Skip to main content
You are the owner of this article.
Edit Article Add New Article
You have permission to edit this article.
Edit

LATEST

ALERT

Weather Alert

...EXTREME HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 8 PM CDT THIS
EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures and heat index
values up to 110 expected.

* WHERE...Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, McClain, Oklahoma, Garvin, and
Caddo Counties.

* WHEN...From noon today to 8 PM CDT this evening.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat
illnesses.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of
the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

&&

OU softball: Former Sooners, USSSA Pride protest against Scrap Yard tweet to Trump

ou_vs_tennessee

May 23, 2014: The Oklahoma team waits at home plate for teammate Keilani Ricketts following her home run against Tennessee in the third inning in Oklahoma City. The Sooners beat the Tennessee Lady Volunteers 8-1 in the first of three NCAA Super Regionals games on Friday night.

 Sue Ogrocki/AP

The USSSA Pride professional softball team unanimously decided to postpone its season on Wednesday, after a tweet from Scrap Yard Fast Pitch boasted to President Trump that its players were standing for the national anthem before the first game of a series between the two teams started. Among the USSSA Pride roster are former Sooner softball standouts Shelby Pendley, Shay Knighten and Sydney Romero. 

The two teams were scheduled to play each other in a seven-game series, but only the first match was played. After Connie May, Scrap Yard's general manager, tweeted at Trump "Everyone respecting the FLAG!" and a picture of the team standing in unison, Scrap Yard players decided to walk away from playing any more games.

Trump has been vocal in his opposition to kneeling during the national anthem before games, a movement created by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016. 

The USSSA Pride players followed suit, and after discussing the matter in a team meeting right after the first match, decided their games should be postponed as well. The team released the statement on Wednesday.

Off-campus housing marketplace Log in Powered by

“A lot of positive is gonna come out of (postponing the season)," Pendley said in a Friday interview with The Daily. Pendley was an infielder and pitcher for the Sooners from 2013–15, and is an NCAA national champion. "And I think that as long as we are using the platform of playing to educate and back what's going on, I think some really positive things can come of this.”

The softball players on Scrap Yard formed "This Is Us," a group using independent means to get back on the softball field. Keilani Ricketts took to social media to support the newly made group.

Ricketts, an Oklahoma pitcher from 2010–13, was on the USSSA Pride roster from 2013–20. Ricketts has been a vocal supporter on social media of the team's decision to stop the season.

"This is Us," Ricketts tweeted Wednesday. "We understand we as Americans have freedom of speech which men and women have fought for but we also refuse to let our voices be taken from us moving forward. The Black community is hurting and instead of neglecting this pain we want to be able to unify and listen."

OU Daily standards

See an error? Earning trust is our duty. We correct errors atop stories. Identify an error, request a takedown or get in touch.

Independent and free since 1916: OU is committed to our editorial independence. You can help ensure our reporting remains strong and accessible to all invested in OU and Norman.

Want to comment? We value dialogue on issues we cover. On our social media accounts, we moderate disparagements, arguments and attacks, including those directed at our staff — and ban those repeatedly failing civility. The editor considers guest column submissions.