The Staten Island Yankees are saying their decision to host "Blue Lives Matter Day" on the anniversary of Michael Brown's death was a "very unfortunate coincidence."
Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson on August 9, 2014. The Staten Island Yankees held their event exactly one year later.
Mike Holley, the team's senior director of marketing, told the Sporting News that the event was not meant to be political.
The event was hosted by Blue Lives Matter NYC, a group that focuses on raising money for families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The families of NYPD detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos (both were shot and killed in Brooklyn in December 2014) were honored during the game. One of Liu's family members threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Holley says the event was in planning since February and chose the date because it was a Sunday and a matchup against Brooklyn, the team's rival. He said it was a typical fundraiser, and didn't think about the timing in connection with the anniversary of Brown's death.
“In retrospect I’m not as surprised [about the negative criticism], but the whole time we were setting up...we didn’t really look at it in a political way," Holley said in a phone conversation. "We certainly had no intention of offending anybody."
There's quite a bit to unpack here.
It appears the Staten Island Yankees are sincere in saying they didn't mean to offend anyone, and Holley's explanation does clear up some misunderstandings. Holding the event the day the team was playing a rival would probably lead to a bigger crowd, and thus, more money raised during the event.
The fundraiser is clearly for a good cause, and honoring officers Liu and Ramos, and involving their families, is also a positive thing.
The two main issues here are the name of the event and the date. The date being controversial should not come as a surprise, and Holley admits as much. It appears the club didn't realize the connection before the event took place, but it's still a bad look.
It's also not a surprise that calling to event "Blue Lives Matter Day" would offend many. That's the name of the fundraising group, so that's likely why the team used that phrase. Some of the controversy could have been avoided had the team simply called it a different thing.
Again, no one is arguing that the team supported a bad cause. The issue here is the name and the date of the event. Had it been called "First Responder Appreciation Night" as Law suggests, there probably would not have been an issue.
Overall, it's not a great look for the team, even though the whole thing appears to be a giant mistake. Given Holley's comments, it looks like the team will be much more cautious when scheduling something like this moving forward.
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