Reds' Amir Garrett on not playing: 'We can't keep moving on like nothing is wrong'

The Cincinnati Reds pitcher spoke out on Thursday following the team’s game versus the Brewers being postponed and the lack of progress in the country following months of social unrest.

Video Transcript

AMIR GARRETT: I mean, it was-- kind of like seeing it was coming. You know? With the Bucks and stuff like that. And by the time we're at the field, it's like-- you know, they decided not to play. And I was sitting out in center field, doing a little meditating, like I do every day before, you know, I start my day.

And I seen a guy, like Moose, Braun, Yelich, and Wade, and all them and talking. Like they were all like huddled up a few times, you know, going back and forth. And you know, when I was coming in the dugout.

Moose was like hey, like the Brewers are not playing tonight. Like are you guys on board with that? Is everybody on board with that? I was contemplating, you know, like not playing yesterday, either. So it was like a weight off my shoulders when they said that, because I was like yeah, let's do it.

Let's not-- let's not play today. You know, especially for them it's in their backyard. Like it was right there what would happen, it's-- you know, in Milwaukee, stuff like that. So I felt that was right, you know. And we made a decision, you know, a game time decision that we both weren't going to play.

So you know, that was it. If situations don't necessarily affect you, you don't care about them, I feel like what we did last night, and what like other teams were doing, were not playing. So we're making people feel uncomfortable. Right?

So they didn't get that luxury of seeing a ballgame yesterday. And a lot of people are upset about it. But guess what? There's a lot of people upset about a lot of other things that are going on in the world. And nobody cares.

So I felt that was-- that was big time for us, man. And that was big time, because you know, we can't-- we can't keep moving on in this world like nothing is wrong. And that's the problem. We keep moving forward without any changes.

You guys seen what happened with George Floyd. Died down a little bit. Which was-- I knew that was going to happen. And Jacob Blake's happened. And it's like dang, here we are again. We're in the same spot we in three months ago.

You know? And all they want to sweep it under the rug. And like I said earlier, like sports is basically a Band-Aid for that. You know? I feel-- I strongly feel the reason why George Floyd got so much publicity because there was nothing on TV.

You know? And that brought an awareness to the situation. But you know, us not playing yesterday was a great call. And you know, who knows what we do today? We'll see. These times are very trying, man.

It's tough. Every time I think about it, it's like you get emotional, and stuff like that. Because we shouldn't be in this position. We should not be here right now. You know? It just sucks.

I continue to talk about this over, and over, and over, it's draining. It is very draining. But we're in 2020 to talk about racism, and color. Like, we are supposed to be past this. The world is supposed to be a better place, but it's just not.