Sabathia: 'It's tough' for black players to speak out

Two days after Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones called baseball "a white man's sport" when asked why baseball players haven't followed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's anthem protests, New York Yankees starter CC Sabathia echoed the thought.

"It's tough for us, yeah," Sabathia told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News when the topic was raised Wednesday.

Sabathia was asked directly by Feinsand if he agreed with Jones' opinion that baseball consists primarily of white players, he responded by saying, "Exactly, I think so."

While other sports feature more African-American athletes - most notably the NFL, whose black athletes form 67 percent of the league - baseball's demographic is quite different, with only one out of every 12 players being black, forming eight percent of its population.

"I don't know if people are afraid (to speak out), but there are not a lot of us. It makes it kind of awkward."

On Aug. 29, Sabathia said he would not follow Kaepernick's protests due to the fact that his brother-in-law served for the United States in Iraq.

He did, however, acknowledge that Kaepernick's stance has created a lot of important conversation outside of sports, which goes a long way in raising awareness of racial injustice.

"It does (because) we're talking about it," Sabathia said. "The conversation is not being started; we're kind of in the middle of it. It's a lot of stuff that's went on the past couple months, not really just the past couple months, but forever. I think it's a good, non-violent way to try to get some change."

Since Kaepernick's personal protests began on Aug. 26 in an NFL pre-season game, a number of athletes from different sports have shown their support by refusing to stand during national anthems. While baseball players have yet to make a similar stance, Sabathia insisted that something needs to be done on top of creating conversation.

"It’s something that's going on and something we need to change," he said.