TAMPA (WFLA) – The Rays joined teams all around MLB showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Both the Rays and Toronto Blue Jays knelt along the baselines together at Tropicana Field.
Players and coaches each held part of a long black cloth that ran along the length of both baselines while a video denouncing racism played in the stadium. Multiple Rays and Blue Jays players knelt during the moment of silence.
Several Blue Jays players kneeled during Canadian National Anthem and The Star-Spangled Banner while Rays First Base Coach Ozzie Timmons and Third Base Coach Rodney Linares kneeled during The Star-Spangled Banner as Shortstop Willy Adames stood between them with a hand on each shoulder.
The gesture comes amid several other MLB teams kneeling ahead of their opening games as well as a tweet made by the Rays on Friday morning.
The tweet advocated for justice for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was killed by the police in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13.
“Today is Opening Day, which means it’s a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor,” the tweet says.
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