MLB players to honor Florida shooting victims during spring training

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Major League Baseball players will honor victims of last week’s shooting in Florida by wearing Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hats at spring training games this week.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday all 30 teams will wear the school hats during pregame warmups for their exhibition openers. Players, managers, coaches and umpires will have the option of wearing the caps during those first games. The hats might later be signed and auctioned to support those affected by the tragedy at the high school.

Manfred said MLB received a “really strong sentiment of the clubs it was the appropriate thing to do immediately.”

Exhibition games between big league teams begin Friday, including Astros-Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Cardinals-Marlins in nearby Jupiter. Both games will be held in the area where 17 students and faculty were killed last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

A 19-year-old former student has been charged in the shooting.