Major League Baseball

Buck Showalter weighs in on situation in Baltimore

Published Apr. 30, 2015 10:29 a.m. ET

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By Ben Watanabe

Lots of people have been giving their opinions on the Baltimore protests, but Buck Showalter might have made the strongest statement, ironically, by claiming he had nothing worthwhile to add.

After Wednesday’s bizarre game at Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox 8-2 in front of zero fans, the O’s manager was asked to comment on all that has happened in the city he works in over the last week.

“You hear people try to weigh in on things that they really don’t know anything about,” Showalter said, as transcribed by MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli. “I tell guys all the time when they talk about it … I’ve never been black, OK? So I don’t know. I can’t put myself there. I’ve never faced the challenges that they face, so I understand the emotion, but I can’t … It’s a pet peeve of mine when somebody says, ‘Well, I know what they’re feeling. Why don’t they do this? Why doesn’t somebody do that?’ You have never been black, OK? So just slow down a little bit.

“I try not the get involved in something that I don’t know about, but I do know that it’s something that’s very passionate, something that I am, with my upbringing, that it bothers me and it bothers everybody else. We’ve made quite a statement as a city, some good and some bad. Now, let’s get on with taking the statements we’ve made (and) create a positive. We talk to players, and I want to be a rallying force for our city. It doesn’t mean necessarily playing good baseball. It just means everything we can do. …

“There are some things I don’t want to be normal (in Baltimore again). You know what I mean, right? I don’t. I want us to learn from some stuff that’s gone on on both sides of it. I could talk about it for hours, but that’s how I feel about it.

The O’s and Major League Baseball decided to play Wednesday’s gamewithout fans as a safety precaution. The decision came after protests against the death of Freddie Gray in police custody turned violent, with Orioles fans being either held in the stadium or barred from entry for their safety.

Odd scenes from the “no-fan game” in Baltimore >>

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