MLB Needs to Move the All-Star Game Back to Atlanta
This is not about politics. It is about the 2021 MLB All-Star Game which should absolutely be returned to Atlanta, where they planned to honor Hank Aaron in his adopted hometown of Atlanta. I know many of you want me to ignore what MLB did to Atlanta in moving the All-Star Game, but MLB is the one who made that racist decision. How is it a racist decision? It is
This is not about politics. It is about the 2021 MLB All-Star Game which should absolutely be returned to Atlanta, where they planned to honor Hank Aaron in his “adopted hometown” of Atlanta.
I know many of you want me to ignore what MLB did to Atlanta in moving the All-Star Game, but MLB is the one who made that racist decision. How is it a racist decision? It is my opinion that if you call someone racist or label something racist, which is not, then you are some type of racist yourself. You have a choice here: You can continue on or stop reading, but Eli Steele, who is a Black, blind Jewish filmmaker, recently wrote a piece for the New York Post entitled: Victimization vs. honor in Atlanta: Culture clash in voter-law furor. I am printing the Article in its entirety.
You can read it or not, but to ignore it is to let injustice and lies stand and I cannot in all good conscience do that. MLB and it’s President, Rob Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta based upon falsehoods spewed by Stacy Abrams, Park Cannon, and President Joe Biden, who called it “Jim Crow on steroids.” It doesn’t matter how many times it’s repeated by Biden, Abrams, or the media and TV journalists. IT’S STILL A BIG FAT LIE!
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred will regret his decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to Georgia’s new election laws. He’s dropped baseball into a red-hot controversy, based on imaginary facts and flawed assertions. I’ll put it another way, Mr. Manfred doesn’t know what he’s talking about!
Now, MLB can have their All-Star Game anywhere they choose but don’t base the decision on a lie. Don’t label something racist that is not. Just man up, Rob Manfred, and say “I don’t like that the Republicans want to be able to verify each vote, so I am going to move the All-Star Game because of that.” OK, Rob Manfred, you have a right to move the All-Star Game, but you don’t have a right to lie and you don’t have a right to create divisions in our Great Country based upon lies. Baseball should unite us as it did after 9/11, but Biden, Manfred, and the Media are distorting the facts. Rob Manfred, move the All-Star Game back to Atlanta.
Without further ado, here is Eli Steele:
“One of the questions facing Americans these days is whether we live in a culture of honor or a culture of victimization. Though these two cultures share the same land and history, they could not differ more vastly in how one lives life.
To live in the culture of honor, the emphasis is always on self-mastery: Make something of yourself. This culture believes the more the individual develops oneself, the stronger of an asset the individual is to society. It is often these men and women who lead productive lives, contribute wisely and even make history.
On the other hand, to live within the culture of victimization, the individual lives in a world largely defined by horrific deeds that took place in the past. This form of existence derives its power not from individual agency but by invoking the specter of past horrors. Within this culture, the emphasis is often placed on loyalty to the group over the individual.
When I arrived in Atlanta in the middle of the ongoing voter-bill controversy, I felt a strong connection to the culture of honor that built and shaped this city. As I drove on the tree-lined freeways and streets, I saw endless tributes to civil-rights leaders, including Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. Seventy years ago in segregated Atlanta, these honors would have been unimaginable.
But these men and women had refused to accept the fate of inferiority assigned to them by whites and the local, state and federal governments. Instead, these self-made individuals lived within the culture of honor, and it was their display of unimpeachable morality that forced many racists into a reckoning with their un-American hypocrisies. These resilient people changed America.
As I thought of them, I felt a strange sense of disconnect. I came to Atlanta because the new voting bill signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had been called “Jim Crow 2.0.” One could argue that the timing of the bill was questionable, coming on the heels of one of America’s oddest elections. Nearly all of the fraud charges had been dismissed, and it was easy to see why many Georgians would be skeptical of the need to change voting rules. But were these rules worthy of the Jim Crow 2.0 label?
Growing up in a civil-rights family, I was fairly young when I learned about voter suppression during the Jim Crow era.
To this day, I have never passed the literacy tests that often required blacks to answer 30 questions correctly and under 10 minutes in order to vote. Here are two questions: “Write every other word in the first line and print every third word in the same line, but capitalize the fifth word that you write,” and, “Divide a vertical line into two equal parts by bisecting it with a curve horizontal line that is straight at the point of bisection of the vertical.” Imagine how many Americans today would be disenfranchised if they had to pass such a test.
And this was not even the worst form of voter suppression by far. On Election Day in 1920, two wealthy black landowners, July Perry and Mose Norman, tried to vote along with other black people in the small central Florida town of Ocoee. By the next morning, Perry was lynched, Norman disappeared, and all 500 blacks, except for one, were run out of Ocoee, which remained virtually all-white until the 1980s.
Perhaps that is why my strange feeling of disconnect only intensified as I listened to President Biden denounce the water restrictions, an act so pernicious that it warranted a name bigger than Jim Crow: “Jim Eagle.” I read through the bill and did not see the horrors of the past sneaking into the present. People may hand out water as long as they are 150 feet away from the polls. There will be two Sundays for “souls to the polls” voting.
To eliminate the five-hour waits to vote, the bill mandates more voting equipment and access. As for the controversial voter ID requirements, the long list of acceptable IDs includes utility bills. There were certainly some questionable items in the bill, including the removal of the secretary of state from the elections board, but nothing that resembled Jim Crow or Jim Eagle.
I then learned that Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon was giving a news conference in Liberty Park across the street from the state Capitol. Cannon had been arrested two weeks prior for refusing to stop knocking on Kemp’s door as he signed the voting bill.
I wanted to hear from Cannon what exactly was Jim Crow 2.0 about the new bill. Instead, Cannon spent the next 10 minutes describing her arrest and the bill with provocative terms: “nooses around our necks,” “lynchings,” “apartheid,” “good ole boys,” “racists” and on.
It was not until several hours later that I realized Cannon was speaking to us from within the culture of victimization. If this bill was indeed Jim Crow 2.0, then would it not be prudent to point to the exact specifics so that the citizens of Georgia may lead a recall effort against Kemp? Instead, the use of the past Jim Crow horrors by Cannon and her counterparts, including Stacey Abrams, added to the confusion.
Amid that confusion, Major League Baseball moves the All-Star Game from majority-black Atlanta to mostly white Denver. Many have estimated this loss to be in the millions of dollars. As I spoke with Atlantans, such as Shelley Wynter of WSB Radio and Marvil Rodney of Rodney’s Jamaican Soul Food, it became clear that the wage-earners would be mostly affected. Shelley pointed out that many locals saw the All-Star Game as a way to overcome losses from the pandemic.
Marvil said in addition to that, he would have to do things like cancel a $20,000 order for meat that he had planned for that week of festivities. Both were self-made men who were looking forward to hosting Americans from all over in the city shaped by legends like Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King.
In other words, the folks who lived within the culture of honor would have to pay for the follies of those who live within the culture of victimization, as well as those who fear the power of these people. It speaks volumes to where we are as a country.
Major League Baseball’s offices are located in Manhattan and the commissioner, a native of Rome, N.Y., lives in the Empire State. Why is that relevant? Georgia has no-excuse absentee voting by mail, but New York state doesn’t. New Yorkers must be absent, ill or disabled, a primary caregiver of someone who is ill or physically disabled, or in jail awaiting grand-jury action or sentencing to get a mail-in ballot. Neighboring Connecticut has similar restrictions: Only those Nutmeg State voters who are in the military, ill, absent, disabled, have religious objections or are working at the polls can vote by mail. Where’s Mr. Manfred’s crusade to ensure that Yankees and Mets players and fans and baseball staff in New York and Connecticut have the same voting rights as Georgians?
Similarly, Georgia has a robust early-voting period, expanded by the new law to 17 days, with two optional Sundays. New York has only eight days of early voting, while neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey have none. You’d think the woke commissioner would speak out against these “restrictions to the ballot box,” but you’d be wrong.
If Mr. Manfred’s concerns were authentic, he’d condemn states such as Missouri, which has two major-league teams — the Royals and the Cardinals — but doesn’t allow no-excuse absentee voting or early voting. But he won’t.
There’s no early voting in Michigan, so you’d think he’d work to ensure every Detroit Tiger fan “participates in shaping the United States,” which he said he wants for “everyone.” But again, he won’t.
Ohio and Pennsylvania each have two pro baseball teams, yet neither state has early voting. Minnesota has the Twins and Wisconsin has the Brewers, yet no early voting. While Massachusetts allowed a no-excuse vote by mail in 2020 because of the pandemic, it expires June 30. And Red Sox fans across the border in New Hampshire must have an excuse to vote by mail and there’s no early voting. When will Mr. Manfred speak out against all this voter suppression? Or is Georgia the only state worthy of his condemnation?
MOVE THE ALL-STAR GAME BACK TO ATLANTA… DO IT NOW!
Feel free to talk baseball. I just had to make this statement. When this first happened, I was so angry that I wanted to quit, but many others convinced me that this was an important community and I agreed. My wife urged me to return and use this platform to speak out against MLB’s decision. That is exactly what I am doing. There are thousands of Dodger fans who read this blog and maybe, just maybe, somehow, some way they can get Rob Manfred’s ear. It’s not too late. It’s never too late.
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Discussion (109)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Mark, I appreiate you in many ways. I particularly appreciate your respect and commitment to our veterans. I am a Vietnam vet who served in country. After 50 years I am wondering why and what did we accomplish. Sometimes we don’t always have the answer nor do we always need to. At least I don’t, I did what I thought was right at the time and I live with that without regret.
I appreciate your support and respect your convictions.
Somebody call the waaaahhmublance.
“This is not about politics.” That was the sentence you used to start your post Mark.
I am not going to argue the pros and cons of what you have written. Others are doing a fine job of that.
But………………… don’t start your comments by claiming they aren’t about politics. Of course they are. Just because you are also referencing baseball doesn’t mean it isn’t about politics.
You consistently use that disclaimer as a means of starting a conversation here about politics. You say baseball should be honest about their motives. I suggest you try to do the same. It’s your blog. You can talk about whatever you want to here. But don’t pretend it isn’t about politics.
While we are at it, here is something else that is very near and dear to me:
What Is Mission 22
Founded in 2013 by former Green Beret Magnus Johnson, Mission 22 operates under the motto “United We Heal” and has taken immense steps to help in the fight against veteran suicide. The organization supports the veteran community with three main programs, veteran treatment, memorials, and community outreach via social impact. Mission 22 provides treatment programs to veterans that are struggling with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress), TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), and many other issue veterans face. Mission 22 serves combat veterans, those injured in training who therefore could not deploy, and victims of MST. Mission 22 also has an Ambassador volunteer program for people to get involved as well. Ambassadors educate the public on veteran issues, help get veterans into Mission 22 treatment programs and create resources in their communities. Through these three programs, it enables a push for the betterment of our community and support when veterans need it the most, right now.
US Water Systems’ Role
Starting Monday 4/19/2021 we have pledged to donate 5% of every US Water Systems branded product we sell to Mission 22. Our goal is to raise as much as possible and exposed the startling adversity that our Veterans face. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, there were over 6,000 veterans in the country who committed suicide during 2017. In fact, since 2008, there have been at least 6,000 veteran suicides every year. They also report that the suicide rate for veterans is 1.5 times that for non-veteran adults. Suicide prevention is a priority, and we believe that Mission 22 is an organization that helps to address this situation by giving veterans the resources and support that they need.
We realize that not everyone who reads this may be in the market for a new water treatment system, so if you’d like to help support the fight against veteran suicide please click the donate now button.
I understand the feeling of powerlessness.
I feel like I’m the last person who would believe in conspiracies, but I do think there is a such thing as a ruling class in this country. Young people who are born and raised in upper middle class or wealthy progressive neighborhoods, who go to exclusive universities where, now more than ever, they’re inculcated with Woke ideology. They then, because their pedigree grants them access to power, get hired in PR firms, write for the NYT, work in the human resources divisions of Coca Cola or Delta Airlines … get lifetime gigs in government, where they leverage their networks for more power and influence and go live in those same exclusive neighborhoods.
Decisions like the move out of Atlanta are made by these people. MLB makes these decisions because they want to align themselves with where the power is. Have you ever asked yourself why it is that these people in power are so quick to define America as fundamentally racist, but when it comes to China refuse to denounce their obvious atrocities. “They just have different ‘norms,'” says Biden. Meanwhile, his family does business with the Chinese. Go figure
The decisions are not made by middle class people: the folks who drive trucks, are contractors, small business owners, plumbers, factory workers, dentists who put themselves through dental school, who work in a cubicle – people who busted their asses and built something and have skills; the people who were brought up to love this country, who get goose bumps when they hear the National Anthem, who were brought up to say things like “it’s a free country,” who fly the flag on their front porches, who go to church, who love fireworks on the 4th of July, who have internalized the MLK ethos that people should be judged as individuals and by their character, NOT by their group identification, who believe that America is a pretty good place inhabited by good, hard working, decent people.
These folks no longer have a voice and they don’t make the decisions anymore. The ruling class doesn’t care about or want to listen to them. The ruling class despises these people and despises their patriotism because they despise America and would like to radically transform it.
Working class folks understand this. It’s why the Tea Party emerged, and why Trump, in spite of his obvious flaws, won. Trump was a middle finger to this change in America, which is why his election made made the ruling class absolutely unhinged.
Not sure what to tell you. You have a voice and a platform, but how much power do you have? And now you have to deal with trolls like Huey Dewey and Louie in this discussion.
This community is a microcosm of the country, where I think at least half (probably more) of the country believe that MLB’s actions were wrong! The other half probably never read the bill. I had a conversation over the weekend with three of my liberal friends. We agree to disagree and we do not talk over each other. We let each person have their say and then the opportunity to rebuttal. After about an hour, two of my friends said that they saw my point and agreed with me. The third friend said “You are all a bunch of racists” and stormed out, leaving me with his bar tab. When the battle is lost, the loser often resorts to slander because they can’t counter the logic!
You can disagree all you want, but ad hominem attacks, whereby the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself, will not be tolerated. This avoids genuine debate by creating a diversion to some irrelevant but often highly charged issue.
Continue to fight the good fight, Mark.
I agree that Manfred made a huge mistake and he put the lies of the left before the good of the game and the country. It’s a shame that we have reached that point in this country. It’s being divided more and more by the lies from fake news and that phony president that has no right to his office. But I still love the Dodgers and always I continue to follow them despite the mistakes of MLB.
If a tree falls in a forest, with no one to hear it, does it make a sound? If a liberal hears a lie, is it a lie or a rallying cry?
Mark, I fear you are casting pearls before swine.
What we are seeing and hearing is what I have mentioned before, we have passed the tipping point, right is wrong and wrong is right, hard to pull back from such a bastardization of truth, morals and the sense of right and wrong.
The Truth still Hurts and you can lead jackasses to the truth but you can’t make them drink it.
One last thought this morning. I wish I still had my Sirrus Radio hooked up in my truck. I could at least listen to games when I am driving. I used to have on in my big rig. You get Steiner and Monday, but I do not mind that. Nice change of pace from Orel’s constant drone. My truck has a satellite option on the radio, but it is not activated. It was weird how many people went bonkers over the Red Sox alternate uni’s over the weekend. Uni’s were in the colors of the Boston marathon. Myself, I thought it was strange that the cap looked a lot like a UCLA Bruin cap. But brace yourself. The Dodgers will do the same thing I think in August. The uni’s have to celebrate something associated with the city. I am thinking it might have something to do with Hispanic heritage. But they have not announced anything yet. Adrian Gonzalez signed with a Mexican League team. He is prepping to play in the next international games. Matt Kemp will be part of Team USA in the next Olympics. Acuna of the Braves left yesterdays game with a lower ab strain.
Going to miss tonight’s game. I will be on the road. Jay Bruce retired after yesterday’s Yankees game. At one time it was thought that Friedman was going to trade for him. Dodger fans who complained about the loss yesterday should take a look at what happened to the Yankees over the weekend. They were swept by the Rays and are off to an abysmal start. Dodgers are 13-3, 3.5 games ahead of the Giants and Padres. I think, and have to believe, that we will have a pretty good idea about the Pads when they come into Dodger Stadium this weekend. My sis asked me if I wanted to go to a Dodger game while I am out there. I told her that I did not think it was a good idea yet. Not because of the pandemic or that stuff, but because the ticket prices are just too damn high. So, when the minor league season starts in May, we are going to see about going to a Quakes game and see the kids. I hope all of you have a great day. I hope the Dodgers bounce back from a bad game and have a great one in Seattle tonight. Be well my friends.
Haha New York Post
We get bombarded with these discussions everyday. Find another outlet for your issues. This is supposed to our escape to fun.
Should have never been moved in the first place.
LOL you got issues Mark.
Not gonna happen Mark. We all know your angry. Your entitled to your opinion and you probably find writing cathartic. But at this point I have to wonder if your musings on this are bordering on obsession.