Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. slammed the Yankees organization Friday for inviting President Trump to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 15.
Diaz accused the Yankees of hypocrisy for claiming to care about the Black Lives Matter movement and then giving a platform to Trump, whom he called a “white supremacist.”
“On June 8, the Yankees released a statement that in part read: “Black lives matter. The New York Yankees condemn racism, prejudice and injustice in all forms,” Diaz said in a statement released Friday evening.
“By inviting President Trump to throw out the first pitch, they are blatantly demonstrating that their pronouncements are cynical and devoid of genuine meaning.
“Perhaps, in fact, the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ should now also be painted on the street outside of Yankee Stadium, the same as Trump Tower.”
Diaz, who said he was “shocked and outraged,” continued, “We all deserve better than a careless Major League Baseball organization that consistently ignores the surrounding community while pandering to an unapologetic white supremacist like Donald Trump.”
Diaz — who is term-limited, and who passed on running for mayor in 2021 — also complained that Trump fumbled the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis while nearly 4,000 Bronxites and 150,000 Americans died from the killer virus and thousands of others lost their jobs.
“The Yankees would be better served by honoring them and their families rather than a president whose bluster and incompetence utterly failed to restrain the pandemic,” Diaz said.
Trump told reporters at a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday that he was asked to throw the ceremonial pitch by his friend Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees.
The Yankees and Trump campaign had no immediate comment.