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There is only one side.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) August 13, 2017

But the pitcher acknowledged Monday that there was a time and place for when he felt his activism was appropriate, and that it wasn't necessarily within the confines of the notoriously private clubhouses during the grind of the 162-game MLB season.

\"I'm a big believer in letting my actions, the stuff my wife and I do in the community, speak for itself,\" Doolittle said. \"Every once in a while we will speak out on Twitter, but that kind of stuff doesn't find its way into the locker room too much.\"

Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLB Players Association and a former All-Star first basemen himself, explained that the locker room could, at times, be a place where players held debates and hashed out broader issues, given the trust that players built among themselves in such close quarters.

\"In a good locker room, common ground is always found,\" he said. \"Particularly when the end game and the goal is the same. In other words, trying to achieve a particular goal or trying to affect a certain type of change in the climate that you happen to be in.\"

Several players agreed Monday that there were no impediments necessarily precluding their fellow major leaguers from speaking out, either internally or externally, but unlike in the NFL, on-field displays of protest have been rare.

\"PHOTO:
Brad Mills/USA TODAY Sports
PHOTO: Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle (62) throws against the Baltimore Orioles during the ninth inning at Nationals Park, June 21, 2018.
>

Last September, Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell became the first, and thus far only, MLB player to kneel during a pre-game performance of the national anthem. At the time, Maxwell, who was born into a military family, said that he believed that the ideas of racial inequality were being perpetuated by Trump.

\"It's being practiced from the highest power that we have in this country, and it's basically saying that it's OK to treat people differently,\" Maxwell said at the time, according to ESPN. \"My kneeling, the way I did it, was to symbolize that I'm kneeling for a cause, but I'm in no way or form disrespecting my country or my flag.\"

Maxwell's teammate Jed Lowrie, an All-Star this year, said that the catcher's decision didn't cause division within the clubhouse.

\"There were guys who had questions for him and wanted to understand why he did it, but I think the general consensus was support for him and why he chose to do it,\" Lowrie said Monday, adding, \"I think if a player has a specific issue they feel passionate about then I think it's fair for them to use their platform to direct their message.\"

Such a sentiment was echoed by Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain. Cain, who is African-American, viewed the NFL protests in the name of racial injustice as instances of the players \"standing up for themselves\" and said he respected their decision.

\"From afar, I definitely understood why they were kneeling,\" Cain said, while explaining that there was nuance to the debate. \"I agree with some of the stuff they were doing, [but] for me, [during] the national anthem, I think of our troops fighting overseas and that's why I stand for it. But the other guys were kneeling for entirely different reasons -- we all know why -- and I definitely understand where they were coming from.\"

A popular theory raised as to why the MLB has lagged behind other leagues in public displays of activism has been the racial makeup of its players. While the NFL and NBA are both majority-black, as of Opening Day, the MLB noted only 8.4 percent of major leaguers were African-American -- down from a high of 18.7 percent in 1981, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. An additional 30 percent, as of 2016, were either Latino or Asian, the organization determined.

\"PHOTO:
Michael Zagaris/Getty Images
PHOTO: Eli Harold #58, Colin Kaepernick #7, center, and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest on the sideline, during the anthem, prior to the game against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field, Oct. 16, 2016, in Orchard Park, New York.
>

Clark predicted that the MLB's activism could catch-up however, particularly given the multitude of avenues in which players can now deliver messages.

\"In the past, there may have been a platform or two that guys had access to and now you have far more,\" Clark said. \"They view it as an opportunity to have their concerns heard and hope that leads to effecting the kind of change that they want to see.\"

Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon agreed, adding that he was \"thankful\" to be in a position to be heard, should he wish to be, but showed respect for the responsibility that accompanies such power.

\"Before I use that platform to influence the way others think, I need to make sure that I have all the facts and I know what I'm talking about and truly believe that what I'm saying is right,\" he said, cautioning that some of the responsibility falls on the consumers of public discourse to weed out fact from fiction.

\"I'm not going to blindly follow what Beyonce says because I really like her music,\" Blackmon noted as an example.

A common thread among the All-Stars who commented on the topic of activism and protest was that of respect, be it between persons with opposing points of view, among teammates, or between fans and players with whom they disagree.

\"I don’t really like how some fans don’t like guys [who] speak out about what they believe in,\" said Seattle Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger. \"I think everyone comes from different places on Earth, different countries, and I think the way you grow is to learn from other people's backgrounds and to see where they come from, [and] how and why they think about the things they believe in.\"

Haniger, who said he enjoyed talking politics but avoids it on social media, argued that it was the disagreements, even with some of the teammates he considers his best friends, that could be most valuable.

\"I think at the end of the day, I kind of learn from why he feels that way and why he thinks and believes in the things he does,\" he said. \"That's how you progress and get better.\"

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