Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez and MLB Stand Up to Bullying

Major League Baseball, Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez and Seattle musical artist Macklemore are joining together to help end bullying.

Today is Spirit Day in Major League Baseball. This day came about six years ago thanks to a frustrated 15-year-old student named Brittany McMillan. Brittany read about multiple teenage suicides in September of 2010 and decided to do something about it. She urged her friends and family to wear purple to bring attention to bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Young people who identify as LGBT have higher suicide rates than other teens.

Bullying has become a hot button topic, in part because of the prevalence of social media, which has led to cyberbullying. So many teens are using social media these days that cyberbullying has become one of the main ways young people are being bullied these days. According to Public Health Data Watch, young people who are bullied are three times more likely to bring a weapon to school, two times more likely to consider suicide, more likely to self harm, and more likely to use drugs heavily.

Brittany was assisted by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) in the creation of the inaugural Spirit Day on October 20, 2010. At the same time, advice columnist Dan Savage created the first “It Gets Better” video, which resulted in the It Gets Better Project. Major League Baseball teams created their own “It Gets Better” videos, such as this one by the World Champion San Francisco Giants.

The Seattle Mariners website has a page for teachers and parents to help spread the word. Teachers can find information that includes basic facts about bullying, how to prevent bullying, and a link to a comprehensive sexual health education curriculum. For parents, resources at the link above include information from StopBullying.gov, a bullying prevention guide, and a tool called “100 Conversations” that is useful for parents to have conversations with their children about healthy relationships, respect, and personal safety.

As part of Spirit Day, Felix Hernandez and musical artist Macklemore created a video inviting kids to use the hashtag #ChangeTheGame to help end bullying.

Former major league player Billy Bean (not to be confused with the Oakland A’s Executive Vice President Billy Beane) is MLB’s Ambassador for Inclusion. Bean played for three different major league teams in the late 80s and early 90s. He came out as gay in 1999 and was hired as MLB’s first Ambassador for Inclusion in 2014.

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Bean will be in Los Angeles for Game 5 of the NLCS wearing a purple #SpiritDay t-shirt to help spread a message of inclusion. He said, “I feel really grateful that we have a chance to not only go to the game, but to be a part of it and support Game 5 of the NLCS, a great series with the Cubs and the Dodgers. People might see an image, someone wearing a purple shirt like this one, and they may just ask a question, ‘What does that mean?’ And you can say, ‘You know what, baseball is just standing up for kids and taking a stand against bullying.’