and start participating in our national discourse, and, if we can, convince our nation to get back on a normal track. And you know, when we have done the hard work, listened, prayed, thought hard and long, put pressure on our elected representatives and our friends and family to do the right thing, there will be baseball. There will be copious amounts of baseball. But if we don't stop what we are doing and take this all seriously, we'll keep having to explain why baseball's not happening. And I got to tell you, I'm pretty tired by now of that game.
