SEATTLE — “Dear younger JR. Becoming the best you will take time and understanding. That knot in your stomach — the one that makes you feel confused, isolated, lost in the world — invisible to everyone but you? It will slowly loosen. You don’t even understand the knot, but with time you will learn things about yourself and fulfill dreams so many others like you feel they cannot.”
These are the words of an older and more insightful Justin Rogers. This is what Rogers would tell his younger self about how it is OK to fully embrace and understand those feelings at a time when it feels like there is no road map.
Rogers’ journey has taken him from his hometown in southern Michigan all the way to the NHL, where he is now an assistant athletic trainer for the Seattle Kraken.
One pivotal moment on that journey came on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day back in 2014. Rogers tried so many times to find the perfect words to convey to his family what he was managing inside. It was on Christmas Eve when he determined he had endured long enough. The book he was reading at the time gave him the inspiration to drive to the grocery store, buy some index cards, write down his feelings and give them to his family members.
He shared the letters with his family on Christmas Day.
What did Rogers tell his parents, three brothers and two sisters-in-law? It’s the same thing he wants the NHL and the rest of the world to know: He is gay.
And when it comes to hockey, he is believed to be the first openly gay support staff member on an NHL bench.
Rogers waited nine months after he told his family before telling his two best friends, who accepted him. Nearly eight years passed until Rogers had what he has described as an intentional conversation with someone about being gay. Kraken general manager Ron Francis was that 10th person. Sharing his truth with Francis opened a door for Rogers to feel comfort about being gay in hockey and wanting to share his story in the hopes it can help others.
“I think it was more at that point, he felt that it was kind of time to tell his story,” Francis said. “I said, ‘Let’s figure out how to help you do that.'”
An athletic trainer’s work is visible to the outside world only when someone gets injured during the course of a game. But the Kraken’s players and everyone else in the organization have either directly experienced or witnessed what makes Rogers so valuable. He’s in tune to the nuances of what works for every player when it comes to pregame and postgame workout routines. His caring nature is what allows players to be open with him about their health, which can be a sensitive subject in a sport in which toughness is a form of currency.
“For some guys, it’s more than just the treatment,” Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer said of Rogers. “You can talk to him. He’s open to listening. He’s obviously a professional and we’re down there to work and to get better on the ice. He helps us to get more out of us on the ice, but also, if you have something on your heart, you can talk to him and he listens and gives advice too.”
Rogers’ decision to publicly come out coincides with a time when the league’s relationship with the LGBTQIA+ community appears to be on shaky ground. Although every NHL team held Pride or Hockey Is for Everyone nights last season, there were seven players who decided to not take part in warmups when their teams donned Pride sweaters. There were also teams that decided to not have any players wear the sweaters in warmups after it was initially planned that they would.
In late June, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that teams will no longer wear specialty sweaters during warmups because it had become “a distraction.” Bettman said teams can still have events such as Black History Night or Pride Night. They can also still create specialty sweaters and sell them at auction to raise money for community organizations.
Rogers’ decision to openly speak about his sexuality, his journey and his need to help others inspired the Kraken to come together and deliver a message to Rogers that they hope to also share with others who identify as LGBTQIA+.
It’s to tell them they are accepted, loved, respected, supported and should not have to hide who they are anymore.
“I think the most respect you can give a person is that you treat them the exact same way as everyone else. That’s how we all feel here,” Kraken alternate captain and winger Jordan Eberle said. “I think we’ve done that with Justin. I wouldn’t say we openly talked about his sexuality in the [dressing] room because he wasn’t openly open about it, but we all knew. But now that has changed a bit and maybe that makes him feel more comfortable, and maybe events with the team and he can bring whoever he wants and can talk about it more.”
“While in high school you will develop a love and passion for athletic training and sports medicine. That, plus being a great-grandchild of one of the first Doctors of Osteopathy, drives you to follow your dreams despite feeling deeply isolated at times. Walking into every team locker room being gay will challenge your fears of acceptance, like it does for so many others in the queer community. You know you are different. But you will discover there is a community within the sports world made up of LGBTQ+ individuals just like yourself.”
Everyone back home in Parma, Michigan, a farming community of less than 800 residents, knew Rogers as a high achiever who lettered in three sports and was active in nearly every extracurricular activity. It was more of the same when he enrolled at Michigan State.
Nobody knew about what Rogers was struggling with internally. He felt isolated.
“I got to college, realized a few more things and it really wasn’t until grad school that I was able to accept myself and say, ‘OK. I am a gay man. I have no idea what that means yet,'” Rogers said. “It still took years after that to get to the point that, ‘I’m gay and I’m ready to be out with myself comfortably and telling my family and friends in my life.'”
It was not until Rogers started working as an assistant athletic trainer for the Penn State men’s hockey and men’s golf programs in 2012 that he even started to consider coming out to people. He said he deliberated for about a year before coming to the conclusion that he not only wanted to come out, but he was actually going to come out.
“That’s when I started realizing, ‘I am like those people. I can associate with those people and I can also be in this sports world at the same time,'” Rogers said. “It was almost like both worlds were meshing at a fast rate together.”
“There will be many signs of acceptance you will pick up on, both during and after your own personal acceptance. Before ever coming out to your first athlete at Penn State there will be moments of general care and curiosity from athletes that will live with you forever. One scene will repeat itself more times than you can count. There will be numerous times that sports television networks discuss LGBTQ+ stories while you are working in an athletic training room full of athletes. It will never cease to amaze you that once one of these stories comes on, the room pauses, going silent with every athlete glued to the TV, watching, learning, soaking in every word. Then, as soon as the TV segment is done, the athletes will go right back to normal rehab routines.”
Rogers was a few years into his tenure at Penn State when a freshman who had just scored a goal skated back to the bench after his shift and asked Rogers if he was gay.
“It threw me off. What are you talking about? Why are you asking me this question in the middle of a game after just scoring a goal?” Rogers recalled.
After the game, Rogers spoke with the player, who told him that he was accepting of Rogers being gay.
Rogers, who by that point had come out to his best friends more than a year earlier, shared why the moment resonated with him to this day. He said that player could have gone and told the entire team. But to Rogers’ knowledge, he kept what they discussed private.
Rogers’ path to joining the Kraken began when he saw they had a job posting on a professional website for athletic trainers in hockey. He applied and was able to interview with the club, which led to him being hired and starting in July 2021 — months before the franchise played its first game.
“Obviously, when the Kraken became an organization, they came out with their pillars right away,” Rogers said. “Myself and a lot of my friends became fans of the organization for those reasons. I feel like I followed them on social media almost immediately because No. 1: They were doing such good work. No. 2: Maybe I’ll end up there one day. … That could be a place that I would really gun to work for and work to get there to be a part of that staff and that organization.”
“There will be athletes drafted in Seattle’s expansion draft who will do all sorts of research about their new city. One will tell you and everyone around they learned Seattle has one of the biggest LGBTQ+ communities. Another Kraken player will tell you about music he heard from a queer artist at a drag brunch with his girlfriend while on All-Star break. Now you will have a locker room with players and staff who know your sexuality and support you.”
Rogers knows that being a member of any marginalized community means having to assess your surroundings to make sure you feel safe and, above all, that you can feel like yourself.
Working for the Kraken gave Rogers that sense of comfort. Anyone who has spent an hour in the Kraken’s offices or around the team on a game day will see how the club has cultivated what might be the most diverse and inclusive environment throughout the NHL.
This was the landscape for Rogers, who decided he wanted to tell Francis, whether the Hockey Hall of Famer already knew it or not.
“I don’t think it matters how many times you come out to somebody, there’s always a level of nerves,” Rogers said. “You don’t know how someone is going to react. Ron is the most stand-up, phenomenal person in the world. Ron loves everyone within his community. I had zero doubt he was going to have my back and that it would matter with him.”
Francis said the day Rogers walked into his office and told him he was gay, he immediately thanked Rogers for having the confidence and trust in Francis so he could feel comfortable enough to share that with him.
What made it so important for Francis and the Kraken to help Rogers tell his story?
“Everybody that works for us is unique, and in trying to make him feel comfortable and part of the group like he belongs, you want to help him be able to share his uniqueness with other people,” Francis said. “I just didn’t think it was a big deal for me to step in and help him with that. I felt very appreciative that he had enough trust in me to come and have this discussion.”
Francis shared how he’s had conversations with friends whose children have come out about their sexuality. Those discussions allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of those who have struggled to feel free to live as their true selves. Francis believes it is important to facilitate those conversations.
“I think people understand there’s a lot that we need to learn,” Francis said. “You’re going to have some really tough conversations. It’s not always going to be easy. You might get to the point when you’re at an impasse or you don’t understand certain things, but I think you still have to work through that. It’s what we’ve tried to do as an organization, which is try to have these conversations.”
Helping Rogers tell his story with the hope that it can help others is something that was also important to a number of Kraken players. Reigning Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers, along with Grubauer and Eberle, welcomed the chance to share what makes Rogers so beloved and respected and discussed the challenges the game has faced over the past year when it comes to acknowledging those in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Beniers drew from his experience attending a Boston-area high school he said was diverse, where he knew people who were openly gay, lesbian and transgender.
“I think that was just completely normalized,” Beniers said. “You didn’t bat an eye, it didn’t change anything. I had lots of classmates who were different sexualities. For me, it was normalized then. I didn’t really think about it at all, and in this situation, it was the same thing with JR.”
Eberle said he has friends in his life who identify as LGTBQIA+ and said that their sexuality does not change how he feels about them.
“It’s the way I was raised,” Eberle said. “I have kids and if they identify to be whatever they may be, it doesn’t matter to me as long as they are a good human.”
Grubauer said his conversation with Rogers was the first serious one he has had with someone who was coming out. He said he believes both the city of Seattle and the Kraken have provided the sort of welcoming environment that can hopefully allow anyone who is struggling with sharing their identity a chance to feel free of that burden.
Eberle explained how even though Rogers had not been open about his sexuality until recently, the team still had an idea that he was gay. Rogers himself said there might have been hints, such as what he posted on his Instagram feed, the fact he’ll occasionally wear a rainbow watch band for his Apple Watch or how he has put money on the board for Pride Night.
“If he didn’t want to talk about it, then you don’t talk about it,” Eberle said. “Whatever he does in his personal life is up to him. But he knows my kids, my family, I met his dad on the dads trip. I think the biggest thing for him was he just wanted to become open and make it apparent so he can bring his personal life in more, more than what he’s done prior.”
Knowing Rogers wanted to be more open, what have the Kraken players done to make sure that their dressing room feels like a welcoming place?
“I don’t think there is anything different we have to do because I think we have such a great group of guys that you are so welcomed,” Beniers said. “That’s not even in the back of our heads.”
A Kraken spokesperson told ESPN that the team will continue to host a Pride Night and still plans on creating sweaters for those nights. Those sweaters will be signed by players before being auctioned off to raise money for charity.
What was it like for Rogers to be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community who worked in the NHL last season?
“I think in-season, my main focus was working on the team and getting the players ready,” Rogers said. “Pride Nights are cool for the fans, but it doesn’t necessarily affect me because I have my community around me. Am I disappointed that we’re not wearing a jersey? Sure, but that’s 16 minutes of work that the NHL and the teams are doing. I hope now we are able to flip the spotlight from the jerseys to doing the true behind-the-scenes work that hopefully teams are doing.”
Beniers, Eberle and Grubauer were asked how they’ve grappled with the reactions that some in the league had to Pride Night sweaters while also finding a way to make sure Rogers feels supported.
Eberle said they cannot worry about what other organizations do, but they can control what happens with the Kraken. He said the fact Rogers feels comfortable speaking out says a lot about the environment everyone within the Kraken has tried to foster.
“Other organizations can do what they want. Guys can have their own beliefs. I think if you talked to Justin he would say the exact same thing,” Eberle said. “We believe in what we do here, and we try to include everyone and make everyone feel comfortable with us so they can come to work and we can be successful. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Ohtani struck out four straight times at the plate, the final time in the seventh with no outs and two runners on against Matt Strahm.
No worries, at least for the reigning World Series champions.
Following a Mookie Betts popout, Hernandez, who hit two homers in the wild card round, silenced a roaring Phillies crowd with an opposite-field drive to right off Strahm for a 5-3 lead. The veteran slugger gestured in wild celebration in his trot around the bases.
His hat off, Ohtani rose from his dugout seat to join in the fun, and exhale once he was on track for the win.
A three-time MVP, Ohtani recovered from a three-run second in his first career playoff pitching start to shut down the Phillies and finish with nine strikeouts over six innings.
Alex Vesia retired pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa with the bases loaded in the eighth to preserve the lead. Roki Sasaki worked the ninth for his first career save.
Ohtani had admitted to nerves about playing in front of a crowd that voraciously tried to live up to its four hours of hell moniker — he was jeered as he stepped on the field during warmups — and he never found his footing at the plate.
Ohtani walked in the ninth.
Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez struck out Ohtani three times, included a called strike three in the fifth inning that sent a towel-waving crowd into delirium.
Sanchez was even fired up on that one, and punched his fist in the air as he left the mound.
The Oh-4 became but a mere footnote — though Ohtani is the first player to strike out four times as a batter and strike out nine batters as a pitcher in the same postseason game — in an exhilarating comeback for a Dodgers team riding high after thumping the Reds in two games in the Wild Card Series.
Game 2 is Monday in Philadelphia.
Sanchez was thrust into the ace role when Zack Wheeler was ruled out for the season in August with complications from a blood clot. Wheeler was in full uniform and received a roaring ovation in the pregame introductions.
Sanchez pitched early like a No. 1 starter. He fanned Ohtani on three pitches to start the game and breezed through five scoreless innings.
Kike Hernandez chased Sanchez in the sixth when he ripped a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line that made it 3-2. David Robertson retired pinch-hitter Max Muncy to end the threat.
Robertson, the 40-year-old late-season pickup, allowed a single and hit Will Smith with a pitch to open the seventh before yielding to Strahm.
While disaster struck late for the Phillies bullpen, Vesia saved Tyler Glasnow in the eighth. Glasnow, pitching out of the bullpen in a short series, loaded the bases before he got the hook. Vesia got Sosa, who hit three home runs in a game last month, to fly out to center field.
The Phillies had only two hits after they scored three times in the third on J.T. Realmuto‘s two-run triple and Harrison Bader‘s sacrifice fly.
Jesus Luzardo will start for the Phillies on Monday in Game 2. Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA with a career-high 216 strikeouts in his first season with the Phillies after he was acquired from the Miami Marlins in an offseason trade. The Dodgers already had announced that two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell was expected to start Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bump in Game 3.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s playoff career before Saturday was not befitting a $500 million franchise cornerstone. The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman managed just three hits in 25 plate appearances and didn’t hit a ball over the fence across six games. More important, the six games, split into two-game slices over three postseasons, were all Blue Jays losses.
That all flipped in a 10-1 win over the Yankees, the franchise he has long openly despised, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.
Starring in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd hungry for playoff baseball, Guerrero delivered an all-around clinic in the Blue Jays’ first playoff win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series with a diving catch and three hits to fuel an offensive explosion.
“He’s the face of our franchise and a big reason why we go, a big part of why we’re here,” Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman said. “So it’s been nice to see him have the night that he had.”
At the plate, Guerrero swatted his first career postseason home run and finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored to fuel an offense that pounded 14 hits, including three home runs and three doubles. Defensively, his diving catch of Ryan McMahon‘s lineout at first base — while a bat shard whizzed by him — initiated an inning-ending double play in the second.
Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk complemented Guerrero’s effort with his first two career postseason home runs. Right fielder Nathan Lukes contributed two hits, including a two-run double, with three RBIs and a diving catch down the right-field line. Shortstop Andres Gimenez went 2-for-4 as the Blue Jays chased Luis Gil after 2⅔ innings and forced the Yankees to use six pitchers.
“I think having him get the scoring going, the double play at first with McMahon, it’s nice,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Guerrero. “It gives you a little bit of a jolt because it’s Vlad and what he means to this team.”
Guerrero did not waste time in providing that energy, swatting a 90 mph changeup from Gil in the first inning to give the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. He added singles in the second and eighth innings and a sacrifice fly in the Blue Jays’ game-busting four-run seventh, igniting the sellout crowd on a gorgeous day in Ontario with the building’s roof open.
That it happened against the Yankees was fitting. Guerrero’s dislike of the Yankees, he has said, dates back to two incidents over two decades ago: the Yankees pulling a contract offer for his father, a Hall of Fame outfielder, in 2003 and Yankee Stadium security telling his father to take him off the field when he was a boy.
“For me, I bring the same energy every game regardless who I’m playing, especially now in the playoffs,” Guerrero said. “That’s all I’ve got on my mind is to go out there and play hard.”
Whatever his motivation, the five-time All-Star has enjoyed facing the Yankees during his seven-year career. Entering Saturday’s matchup — the first ever between the two clubs in the postseason — Guerrero was batting .302 with 22 home runs and an 0.918 OPS in 102 career games opposite the Yankees.
He improved those gaudy numbers Saturday, adding another highlight reel to a year that began with him committing to Toronto with a 14-year, $500 million contract extension in April and that he hopes ends with the franchise’s first championship since 1993 later this month.
“For me, my goal always is to win a World Series, to bring the World Series here,” Guerrero said. “My father, he never had the chance to win a World Series. That’s one of my goals, always been one of my goals, to do that for me, for him.”