Kevin Pillar said a lot of good things during Thursday’s press conference about the Boston Red Sox’s decision to stick by Jackie Bradley Jr. and not play the Toronto Blue Jays that night.
"You hope it’s a starting point and it’s a conversation to be had as opposed to people watching a Red Sox game, maybe they’re talking to their family or maybe they’re talking to their neighbors about what’s going on in the world, coming up with ideas on [...]
Kevin Pillar said a lot of good things during Thursday’s press conference about the Boston Red Sox’s decision to stick by Jackie Bradley Jr. and not play the Toronto Blue Jays that night.
"You hope it’s a starting point and it’s a conversation to be had as opposed to people watching a Red Sox game, maybe they’re talking to their family or maybe they’re talking to their neighbors about what’s going on in the world, coming up with ideas on how to make this a better place, brainstorming ideas on how we can make this better," Pillar said. "… I wish I had a crystal ball, I wish I knew the answer to how we can make this better but I still think it’s a long road ahead. The fact that we’re talking about it more openly and honestly is a good starting point."
It sounded great.
But here’s the thing about wading into a pool of deep conversation — if you keep a person talking, the truth eventually finds the surface.
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There was a lot of talk about supporting Bradley Jr. – the team’s lone Black player - and tough discussions that needed to be had during Thursday’s 21-minute press conference featuring Pillar, Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi. There was not a lot of talk specifically about social injustice or what’s been going on in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week.
Thursday morning Bradley decided he was going sit out Thursday as a show of support against social injustice. The team’s decision to join him wasn’t unanimous.
"To be honest with you it was not an easy decision for a lot of us," Pillar said. "We do stand with Jackie and we want to be in support of him, but a lot of us understand that us playing today is an escape for a lot of people and the reality of things that are going on in the world. It is an opportunity to get away from the news and the evil and bad that’s going on and be a distraction."
What?
Sports is a distraction — from things like when your boss makes you stay an hour later at work, or when you step in dog crap in the backyard because your kids didn’t pick it up. Sports aren’t supposed to distract you from things like "police shooting Black citizens in the back" or "basic human rights."
Pillar, for one reason or another, continued with in-depth responses that only exposed the disunity among the Red Sox when it comes matters of social justice.
He was asked about Opening Day, if the team learned or would change anything after the majority of the team stood during the National Anthem while only four members of the team — Bradley was one — kneeled.
In a 495-word response he talked about the team coming from different backgrounds, having different beliefs and the organization telling them to do what they believed. Then, after speaking about how great it would be for fans to see players high-fiving even though they — gasp — have different skin colors, he ended with this statement:
"I think baseball gives us that pretty cool opportunity where we have basically this melting pot of people," he said, "and hopefully it can be an example for people of this country and people across the world."
This is a problem with baseball. The sport, which is only 1% more Black today than it was in Jackie Robinson’s final season (per The Undefeated) thinks it’s a melting pot. Black Americans are barely supported by baseball at any level. MLB throws money at the problem because it’s good PR, but doesn’t actually address the systemic issues of why Black Americans are not playing the sport.
Does any of that sound familiar to what’s going on in this country right now?
He was called out on his response and asked if it was important for the Red Sox to specifically uplift the Black community because Bradley Jr. is their only Black player.
Pillar responded with a heart-warming answer that was the cure to all problems with race in this country.
No, just kidding, he got as close to saying "all lives matter" as the Sox are of clinching the No. 1 pick in next year’s MLB Draft.
"Is it more important that we uplift Jackie because he’s the only one? My answer would be no," said Pillar. "… To answer your question, it’s a complicated, it’s a touchy subject, but I don’t think right now as a country we should be necessarily identifying individual groups of people that need to be uplifted. I think the mass majority of us would like to encourage to uplift everyone and support everyone."
If it wasn’t for Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians telling the media "protesting doesn’t do crap in my opinion. I’ve been seeing it since 1968" earlier in the day, it would have been the worst answer anyone associated with pro sports had given all day about social injustice.
Pillar was given a reprieve and asked about uplifting Bradley Jr. more because Black citizens as a whole have been marginalized in this country.
"It is very important to uplift him, to make them feel that we are equal, that we are on the same playing field. It’s a tough question to answer," Pillar said. "I stand in support of it, I agree with you, it is very important that we do our best to make them feel that the playing field is level, not only in baseball but in life."
And that was that.
It’s going to be very easy to point to the good things Pillar said and say "well, he made some other really good points, he didn’t mean those other things."
That’s sort of the problem here. Part of social injustice has been brushing off the bad and trying to highlight the good, like a team does when it plays like garbage but still leaves the game with a victory.
Kevin Pillar may have said enough to make it feel like the team was a winner for how it supported Jackie Bradley Jr.
But if you check the scoreboard, it read the same way it has all season for the Red Sox.
erueb@providencejournal.com
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On Twitter: @EricRueb