NL MVP candidate Charlie Blackmon voices his opinion on National Anthem protests

DENVER – Catcher Bruce Maxwell’s recent protest of the Star Spangled Banner before an Oakland Athletics game turned the political spotlight onto Major League Baseball for the first time regarding this issue.

In a movement that has taken place all over the National Basketball Association and has dominated the news in the National Football League for two years, MLB has now been thrust right alongside the other sports.

Baseball is not new to movements by any means, of course, leading the charge on integration when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, 16 years before Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington D.C. More recently Curt Flood’s 1971 supreme court case against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn over anti-trust laws led to the era of free agency.

National League MVP candidate and Colorado Rockies all-star centerfielder Charlie Blackmon was asked about his thoughts on Monday. The question regarded recent events including protests on almost every team in the NFL this past Sunday and fresh comments made by President Donald Trump.

“That’s a loaded question,” Blackmon laughed before getting serious. “As a person with my own thoughts and feelings I need to understand better what side of the line I fall on because statistically speaking half of the country might feel differently so for me to be arrogant enough to say that the other half of the country is wrong or that I’m definitely right, I think is the wrong thing to do. That being said, that’s all I’ll say. I’m proud to be an American. And I’m also thankful to have the First Amendment so I see it both ways. I have my opinions but that does not mean they are right so I’ll keep them to myself.”

Blackmon, a player of a strict pregame routine, continued.

“I have no plans to do anything other than what I’ve been doing all year. I don’t think now is the time to start changing things,” he said.

Rockies first-year manager Bud Black also said his piece on the topic.

“I’d be surprised (if any of our players did something,)” he said. “But I totally respect freedom of expression that we all have in this country.”

Rockies catcher Jonathan Lucroy had a different approach.

“No I wouldn’t do that (protest,)” he said. “That’s a tough question in this climate. I’m a supporter of the military, one of my best friends got shot three times. You’ll never see me do that.”

While Lucroy said he wouldn’t do it, he made no mention of what he thought about others protesting.

The attitude of the Rockies on the record seems to be respect; respectful of others and their voices, even if they themselves may not participate in the protests or agree with them.