Scott Servais Details Seattle Mariners Boycott of Padres Game & Standing Up for His Black Players

Intro [Music] a couple opening Opening Comments comments that i have today certainly yesterday was a a historic day um around uh sports uh the different leagues around our country and um for me yesterday was a day of action is how i would term it uh you know everybody understands how our ball club is put together we have eight black players on our team and with the things that have happened again in society our players wanted to they want to see action and and i commend them for that uh very proud of the group on the leadership they showed yesterday um this is our unprecedented times in what we're trying to deal with here and you know how our players have handled this they continue uh to speak up and to do the right thing so um certainly yesterday um coming into the ballpark i knew there would be a lot of discussion about where this was to head and the action we took again very very proud of our players um on top of that i think the mayor's organization has done an awesome job in trying to educate people within our organization the employees educate people in our community on the changes that we want to make to try to get rid of the systemic racism that is going on so yesterday it was a very uh unique day um but one that at the end of the day as i went home last night with no game being played i couldn't have been any more proud of our players and the discussions we had as a team yesterday so um you know sports sports are a privilege and we get the opportunity to play an awesome game we get paid for these guys you know they're the best in the world and they get to compete on this level every day but it is a privilege it's a privilege of a functioning society and our players made a decision yesterday to take a step backwards and to back off the gas here to create some awareness uh about something that we need change we need change and again i commend our players for for continuing doing the right thing and um you know the discussions like we had yesterday as a team where we're very meaningful um we continue to learn from each other educate each other and that's what this is all about so with that um i will take some questions did dee come up to you fairly early during the day skip and let you know what the plans were for the ball club what they wanted to do we had some uh discussions a couple different players individually grabbed me yesterday afternoon probably around two o'clock um sat down uh with players in my office discussed how they were feeling um then a group of about six or seven of our players came in to my office uh about an hour after those individual conversations we had another talk uh about where they were at um we had a team meeting after that so the discussions carried on for for quite some time we you know as a team unanimously decided that we should not play that game last night so um it was a interesting day no doubt um i wake up this morning feeling even better about our team and how we're wired and doing the right thing i'll jump in my name is bryce miller i'm Did the last 24 hours feel different a sports columnist at the san diego union tribune uh i'm just curious because we always since march especially there have been these moments where things happen people make a stand a team doesn't play you know some marker some moment in time did did the last 24 hours and what you guys were involved in specifically does that does that feel different do you think we'll look back in six months and say that was a that was a really meaningful moment involving the mariners because of what happened yesterday only if there's change and um you know i think people don't need to understand what change looks like because i don't think everybody's quite aware yet um and how you can make change um you know whether it's you know your ability to register and go out and vote um to do different things to allow yourself to have a voice um and educating family members friends people are around you i think it's it's really important that people try to understand that we all grew up and were raised in different environments so you know to try to empathize with people when you've never walked in their shoes is difficult but that's how change happens you have to listen you have to grow um as a person um and then hopefully those around you they're close to you you can help them grow and you look it up and we say hey remember when this happened you know it was george floyd it was jacob blake there was a there was a things that were going on in society that professional athletes because they do have a platform decided to uh you know voice their opinions and to take a step back and again i keep my fingers crossed that we will look back on that but it'll only happen if there's change was there any discussion of playing Was there any discussion of playing today today or was that just assumed that you would go forward today when we had the original uh team meeting about you know uh not playing yesterday it really wasn't discussed whether we would play today or not uh until after everything was was decided there and then um had an opportunity to sit down a small group or leadership group um in my office for about an hour um probably closer to five six o'clock last night and talk about today so um i think everybody uh was on board i do know everybody was on board with playing uh today and you know we will play doubleheader today those will be two seven in games scott How do you keep your players on the right path so many people there are obviously lots of sides to this and there is a group of people that think that ashley athletes should just stick to sports obviously you guys don't believe in that but how do you make sure that you know you continue to keep your guys uh on that path when they will experience some backlash from all of this oh there's one thing about our group we're very strong i feel very very confident uh whether it's young players guys have been in the league a little bit very very strong in their beliefs um and doing the right thing and continue to talk about doing the right things with people around them so um not concerned about that at all um they're gonna be backlash into anything you do in today's society uh with all the outlets that are there for people to express their opinion that's just the world we live in um but these are not just athletes these are people these are people that um are afraid they're worried about loved ones family members um in different parts of the country um as many of you know i'm from wisconsin and uh to see what's happened there um it has been upsetting um and how things will progress from here we'll tell a lot about you know the people in those uh areas and how they make adjustments along the way to make sure they're doing the right thing so i'm not worried about our players at all in that regard ryan scott what do you draw on to deal with What resources do you draw on this and to help your leadership group along with this i'm sorry what was the first thing you said i'm sorry what do you draw upon or what resources do you use to help this leadership group and and what they are doing i think the the resources that i use um you know i continuing even when you know things first started to happen um you know when the george floyd situation came about and going back to we were all away from each other spread all over the country and having conversations with our players at that time making sure that they understand that you know as an organization um we have their back we support you know what's going on at that point i quickly came to the realization that i need to learn a lot about what's happened um in our country um on educating myself and it's really hard to help others or lead others when you're not educated yourself um you know how you lead how consistent you are you have to tell the truth and what you feel but for me i really needed to educate myself um along the way i think i'm a much better position to lead this group with what's going on here so and drawing from those resources whether it's it's reading it's podcasts it's it's it's watching documentaries it's going to seminars talking to people um who are very very educated in the different areas and not just things that have happened around you know the seattle pacific northwest but all over our country um so i think i'm much better prepared than i certainly was uh five six months ago there's no question about it and along the way i'm hoping hoping i'm helping our team our coaching staff and our players What did you say to Jake Turgeon yesterday you had to uh go out and find jace tingler and have that initial conversation can you share a little bit of what you explained to him in that moment i've known for a long time um worked together back when he's with the rangers um just explained to him that we were not going to play the game tonight um he was a little surprised i just said this is a team decision and you know quickly he had to get on the phone and talk to him to aha and his people there so there was nothing really more than that Emotions in the clubhouse could you describe just some of the emotion that you were seeing i mean you have to gauge what the players are feeling how would you describe some of the motion that you were seeing coming out of your guys when they were talking to you about this um i would say very raw emotion um in the team meeting a couple of our players got up and talked and it was very emotional many of those who didn't talk um the expressions on their face uh the body language where they're at this is a it was very heartfelt um even myself i just uh care very deeply for our guys and what they're going through and trying to uh you know try to understand the best i can to help them out is you know what i'm focused on here but it was it was very emotional hey scott with the uh it was a unanimous decision i thought that was great i thought your support and everything i thought that was great can you tell us like you don't have to name names but maybe the reacts of some of the white players i mean i talked to some of the guys last night but i'd be curious to know what some of the white players were thinking you know in that in the discussion that you guys might have had what you know how they may have expressed themselves i i think the uh you know the white players have really got a much better grasp of what has gone on in history and they've learned a ton over the last couple months because of the relationships we have and the fact that we have eight black players on our team right now 11 on our 40-man roster the conversation is ongoing it is really good in our clubhouse i wish our country uh was as disciplined and the conversations were going like they are in our clubhouse i really do unfortunately it's probably not happening everywhere so uh a number of the comments uh from guys and the questions and uh you know our leadership group you're talking about marco and siegs and and guys like that really are very show a lot of empathy towards what's going on and they're trying to understand realizing that you know they did not walk in those shoes um you know we had a player share a story um in the team meeting um about a situation that just happened recently in tacoma where somebody drove by down the street and dropped the n-word on them and i mean it's real it is real all over our country right now it's sad uh where it's at but the only way this is going to get better is if people recognize it and they take it personal and they do everything they can to make change and it starts uh locally state federal whatever you gotta vote people you gotta vote Taijuan Walker trade you guys made a trade obviously this morning you get a pitching change lj going in the in the first game is that correct yeah we'll transition to baseball greg um you know um yeah we we traded taiwan walker uh this morning with the toronto blue jays tyler sunden's uh you talk about like maturing uh as a pitcher as a person uh what he was able to do you know in our clubhouse um let alone was able to do on the field um and how he's grown there it's it's a really i'm happy for taiwan uh we get this opportunity to continue a really good season you know it is his free agent year so um as i got a chance to talk to him this morning i would love to see him go out and dominate you know the rest of the season and come back and sign with us going forward i think it's a very good environment for him to continue to to grow and produce very selfishly here uh i just love having him in the clubhouse and what he was able to bring there from a leadership standpoint and not just with our young players we talk about you know chef and don and marge and being able to help those young starters out but we have a first year pitching coach too and and he's meant a lot where you know a young pitching coach can get up and talk about you know things that are important to us organizationally and to have veteran players quickly jump on board with that it is huge it's really huge it makes your job easier now the younger players jump in there's no things going on behind your back and things like that and taiwan was a big leader making sure we were driving the right messaging and everybody was understanding the importance of it Rotation how do you handle that uh rotation spot going forward yeah lj will start today it's two seven eight games um you know you're 17 games so it turns quick you know to get to the back end so uh you know hopefully lj i'm you know he's built up enough i don't think give us four or five meetings um but we've got obviously fresh bullpen guys we can kind of shorten the game there uh you know going forward in that rotation spot um you know certainly lj has been a starter um he's he throws a ton of strikes he works quick it says the reason they call him the silent assassin um you know hopefully he could get after him today but we'll just have to wait and see before we if we slide him in that spot after somebody else would give that [Music] opportunity [Music]