CHICAGO -- Rangers manager Jeff Banister grew up playing high school baseball in La Marque, Texas, just 10 miles outside of Santa Fe, where nine students and one teacher were killed in a school shooting Friday morning.
At the end of his pregame meeting with reporters before Friday's game against the White Sox, Banister became emotional about the shooting, which he called "gut-wrenching."
Banister spoke on the incident without being asked by reporters.
"If we're not paying attention to what's happening at Santa Fe today -- and not just Santa Fe, but since January 1, I believe this is the 21st, 22nd time this has happened -- especially for me, as close as that is to where I grew up, and the number of people I know who have kids that go to school there and coaches and teachers there, it's gut-wrenching," Banister said.
"And if we're not paying attention to it and doing our own part to find a way to eliminate that that is going on, shame on us -- every one of us in this room. It's not a lawmaker issue, it's not a situation where our voted officials, it comes down to us -- our own communities, our own children and how we communicate with each other and the civility that we have with each other to help the people who are hurting in these types of situations, and if we don't and if we bury our heads and two weeks from now, we're still not paying attention and understand that Santa Fe isn't just another statistical place, shame on us."