After emotional day, a challenge for Nats to refocus on baseball

At the end of an emotional day during an emotional week during an emotional year, the Nationals gathered on buses headed for Dulles International Airport, took a charter flight to Boston, checked into their hotel, tried to put everything swirling around their heads aside for a little while and get a good night's rest.

They'll wake up this morning and focus on preparing for their series opener against the Red Sox, a game that by coincidence is taking place on Major League Baseball's rescheduled Jackie Robinson Day. That fact alone seems to have convinced everyone involved it is appropriate to return to action and play as scheduled.

"I think Jackie would want us to play tomorrow," manager Davey Martinez said Thursday during his joint Zoom session with Phillies skipper Joe Girardi. "He brought unity to this game, and I think it's important to remember that."

Tonight, then, will be emotional for everyone involved. Players, coaches and managers from every ballclub will wear nameless No. 42 jerseys. Tributes and remembrances and statements will take place.

And then they'll all play a ballgame and try to forget about everything going on around them for three-plus hours.

"One of the things I think players are really good at doing, and probably it's reason they've had success in the game, they can focus for those three hours ... on what they love to do," Girardi said. "And it's kind of a chance to get away. But it doesn't mean that they sleep well that night."

It does not, and that's perhaps the bigger-picture question all clubs are facing right now. What already was a uniquely difficult season from a physical and mental standpoint is only getting tougher as players grapple with their responsibility to their teams and to the outside world.

For many the last two nights, it's clear their hearts weren't fully into baseball. And because enough of them felt that way, three games were postponed Wednesday and seven more were postponed Thursday. The message they all attempted to convey: It was more important to devote attention to racial injustice and police brutality than to ballgames.

"We took 30-40 minutes, we listened to guys speak," Phillies player rep Rhys Hoskins, sitting alongside Nationals utilityman Josh Harrison, said of his team's early afternoon meeting. "We listened to some guys get emotional, and I think that was something that stuck with all of us. And we knew it was probably in the best interest not to play tonight and go about our business tomorrow."

But will their hearts be back into baseball tonight? Or tomorrow? Or next week? Or next month?

"There are a lot of concerns," Martinez said. "But as Joe will tell you, we wear our hearts on our sleeves for these guys. We feel for them. A lot of nights, as you know, I don't sleep. I'm thinking about individual players or multiple players. But you've got to do the best you can to understand where they're coming from and try to get them to understand the importance of what they're doing. We're trying to bring joy and happiness to homes every night by playing. We really are. And they've got to focus on what they believe in, and why this game means so much for them as well. I think they understand."

They understand, but they also want everyone to understand they aren't simply ballplayers. They're husbands and fathers. They're citizens. They're members of their respective communities. They're just as aware of the turbulent world around them as anyone else.

"At the end of the day, it's about humanity and respecting each other," Harrison said. "Yes, we play baseball. We love baseball. But baseball doesn't define us."