MILWAUKEE -- David Stearns has been doing a lot of thinking lately. On Wednesday, he wanted to talk.

The Brewers' president of baseball operations summoned some of the reporters who cover the team to a conference call to talk some baseball -- “I firmly believe we are going to have baseball this season,” he said -- but only after beginning the discussion with personal reflection about the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and the demonstrations that have swept the nation as a result.

On Tuesday, the Brewers released a statement saying they were collectively “saddened,” “troubled” and “heartbroken” and committed to working with community leaders to address racial injustice. Stearns said he believed it was important for the organization to go on record about that. He also said he believes the problem requires more than brief, written statements.

“Words matter a lot less than action,” Stearns said, “and a lot less than behavior. We are also committed to taking every action we can to fight racism and to fight the silence that can surround it.”

Stearns’ words were powerful and personal.

“It feels like an inflection point in our country. Hopefully, that comes with progress,” he said. “I’ve thought a lot about growing up in New York City and being in middle school and watching on the news the aftermath of an unarmed black man named Amadou Diallo getting shot 41 times while sitting on the front steps of his apartment building in the Bronx. I remember the city having tremendous unrest. I remember thinking at that time how it didn’t make any sense, and, frankly, I remember thinking at that time that the adults in the room should be able to prevent that level of wrong.

“In some way, I did not ever imagine that when the generation I belonged to were adults, that it could still happen. I just assumed we would do better.

“So, now, here we are. I’m an adult, and my generation are the adults in the room, and it still happened. On so many levels, it’s just incredibly deflating and dispiriting. What that means to me and, hopefully, my generation as a whole is that we have to do better. Somewhere here, we dropped the ball, that 20-something years later, this is still happening.

“My generation has to do better. I, personally, have to do better. One of the ways I can start doing better is by talking about it and not running away from the issue.”

At the same time Stearns was sharing his thoughts, one of his baseball operations deputies was acting on them -- quietly and on his own.

August Fagerstrom, the Brewers' coordinator of player development initiatives, pledged to friends on Instagram that he would match up to $500 in donations to nonprofits fighting systemic racism and police brutality. The first to take him up on the challenge was another Brewers baseball ops staffer, Andy Acosta Gomez, a senior systems developer for the team. Others followed, including some baseball writers and front office officials from other MLB teams.

By day’s end, Fagerstrom made so many donations that he busted his budget and temporarily froze his bank account. He raised more than $1,200 for at least 13 different organizations.

So, can a baseball team make a difference?

Stearns believes the answer is yes.

“I also want to share how hopeful I am that as an industry, as a social institution, that we really can in some small way be a part of the healing process here,” Stearns said. “We talk about that in the context of the pandemic, and here is yet another example of where our institution can be of such great service to our community and to communities throughout the country.

“From my perspective, despite what it sounds like with some of the Twitter bickering back and forth, or some of the posturing back and forth, I am optimistic that we are going to play baseball this year. I am optimistic that both sides genuinely want to play baseball this year and that there is a path to doing so. …

“I am also really hopeful that in some small way, not only can we as an industry help push some of these issues to the forefront, help continue this conversation and take appropriate action, but also help with some healing and provide a unifying force for a society that could use a whole lot of unification right now.”