WASHINGTON — Yankees players had been talking for weeks about what they would do — if anything — for the national anthem on Opening Day.
Would they kneel? Stand? Something else?
On Wednesday, the team met and decided on the plan it carried out Thursday to kneel before the anthem, but not during it. They then relayed that plan to the Nationals, who agreed to follow suit.
Manager Aaron Boone said the decision to kneel was “very much driven by the players.”
The move, which including holding the same long black ribbon, followed a video from Black players promoting the Black Lives Matter movement and came after a recording of a speech in which Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman spoke of “unity” and bringing “change.”
Yankees players and coaches also wore Black Lives Matter shirts during batting practice.
“I was proud of the way they handled themselves,” Boone said. “I thought it was a great way of demonstrating while also being mindful and respectful of a lot of other people’s feelings on the matter. We thought it was important for our guys that they were united in what they did.”
Boone said he didn’t believe players were delivering exactly the same message former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was trying to spread. Kaepernick has said that when he kneeled — something he started doing in 2016 — it was to protest “a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”
Boone said the team’s statement ‘speaks for itself” but explain further.
“This is something that’s been kind of coming together over the last few weeks, from small conversations to them getting in a room and having a talk together as a team,” Boone said. “This was something that we — they — really came to and that everyone was on board. The unity part for our team was important.”
He added that Yankees players were “pretty unified in wanting to stand for the anthem.”
Giancarlo Stanton said he saw it as a way to “bring hope” among players.
“A reason to show that we can all come together at the same time,” the designated hitter said. “I just thought it would be a good idea, pretty powerful to have everyone kneel at the same time just to give hope for any overall reason you want to do it. For racial injustice, for Black Lives Matter, a lot of other things going on.”
“We’ve got a lot of guys in this clubhouse with a lot of different beliefs, feelings, coming from different walks of life and different countries,” right fielder Aaron Judge said. “We wanted to respect all that. As a team, we came under a united decision to kneel right before the anthem.”
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