VIERA, Fla. — A quickly-pitch softball staff was sharply criticized by U.S. star Cat Osterman and many of her teammates after it tweeted to President Donald Trump that its players had been standing for the nationwide anthem and respecting the flag.
The Scrap Yard Dawgs performed USSSA Pride on Monday evening in Florida. The due to the fact-deleted tweet incorporated a photo of the Dawgs standing and examine: “Hey @realDonaldTrump Pro Fastpitch staying played dwell @usssaspacecoast @USSSAPride Everybody respecting the FLAG!”
The 37-12 months-outdated Osterman tweeted after the sport that she did not support the remarks by the group and “will not symbolize them.” Monica Abbott, yet another U.S. pitcher headed to the Tokyo Olympics future 12 months, mentioned in a assertion that she disagreed with the team’s information.
“Being blind sided, with a tweet like this in the center of the match, is the utter most disrespect to my Black teammates, all athletes and supporters,” Abbott mentioned in her Twitter post. “And this is not appropriate.”
United states of america Softball explained Tuesday in a statement on its Twitter account that it “fully supports” all national team members and their legal rights to categorical their beliefs.
Osterman instructed the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that the crew is “walking away from Scrap Lawn and will not put on Scrap Property uniforms.”
“For now, we’re 15 or 16 girls and coaches who really do not have an firm,” she said. “Now we have to choose if we want to proceed participating in and what that would search like.”
It was the very first video game for Scrap Garden since the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports activities all in excess of the world. The Dawgs are an independent group based mostly in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston.
A message was still left Tuesday night time looking for comment from the team.
Osterman said general supervisor Connie May well sent the tweet, and the gamers spoke to her after the sport.
“The GM tried to protect her tweet by expressing it arrived from a excellent area in her coronary heart and that she was proud of us having the industry and remaining equipped to unite, so to converse,” Osterman instructed the Chronicle.
“This team is really united. We have been proud to just take the discipline, and it would have been a platform for demonstrating that athletics can continue on. Nonetheless, it was hijacked by getting political.”
