Justin Verlander apologizes for ‘All Lives Matter’ tweet

Mike Oz
Justin Verlander would like to have that one back. (AP)

Justin Verlander’s Twitter account has revved up for the offseason. Since the Detroit Tigers aren’t playing, their ace has been tweeting up a storm, mostly about baseball but a little about his golf game too.

And, of course, Verlander made the mistake so many before him made: talking about politics on social media. After watching the TBS broadcast crew celebrate the Blue Jays’ ALDS win Sunday with a rendition of the Canadian national anthem, Verlander felt compelled to connect that to Colin Kaepernick’s protest and his support of the Black Lives Matter movement.


You know what happened next, right? Verlander got clobbered for dropping the “All Lives Matter” line in there, which, on its face sounds nice, but is mostly used by people to sweep away examples of racial discrimination.

So Verlander apologized on Monday, pleading ignorance to the All Lives Matter subtext. Here’s what he said:



Maybe we’re too woke around here, but we wonder if Verlander wasn’t hip to the All Lives Matter vs. Black Lives Matter debate. You’ll remember that at the MLB All-Star game in July, a controversy broke out when one of the singers of “O Canada” held an “All Lives Matter” sign.

Verlander obviously watches a lot of baseball. Did he totally miss this? Perhaps he did. It’s entirely possible he tuned everything out for a few days. If that’s the case, we’d also like to warn Verlander to stay away from Pepe the Frog memes, lest he see this whole thing play out again.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!