Yankees’ Aaron Hicks 'absolutely’ ready to play after sitting out over Daunte Wright shooting
New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks made headlines when he told manager Aaron Boone he thought it'd be best if he sat out Monday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays held at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., due to his feelings about the police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday.
Hicks returned to the lineup for Tuesday's tilt versus Toronto:
According to Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, there was little question about Hicks' availability for the game.
"Texted with him this morning to make sure he was good to go," Boone said of Hicks when speaking with reporters. "He absolutely was."
As Kuty noted, Hicks made his Major League debut with the Minnesota Twins back in 2013. He hadn't yet spoken publicly about either the shooting or missing Monday's game as of early Tuesday evening.
"When we’re talking about things that happened yesterday that had an effect on Aaron, you’re talking about deeply personal things," Boone added during his comments. "And if you try to respect that as best you can when you haven’t necessarily walked in someone else’s shoes either, try and empathize with that. The reality of that is, there’s so many of us in here that come from so many different places, and so many different views, that’s part of being able to thrive in this environment. Not only being able to coexist with people but really you form a family with people."
MLB, the NHL, and the NBA all postponed games that were set to take place in Minnesota on Monday. The Twins and Minnesota Timberwolves both hosted matchups on Tuesday, and the Minnesota Wild will return to action on Wednesday afternoon with a home game against the Arizona Coyotes.
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