The Cardinals are ready.
They will ask for unity by exemplifying it.
Their message will be one message. They are asking us to listen. Will you?
Yes, you.
I'm talking to those of you who rolled your eyes when you saw the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt Jack Flaherty wore during the national anthem that was played before Wednesday's exhibition game against the Royals, to those of you who have pledged to boycott the season if the Cardinals follow through with the "Black Lives Matter" message Flaherty hopes to see placed on the Busch Stadium mound, to those of you who begin to melt down every time America's pastime dares to take a stand against America's systemic racism.
If you _ yes, you _ have taken the time to really listen to Flaherty lately, you have heard him explain why that viral video of George Floyd pleading for breath beneath Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's knee forced the pitcher to search for something, anything he can do to keep something like this from happening again.
If you really listen to Flaherty, you will hear him admit that he does not have all the answers. You will hear him agree that he does not think taking a knee during the anthem is the only way to ask for equality. You will hear him plead for people to stop falling for the falsehood that athletes who do take a knee do so in opposition of the military. You will hear him say NFL player's DeSean Jackson's recent anti-Semitic remarks were a) wrong and b) not in line with the conversation Flaherty wants to promote.
With Cardinals legend and coach Willie McGee to his left and Floyd's final words printed across his chest, Flaherty stood tall Wednesday, a preview of his plan to use his platform to prod those in baseball and beyond to ... do what, exactly?
"It's about unity with everybody," Flaherty said. "With every race. Every culture. Every religion. It's understanding we are all one."
Far from the cesspool of social media, there still is a place for productive conversation in our society. I know this is true, because you can tell it's happening in Cardinals manager Mike Shildt's clubhouse.
"We have had some good and honest open conversations as a group," Flaherty's rotation mate Miles Mikolas said. "Being unified is huge. Standing up for what is right is huge."
A young ace (Flaherty), a veteran outfielder (Dexter Fowler) and a living Cardinals legend (McGee) have been talking. Others have been listening. Questions have been asked and answered. One word keeps coming up. Unity.
Turan Mullins, an assistant dean and director of the office of diversity and inclusion at Maryville University, has met with the team to discuss diversity and the Black Lives Matter movement. Middle ground is being found. Plans to do more are in motion.
As players across the league dropped to a knee during the national anthem before exhibition games this week, and the league's discussion with a group of Black players called the Players Alliance led to the approval of uniform patches with certain messages _ "Black Lives Matter" and "United for Change" _ the Cardinals confirmed they will have a collective message to deliver before Flaherty's opening-day start against the Pirates on Friday night.
"This group is very sincere about supporting the Black Lives Matter movement," Shildt said. "We will do it in a unified manner that will follow what the Players Alliance has suggested strongly. We support that. We believe in it as a group. We will participate in what that looks like on opening day on Friday.
"This group is also very sincere about thinking about how we message things, not only in a symbolic manner, but in a unified manner. This group wants everything to work together. Some of the conversations are making sure what we do, we do together. We voice together. We unify together. And it's not a polarizing effort, so we can eventually elicit and help elicit real solution and change. Ongoing change."
You _ yes, you _ can abandon baseball if you like.
But when the league's official Twitter account clarifies the league's view as "supporting human rights is not political" it does not seem that the sport is all that interested in keeping the #BoycottMLB crowd.
There is a better alternative.
You can spend a little less time telling the world what the Black Lives Matter movement means to you, and a little more time learning what it means to those who support it.
You can listen _ really listen _ to some Cardinals who are speaking up.
Baseball has made Dexter Fowler a rich man. He can share stories of strangers tightening grips on purses when he passes by in a mall.
Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith just last month shared during a radio interview a story about being racially profiled during a traffic stop in the 1980s while he was riding with a Cardinals teammate. It was McGee.
Hall of Famer Bob Gibson recently told MLB.com that he hid on a train that carried him to his first Cardinals spring training because he feared white men were going to jump him. Consider that perspective when he told Mike Lupica this after the death of Floyd.
"What I'm seeing now," Gibson told MLB.com, "is that nothing has changed. Period."
"But now that doesn't mean there aren't things that give me hope, especially in our game," Gibson added in that interview. "I don't just see Black players speaking up, the way they always have. I see something deeper. I see white players listening more than they used to."
Don't boycott this season.
You might learn something.
