SEATTLE -- With a Major League-high 10 African-American players on their 40-man roster, the Mariners have an opportunity to present a strong voice in the growing national conversation about the battle against racism.

And that voice is being heard today, as the "Black Voices in Baseball Virtual Panel" with four of Seattle’s players and broadcaster Dave Sims debuts on mariners.com and the Mariners YouTube channel -- an open talk about their experiences in baseball and life.

• Major League Baseball celebrates Juneteenth

The hour-long program arrives as we celebrate Juneteenth, the annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War had ended and all enslaved people were free.

• Roundtable: Being Black in Baseball and America

Infielders Dee Gordon, J.P. Crawford and Shed Long Jr., and outfielder Kyle Lewis participate in the panel, which is moderated by Sims, one of only two African-American play-by-play broadcasters in MLB.

It’s not an easy topic to broach, but the players understand it’s a discussion that needs to be had after years of silence.

“We’re scared to say this. We’re nervous,” Gordon said in a press release issued by the Mariners on Wednesday promoting the discussion. “The reason we’re nervous is we’ve been told our whole life and our whole careers to don’t say anything. Don’t ruffle any feathers. Don’t pretty much stand up for yourself as a man and for your family’s name.”

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Many African-Americans find themselves as one of the few -- or only -- Black players on a team coming up in baseball. These current Mariners don’t take their situation for granted, as no other MLB team has more than seven African-Americans on their 40-man roster and 14 have two or less.

“I’m proud to be a part of this,” Crawford said. “I’m proud to be playing alongside each and every one of my teammates right now. Coming up we were one of the two brothers on the team, if that, so being a part of this has been something special.”

But all four acknowledge it hasn’t always been that way in their development. Lewis talks about being the target of a racist act during one Minor League season after being selected in the first round of the 2016 Draft.

“There's a ball in my locker that says, ‘Learn to swim.’ Nobody said anything,” recalled Lewis. “Everybody was sitting around tight-lipped. I wasn’t really getting a lot of support from my teammates, as if none of them supposedly knew what happened and somehow nobody had any idea.

“The only people that would have had access that deep into the locker room would have been probably a teammate. That stung pretty good.”

The hope is that more people are listening now in the wake of national protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and better racial awareness sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. They’re grateful for the support of Mariners teammates and others, but vow to push forward regardless.

“If you want to stand with us, then stand,” said Long. “But we fought for so long we know how to fight it. So we’re going to fight and stand up for ourselves, regardless whether you stand with us or not.”

The hope, of course, is that the current national discussion leads to long-term improvements and reforms.

“If we’re the grownups that change the world? It will be like Jackie Robinson and what he did all over again,” said Gordon. “I think it’s time for that.”