When you hear that a baseball game has been postponed out of nowhere, without the threat of inclement weather, you immediately worry about a COVID-19 outbreak. Such is life in 2021.
The pandemic isn’t causing the surprising postponement of Red Sox-Twins, however, but it’s still a concerning and serious reason for a postponement:
The #MNTwins issued the following statement regarding the decision to postpone today's scheduled game against the Red Sox. pic.twitter.com/7U1S2P928j
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 12, 2021
Brooklyn Center Police Department is about 8 miles from Target Field, where the Red Sox and Twins were supposed to begin play 5 minutes ago. https://t.co/Tls5hTuvgp
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) April 12, 2021
Amid the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police offer charged with second degree murder after placing his knee on George Floyd’s neck last summer, the city is facing the potential for even more protesting and unrest after another Black man, Daunte Wright, was killed by police:
'Accidental discharge': The police chief in a Minneapolis suburb where a Black man was fatally shot during a traffic stop said Monday that he believes the officer who fired intended to use a Taser, not a handgun. https://t.co/2Pr7lMQgND
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) April 12, 2021
The Red Sox and Twins were to be playing this afternoon, but you wonder, in addition to any safety considerations for those in the area, whether everyone associated with the two organizations was feeling like it would be appropriate to play in Minneapolis right at this moment. That was an issue last summer for many sports in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and it’s not as if the issue of systemic racism built into the power structures in so many places simply went away over the course of a few months of protest. It long ago became unhelpfully naive to think you could wholly separate sports and entertainment from the fundamental nature of how we all treat fellow humans.
UPDATE: Sure enough, like the Twins’ statement indicated, there’s just a feeling in the organization like – in addition to safety considerations – it was just not appropriate to play there today:
Twins President Dave St. Peter on zoom just now: "Our community's been through a lot, and we have a trial taking place just blocks away from Target Field. Emotions across our community, emotions across our organization, are raw."
— Hannah Keyser (@HannahRKeyser) April 12, 2021
He also stressed that safety factored heavily: "There's a big part of this decision that's also rooted in safety and consultation with law enforcement about unknowns, about what will, or could transpire within the broader community over the next several hours."
— Hannah Keyser (@HannahRKeyser) April 12, 2021