Pujols’ Strike Out Slavery movement grows, but it’s not done yet

Deidre Pujols’ husband has hit 632 home runs, more than all but five players in baseball history, but she is the force of power in their mission to end what they term modern slavery.

Their Strike Out Slavery effort debuted in 2017 at an Angels game where education and awareness about human trafficking were combined with a postgame concert by Nick Jonas. Angel Stadium will play host to its second Strike Out Slavery Day on Sept. 15 when the Angels play the Seattle Mariners, and Jonas again will perform after the game.

They also have expanded to include the Washington Nationals, whose inaugural event is scheduled for Aug. 23 – complete with a Jonas appearance and Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg serving as an ambassador.

“I chose Washington, D.C., because that’s where the laws are being made,” Deidre Pujols said Thursday, Aug. 9 at Angel Stadium at the official announcement of the September event.

In only their second year, Pujols and her husband, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, doubled their reach and, yes, included the ballpark closest to the nation’s lawmakers. They hope that eventually all 30 teams in Major League Baseball feature Strike Out Slavery or some other anti-trafficking effort in their stadiums.

And Deidre Pujols, who took on the cause after witnessing the scourge of trafficking during international travels in 2016, said Major League Baseball has been helpful, including providing space for them at the All-Star FanFest in Washington in July.

But the next step is tricky.

Baseball offers a family-friendly environment, and the notion of discussing how children and adults are sold into slavery – both sexual and for labor – rather than showing a lighthearted video on a jumbotron isn’t an easy one for some to embrace.

“When something’s new, people are afraid,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, the chief of staff for the Orange County District Attorney’s office and the founder of the Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit. “When Major League Baseball sees it’s safe for us to talk about it, you can talk about this in a positive way without scaring fans and without scaring (sponsor) brands, I think when they see our success and the Nationals’ success they’ll be more open to it.”

Stacy Jewell was 19 when she was forced into sex slavery until she was rescued shortly before her 21st birthday. She said it hit home with Nationals executives that she grew up, was abducted and recovered in Washington.

Jewell said it is especially powerful when teams and their fans “hear that this is happening to children and to young people in their city and that in their stadiums could be victims of human trafficking.”

Deidre Pujols plans to take her efforts to teachers to help them learn how to broach the subject of trafficking with their students in age-appropriate ways that could help protect them. That goes along with the heart of her approach that education and awareness can help prevent the horrors victims experience, and that should convince other groups to join the cause.

“It’s a complex issue,” she said. “It happens in so many different types of ways, both labor and sex trafficking. The statistics are staggering. But for me, I just felt prevention is much easier and cheaper than trying to rehabilitate people who are going through the trauma of human trafficking.”