The A’s elected not to take the field to play the Texas Rangers on Thursday in protest in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting. Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wis.
Teams across MLB, as well as the entirety of the NBA and WNBA, protested by boycotting their games on Wednesday. Some of these decisions were made right before the A’s matchup on Wednesday against the Rangers. Despite their discomfort in beginning the game, they decided to play anyway.
The A's explained their reasoning as a timing issue.