St. Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty and his mother, Eileen, have a close bond that began when he was three weeks old.
She was a single mom, and she adopted Flaherty during the first month of his life.
To the chagrin of many Cardinals fans, Flaherty is unabashed in his vocal support of Black Lives Matter and stands firm on his statements that people of color in America remain in a quest for equality.
His mom worries that her son could face the same fate of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“My mom was scared,” Flaherty told former Cardinal Xavier Scruggs on the debut of his podcast The Bigs.
“She was like, ‘It’s a scary place to be in because I don’t want’ — you know, she saw what happened to [Colin] Kaepernick. She’s like, ‘There ain’t a lot of people in baseball like [that],’ and just she’s like, ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want you to be hung out to dry and be like the only one.’”
“(Kaepernick) was pretty much blackballed,” Flaherty said.
His mom had the same thought, and she is aware that former Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell also knelt during the national anthem.
He then spent parts of two seasons out of professional baseball.
“There’s been the conversations that we’ve all had, backing Bruce and backing each other through all of this and making sure everything’s more unified,” Flaherty told Scruggs.
“So, it’s been an interesting road to take. But whatever you do, everybody is a human being first.”
Interestingly, Scruggs was hired earlier this year by the Cardinals to serve as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant.
A sun sits
It is one thing to roll your ankle or pull a muscle during an NBA Playoff series and miss multiple games.
It is another to find yourself in the NBA COVID protocol.
You either returned a confirmed positive test or have been in close contact to an infected person. Forget practicing or playing, you are in isolation or quarantined until cleared by the NBA and the Players Association in accordance with CDC guidlines.
Importantly, this most likely means that you have not been vaccinated. In fact, the odds are astronomically high that you are not vaccinated.
Nice job, Chris Paul.
The Phoenix Suns guard officially went on the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols on Wednesday. Of the 164 players tested since June 9, “one new player has returned a confirmed positive test,” according to the Players Association.
I guess we know who it is.
By the way, it has been reported that Paul says he had been vaccinated. Ten days after missing the St. Louis Blues playoff series sweep at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, David Perron announced he contracted COVID after being vaccinated. I do not believe either of them.
The Suns swept the Denver Nuggets in a Western Conference semifinal series. Paul then missed the first game of the Western Conference Finals; a Suns win over the Clippers.
Paul has been invaluable in the postseason, averaging 15.7 points, 8.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 10 playoff games.
I wonder what his teammates think. If I were one, he would know.
Paul is featured in State Farm commercials. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
For Paul, and all that do not have common sense or are finding some other weak excuse for being vaccinated, remember this:
Like a bad neighbor, COVID is there.
The Reid Roundup
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s lone full-time Black driver, has not recorded a top 10 finish in 17 races this season. He spun out twice during the June 20 race at Nashville and his profanity filled tirade was captured on audio. He said debris on the track following an earlier crash was to blame. His team is co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin has questioned Wallace’s driving a couple of times during the season… Major League Baseball officially incorporated all verified Negro Leagues statistics last week in conjunction with its celebration of Juneteenth. Here are examples of what this means: Barry Bonds posted an .863 slugging percentage in 2001. That topped Babe Ruth’s .847 in 1920. The new leader is Negro Leagues superstar Josh Gibson, who closed at .974 in 1937. Six Negro Leagues players batted .400 or above after 1941, the year Ted Williams hit .406. He no longer is the last MLB player to hit .400 or above. Archie Ware, who batted .423 for the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1946, is the new Williams in record books.
I think anyone as talented as Mr. Flaherty so at easy with the absurd race issue in this country should be applauded. Hopefully he can continue to inspire many others facing a similar identity crisis. “Chapeau” as they say in France; hats off!