Unlike the Devil, The MLB All-Star Game Won’t Go Down To Georgia
Welp…that escalated quickly, as Major League Baseball announced the scheduled 2021 All-Star Game would be moved out of Atlanta due to the new Georgia Voting laws.
Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, a high-profile sporting event that had been scheduled for Truist Park in July, will be moved out of Georgia.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the decision Friday in response to the state’s new voting law.
“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating (the event),” Manfred said. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
The push to move the game had gathered gathered momentum after several large corporations condemned the voting law and President Joe Biden said he would “strongly support” relocating the event.
Manfred’s announcement ends several years of planning by the Braves to host the All-Star game and related activities. The Braves said Friday they were “deeply disappointed” by MLB’s action.
“This was neither our decision nor our recommendation, and we are saddened that fans will not be able to see this event in our city,” the Braves said in a statement. “The Braves organization will continue to stress the importance of equal voting opportunities, and we had hoped our city could use this event as a platform to enhance the discussion. Our city has always been known as a uniter in divided times, and we will miss the opportunity to address issues that are important to our community. Unfortunately, businesses, employees and fans in Georgia are the victims of this decision.”
MLB is now “finalizing a new host city” for the game and will announce details “shortly,” Manfred said.
“We will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron during this season’s All-Star festivities,” Manfred said in a statement. “In addition, MLB’s planned investments to support local communities in Atlanta as part of our All-Star Legacy Projects will move forward.”
He said that over the past week MLB officials have had “thoughtful conversations” with teams, current and former players, the MLB Players Association, the Players Alliance and others about moving the game.
The All-Star game was to have capped a several-days-long series of events in and around Truist Park. In addition to the game matching National League stars vs. American League stars on July 13, All-Star events were scheduled to include the Futures game featuring top prospects, the Home Run Derby and a baseball fan festival called Play Ball Park.
MLB’s amateur draft also had been scheduled for July 11-13 in Atlanta. That, too, will be moved elsewhere, Manfred said.
You can read the Georgia Voting Law in question for yourself here.
Alleged defenders of the free market start complaining about cancel culture in…..Report
Nope, I’m cool with this.Report
Does this count?
“In a statement, former President Donald Trump blasted the move and urged his supporters to “boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections.””
So now a private company making a business decision partially informed by their personal beliefs is election interference.
Viva la free market! Viva capitalism!Report
As a Trump-hating non Republican, I see this as another dangerous destruction of our political norms.
Republicans pass a bill. Those on the left spin it as racist. Private businesses refuse to do business to avoid being seen as condoning racism.
Since just about anything can be spun as having adverse impact on some group somewhere, this is neutralizing the ability of the Republican Party to govern. This will either lead to the emasculation of the party (obviously the intended effect), and/or to non political solutions/responses (possibly of the violent kind).
The only reasonable response of the Republican Party is to unite immediately around a temporary and dramatic boycott of baseball. They already should have boycotted the social media companies for their bias.
I have no idea whether they will do these things. But if they don’t, they won’t be around much longer. And I am not sure that is a good thing, even for the hard left, as they will be replaced with something and it may not be better.
Hopefully this is just my imagination running wild. I fear though that it isn’t.Report
I disagree with your base assessment. I don’t think most people would have even noticed where the ASG was this year. Where was it in 2019? 2018? 2017?
I think this was due to people inside the game — namely players — who agitated for a move.
Dems weren’t threatening to boycott baseball because of the ASG being in Atlanta. So the game not being in Atlanta — and it’s not in Atlanta most years — doesn’t justify a Republican boycott.
This was more akin to employees threatening a strike and management capitulating. This was an internal matter. This had nothing to do with Democrats.
ETA:
“ The Players Alliance, consisting of more than 100 current and former players who have united in an effort to empower Black communities, came out in support of MLB’s decision with a statement that read in part: “We want to make our voice heard loud and clear in our opposition of the recent Georgia legislation that not only disproportionately disenfranchises the Black community, but also paves the way for other states to pass similarly harmful laws based largely on widespread falsehoods and disinformation.””Report
I am not sure why it matters whether the league was the driving force or the players. The net result is that Republican governance is being deemed unacceptable.Report
Well, sure. Isn’t that politics? Do something unpopular and people will respond. But your argument was that Dems whipped this into a racism thing and MLB acted out of fear of being labeled racist. But nothing really supports that position. MLB acted because members of MLB didn’t want to play the game in GA.Report
Umm, why exactly did the players not want to play in Georgia? The heat? They hate states that start with “G”?Report
For someone who writes smartly, you’re acting pretty dense.
The players were bothered by the law. Do you think that’s only possible due to The Left doing… something?
This didn’t happen because the left spun the bill as racist. The players themselves had major issues with the bill, as do many others, without any spin necessary.Report
Let me try to be clear.
I do not believe the players are making a stance against election reform. Do you?
There is a narrative out there spinning election reform in Georgia (and just about everything the GOP does anywhere) as racist. This gives players the incentive to take the anti-racist mantra and penalize that state and thus make a statement against the Georgia GOP. This then gives the MLB the cover to support this action. This effectively aligns MLB against the GOP.
My point is that the left is using this racist spin on everything the GOP does. Heck, I bet most of the leftward members on this site actually believe the GOP IS racist. They are believing their own spin.
Border control — racist
Resist COVID shutdowns — racist (disparate impact)
Election reform — racist
Oppose min wage — racist
Oppose tax increases — racist
Oppose reductions in law enforcement — racist
Oppose nightly rioting and looting in cities — racist
School choice — racist
Oppose reparations — racist
Oppose affirmative action — racist
Oppose censorship in social media — racist
My point is that the GOP cannot continue to govern without striking back against this tactic. For the record, I do NOT see the GOP as fundamentally or essentially racist, and I do not in any way believe that they would change their stance on any of the above positions if the world was racism free.
And as I mentioned at the start, I think the GOP is a terrible party, indeed I believe they are in a close tie for the worst political party in America. But I do not see racism as central to their positions, and none of the Republicans I know are more racist than the Democrats I know.
Feel free to disagree, respectfully if possible.Report
“I do not believe the players are making a stance against election reform. Do you?“
I do. You think they’re lying. Why?
You cast aspersions on the left for attaching motives to GOP actions you claim are not present and then do the same thing to the players.
Did MLB or the Players Alliance mention race/racism anywhere?Report
I oppose the GA laws.
Do I think they’re motivated by racism? Do I think they’re motivated by a hatred of Black folks? No and no.
I think the GOP increasingly sees their politics as losing popular support. So the easiest path to maintaining power is limiting the ability of those who oppose them to act in opposition. A quick and dirty way to do so is limit voting access among demographics that are less likely to favor them. This includes POCs, urban areas, young people, etc. And the GA laws target many of those groups. The GA laws are an attack on democracy that wages many of its battle lines along racial and class lines.
So… are you going to tell me I oppose them because the left spun up racism charges?Report
To your other point, the idea that the Republican Party is being hamstrung in their ability to govern by private orgs making business decisions is, frankly, laughable.Report
We need more laughter nowadays.
Obviously we see things very differently. I see us on the verge of a Republican explosion as they lose control of the narrative taught in schools, as they get discriminated against in college acceptance and aid, and as they get frozen out of most media and universities. They are also getting locked out of social media, in what appears to them as a coordinated attack. They are also getting cancelled or fired or not hired for merely stating their views on sensitive topics (BLM, gays, trans, women in stem, etc).
I believe they now see the election system as rigged, and their responses (legitimate or not) are now met with corporations refusing to operate in some capacity in that state.
I get that the leftists on this site don’t see this as a problem. Fair enough. But even though I detest the GOP, I know many of these people, and they are starting to boil.
Like I said though, I hope you are right.Report
Well, Republicans can fear whatever imaginary bogeymen they want. They’re still imaginary. And they’re still wrong to set traps under their beds.Report
The first full paragraph was not a list of imaginary things.Report
Sure.
And my kid’s nightmares are real because they feel scary and he watches “Super Monsters.”Report
This article attempts to quantify these fears.
https://quillette.com/2021/03/12/the-threat-to-academic-freedom-from-anecdotes-to-data/Report
Yep… and my 6-year-old can point to a very ominous looking shadow that is definitely NOT cast by his dragon stuffie.
So conservative ideas are being oppressed large scale and therefore however they respond is justified. Coolbeans.Report
Thanks for the conversation.Report
I don’t think I follow this line of reasoning. So only Democratic party members and liberals have agency?Report
Not following. How does any of this relate to lack of agency?Report
The GOP in GA passes a law, in the wake of a narrow federal election loss, which would unambiguously give GOP controlled organs express control of future election decisions, ambiguously takes multiple acts to inconvenience, discourage and depress voting by constituencies that are more reliably Democratic and includes a toothless unfinanced mandate to maybe try and make voting easier in dense urban areas.
Is this not a dangerous eroding of the norms of neutral fair elections? Should we be worried that liberals and Democrats may resort to non-political violence in the face of the erection of these obstacles? No, because liberals and Democrats have agency and are expected to respond, somehow, constructively to these violations.
The Democrats and Liberals in GA respond with speech and denunciations, some private companies attempt to respond to this sentiment to earn praise or insulate themselves from condemnation. Yet these political and non-violent civil responses are denounced as norm breaking and that conservatives are being pushed to their limit and the poor dears will transform into a nonpolitical violent movement and who can blame them?
It seems to me, as best I can tell, that you feel conservatives have no agency and that liberals are responsible not only for their own actions but also for the actions of conservatives.Report
Try reading what I actually wrote.Report
I did, and your reasoning doesn’t parse.Report
I believe they now see the election system as rigged, and their responses (legitimate or not) are now met with corporations refusing to operate in some capacity in that state.
Seems like the legitimacy of their beliefs matters quite a bit here. What do we, as a society, do about people who believe 2+2=5? Back in the great old days, clear-eyed above-the-fray libertarian types advocated public shaming as a response. Now they oppose it because it’s a form of “canceling”. Back then they advocated “voting with your pocketbook” as a non-coercive remedy to social problems, but now they view it as totalitarianism.
But even though I detest the GOP, I know many of these people, and they are starting to boil.
This sentence makes no sense to me. If you detest the GOP, you should be actively *opposing* their current political agenda rather than trying to appease them.Report
You can’t reason a person out of a place they didn’t reason themselves into.
These aren’t people who, in good faith, read something that tells them that the election was stolen, or that Sharia Law has created “No Go” zones in our major cities or that Christians are suffering persecution.
They do believe that they and their culture is the only legitimate holders of power and authority, and when that is stripped away, they choose whatever story they need to tell each other so as to be the victims of a dark and wicked world.
We notice all the apparent hypocrisy of flipping from embracing free markets to embrace of government control, or demands for conformance to moral codes to insistence on moral relativism.
But the straight line that connects all these things is “Whatever provides white male Christians with power”.
They have created a Flight 93 world for themselves, where they are locked in an existential battle. They tell us that repeatedly.
So long as they believe that, there isn’t anything we can do. We can’t play Jesus to the demons in their head.Report
You say this about them. They say something different but similarly dismissive and ugly about your party.
My take on it is that half the country is not mostly wrong and the other half mostly right. Instead both parties are blinded by irrational tribalism and out-group bias.Report
Public Shaming? Good!
Calling up somebody’s employer and trying to get them fired? Bad!
I don’t think that anybody is arguing that people shouldn’t be able to *COMPLAIN* about someone. No, not even the crazies! This is a for real “nobody is arguing” situation.Report
I am completely in agreement with the those who believe that conservative — no, non leftist — views are being silenced and/or used to refuse admission to those companies and professions which have been or are in the process of being dominated by the far left. This includes universities, most national media, social media companies, etc.
I believe that this is dangerous if uncorrected. Either the GOP finds a way to address this politically, or the GOP is replaced with a new party which can address it politically, or it is addressed using violence. And I think violence is a terrible option.
And I detest both parties. I just fear that one is being neutered in such a way that it will have to respond non politically, which again could get real ugly.
This has been a common concern of mine since last summer. I think the political situation is getting explosive and dangerous. I said from day one that the BLM framing would likely lead to violence and increased crime and murder rates. I said that the election rhetoric was promoting violence. I have been saying that the cancel culture and framing everything into racial tribalism risks leading to violence.
My closest analogy to what I see occurring is the war of religions of the 16th and 17th centuries. The difference this time though is that those not of the far left have no new continents to sail off to.Report
I believe they now see the election system as rigged…
The last couple of weeks have been entertaining. I particularly liked Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) going on Fox News and badmouthing some of HR1’s election rule changes. Of his five talking points, two have been implemented by Utah Republicans (vote by mail, restoring felons’ voting rights) and they’re within spitting distance of a third (automatic registration). Many Arizona state-level Republicans are now opposing the very largely vote by mail system previously installed by… Arizona Republicans. In polls, 75% of Colorado’s Republican registered voters approve of the vote by mail system.Report
And your point is what? That they are idiots? Inconsistent? That it really is all about racism?
To be clear, I am in no way arguing for or against any particular election reform. I am arguing that election reform is a legitimate political issue. Granted, shouting “racism” at everything the other party does is legitimate too, and oddly effective when the media supports it.
It is how the GOP responds to this mantra that worries me. I hope they respond politically and effectively as failure to do so will not lead to a better world IMO. It will lead to more polarization and/or an even uglier party of the right. This time, one that really is racist.Report
I’ve been telling western state Republicans for more than 20 years, “The Republican National Party, dominated as it is by Southern and Midwestern interests, is not your friend. They will eventually force you to choose between them and your voters.” I find it amusing that they think Mitch McConnell will save them when the voters turn on them, as has happened in California, Colorado, Nevada, and increasingly in Arizona.Report
They “see”.
They “feel”.
They “believe”.Report
“Social constructs”Report
Is this implying an argument? IOW, what is your point? That they are wrong? Or that beliefs and feelings don’t matter?Report
When you find yourself to the left of Stacy Abrams, maybe reconsider. This virtue signaling wont’ change anything. If MLB wants to do some positive, fund more voting centers or something.Report
The MLB wants to do something that’s directly good for the MLB. Funding voting centers wouldn’t accomplish that. heading Off a rumored player revolt by relocating potentially is, though it depends on how long and how lastingly this torcs off Republicans.Report
Even if MLB wanted to pay for voting centers, the law forbids election officials using outside funds.Report
Stacy Abrams might be in the right here. A major event or company or org deciding to take its money elsewhere does send a message. The Georgia GOP did this in the most ham-fisted manner possible.Report
Its not virtue signaling if, as I have read, it was the corporate sponsors behind the move. Which I can see, I would believe few if any of them would want the incoming PR headache.Report
I suspect this will be a controversial decision.Report
I am reminded, from some years back, when the Arizona Republicans — much more dominant in the state than they are today — decided to take on the corporations and pro sports leagues over Martin Luther King Day. It didn’t work out well for the Republicans.Report
Lost a Super Bowl, I do believe.Report
The have a knack for being indefensible, and usually for the same reason.Report
Here is the only thing that I am wondering:
On a moral level, of course, the MLB is doing the right thing. Of course.
I don’t find that to be the interesting question. The question that I’m wondering about is the financial one.
The global pandemic hit sporting events hard last year. Pretty much all of them. Attendance numbers for last year pretty much need an asterisk because you shouldn’t compare 2020 to anything. It’s apples and oranges. Hell, 2021 as well. You gotta wear masks, you gotta social distance, you gotta get vaccinated, you gotta get to the other side of this.
The only question I have is about the 2022 numbers and whether they’ll be in the ballpark of 2019. If we already know that they won’t be (perhaps to the point where it’s unfair to ask if they will be), then I’d like to know what a fair estimate of the numbers will be.
On one level, I can think of a dozen of arguments for why people will be champing the bit to just go out and do *SOMETHING*. A ball game? Heck yeah! Get a hot dog, drink a beer, watch the Cubbies lose. It’s just nice to go out and sit in the sunshine. I’ve missed this.
I can think of a dozen arguments for why the numbers won’t change much. Hey, you lose some fans over there, you pick up some fans over here. Be sure to show up on Sunday for Towel Day! First 250 fans get a free towel courtesy of Betsie Ray Buick! When better automobiles are built, Buick will build them!
I can think of a dozen arguments for why the numbers will go down. Hey, going to these things is a habit. After a year and a half of not doing it, a bunch of people will fall out of the habit.
The main thing I’d be curious about is if the prediction will be that the numbers go up and the numbers don’t…
Or if the prediction is that the numbers go down and the numbers don’t…
Or if the prediction is that the numbers stay the same and the numbers don’t…
Will it have anything to do with this?
If the consensus is that it won’t have anything to do with this, then it wasn’t a mistake (financially, anyway… we’ve already hammered out that, morally, it’s the right thing to do).
If the consensus is that it’s one of the factors in the prediction being off by a significant percent, then, if the numbers goes up, it’s good! If the numbers go down, it’s the moral thing to have done and just keep on keeping on, I guess.Report
Overall attendance has been declining since 2012.
Keep an eye on Texas. The Rangers are opening at 100% capacity. A quick check appears to show tickets available for their home opener on Monday. Is that normal for them? I have no idea. But I’d watch how closely their numbers track to their pre-2020 trends. And I’d watch how close other ballparks get to their capacity limits. And I’d REALLY watch the second-hand ticket market. Are prices their up? Down? Below face value? That’ll tell us demand.Report
I mean, hey, maybe they’re saying “look, numbers are going down… we have got to try something to appeal to new fans… Maybe we could try tackling racism?”
Something like this could easily appeal to new fans!
And here’s the worst part, we wouldn’t really have any way of knowing due to the bundling issue of People Who Care Deeply About Racism overlapping so thoroughly with People Who Care Deeply About Social Distancing.
We won’t even know until 2022 if this was a good or bad idea (financially, I mean) or what until the first season where we’re allowed to just sit in the stands without wearing a mask.Report
A quick check appears to show tickets available for their home opener on Monday.
It has long been known that MLB ticket revenue is maximized by setting prices high enough that about 25% of the ballpark’s seats are empty for any given game prior to the playoffs. Real-time pricing has made this only somewhat less true. Some of those available tickets will have lower prices the morning or hour before the game.Report
Interesting. My interest in baseball has been waning. Last I recall, the Sawx had an insane sellout streak snapped. But they have a tiny ballpark and rabid fanbase and were super successful for a while. I didn’t know how it worked elsewhere.Report
My perception is attendance is based on local conditions with recent team performance being a major factor. My guess is that averages are really misleading and the reality is more bifurcated, with some teams selling out Tuesday interleague games and others struggling for a full stadium for a Sunday afternoon game against a division rival.Report
Complicate it with an MLB sellout means all tickets were sold or given away. Depending on the weather or who the visiting team is, the number of people through the turnstiles may be quite a bit smaller.Report
The WWE used to have a definition of “sell out” that meant “two people who wanted to buy tickets for seats next to each other wouldn’t be able to.”
So, in theory, that meant that every other seat could be empty in the arena and it’d still qualify as “sold out” because, hey, a couple wouldn’t be able to sit together.
I do not know if this shenanigan exists outside of the WWE, but it wouldn’t surprise me.Report
A decade or two ago, the NL used to report he number of people in the stands as attendance, where the AL reported tickets sold (or perhaps distributed.) The NL got tired of having lower attendance figures, so they switched over.Report
I stand corrected! I assumed attendance figures were reasonably reliable.Report
I remember watching part of a meaningless late-season Rockies game on TV some years back. It was a cold, damp, miserable night. In the middle of a long slow pan across the seats of an essentially empty ballpark, the announcer said in his best Bob Uecker optimistic voice, “Official attendance tonight is 26,437.”Report
I had the same experience with the Nationals back when they were playing at RFK. I tried to get outfield tickets but they were sold out online. When we got to the park, those seats were stone empty.Report
“ The paid attendance at Monday’s game was 38,238, a figure which Rangers spokesperson John Blake described as a sellout. The stadium’s overall capacity is 40,518, according to Blake.”
Raised eyebrow emoji.Report
If they want to honor Hank Aaron, move it to Milwaukee.Report
It didn’t escalate quickly, though. I wish it would. Instead of this sniping, I wish that each sports league or association would put forward its list of political demands, then each jurisdiction could make its own decision.Report
And the GOP could announce its intended level of election-related malfeasance. Then a neutral arbitrator would be appointed to resolve any disputes.Report
I’m not intending to be rude by not replying. I should let you know that I’ve had you under the “ignore” X for a while. It’s not intended as an insult, and there are definitely people I disagree with more, but in all these years I don’t think that we’ve ever had an exchange that went anywhere.Report
Maybe it’s a business decision?Report
Did the MLB demand anything?Report
Early leak is that the game will now be at Coors Field in Denver.Report
And GOP governments are taking action against MLB and other companies that disagree with them.
Texas Governor has said he won’t throw out the first pitch as planned at an upcoming Rangers game and I saw that Georgia was considering removing a fuel subsidy that Delta benefitted from after their leadership criticized the law.
Now, maybe that is all well within their respective powers (I’d say the Texas Governor can do whatever the heck he wants with his free time and doesn’t owe anyone a first pitch or anything of the sort but I’m much less clear on the situation with Delta) but let’s not pretend that this is normal governance OR that the GOP was forced into either action.
These are elected officials looking to use their governmental powers to punish private actors who disagree with their politics. But I’m sure it’s the Democrats fault somehow.Report
There’s a modest Twitter-storm going on with the claim that Colorado’s voting laws are tougher than Georgia’s new ones. That’s possibly true for in-person voting — which, in Colorado, handles the <5% edge cases, principally people doing late registration. For the >95% who vote the normal Colorado way, there’s no ID requirement, no standing in line, none of that. That >95% gets their ballot in the mail and returns it either by mail or using one of the hundreds of drop boxes.Report
That’s really interesting. I read a 538 article that said the popular opinion on various voter regulations really varies, from a slight majority in favor of things like photo IDs* to a strong majority opposed to the GA law that prohibits giving food or water to folks waiting in line. So the question of, “Do people support these voting laws?” is more complicated than it may seem at first glance.
* From what they reported, this was a general question about photo IDs and did not ask about the specific regulations GA enacted or any other state, which vary widely in the types of IDs accepted and how easy they are to get.Report
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-many-voting-restrictions-but-not-voter-id-laws/
Here is the article. Apologies if my memory failed in trying to describe it but I think I got the gist of it correct.Report
I suspect that if a poll were conducted in Colorado, a large majority would agree with the statement, “Anyone who wants to vote should be required to show some minimal identification at least once.” I assume that there are some people so disconnected from the system, and have been for so long, that they don’t have any of the long list of acceptable IDs.
The biggest single problem is that everyone has to specify an address. Not just for delivery of mail ballots, either. There are so many different overlapping city, county, and district boundaries that an address is the only way to determine which of the many ballot types a particular voter should get.Report