By Guy Page
Say goodbye to the swag. The next time you see me outside, I won’t be wearing a hat or sweatshirt sporting the logo of a current Major League Baseball team – including my beloved Boston Red Sox.
On Opening Day last Friday, Major League Baseball announced it will withdraw the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta, in protest of the state of Georgia’s electoral integrity law, which MLB calls “voter suppression.” The law requires voter ID for absentee balloting. the law also – contrary to claims by Pres. Biden and others – expressly permits water distribution by self-service for people waiting in line.
MLB however has no problems cutting a multi-million dollar deal with Tencent, which Sen. Marco Rubio calls “a company backed by the genocidal communist government of China.” That’s the same big tech company that dropped the NBA after one of its execs voiced support for freedom in Hong Kong.
So in solidarity with the oppressed, democracy-loving people of Hong Kong and Georgia, I will no longer be a walking advertisement for MLB. I have plenty of nonMLB baseball hats – the local Mountaineers, the Round Rock (Texas) Express, the Calgary Cannons and the Pawtucket Red Sox. A buddy of mine has a brother who lives in Australia who might be able to score me a lid from the Toowoomba Rangers.
I also will not subscribe to Mlb.com or any other $$ collection system for these enemies of freedom. Or attend any games until they reverse this decision. Not a penny for tyranny!
And I am not alone.
“Democrats and Progressives have spent years decrying corporate money influencing politics. Now they’re bullying corporations into doing their bidding and having them openly threaten municipalities if they don’t bend the knee to the corporations,” Video news host Ericka Redic of Burlington said. “Tell me again which party is a threat to Democracy?”
One social media observer noted that professional sports seem to be determined to harm their own brand. “It took all the professional sport leagues SOOOOOO long to build their franchises and so quick to wreck them,” Ed Gallo said.
The hypocrisy noted by Rubio wasn’t lost on an economist and former Vermont lawmaker. “What duplicity! Sadly, MLB is a willing participant in the destructive ‘cancel culture’ infecting this country,” Bob Bancroft of Westford said. “Yet, it warmly embraces China, an undemocratic regime and pervasive human rights violator. Professional sports should refrain from political partisanship.”
A current state senator disputes the MLB contention that the Georgia law is “voter suppression.”
“I think that Baseball ought to stick to baseball,” Sen. Russ Ingalls (R-Essex/Orleans) said. “And if they chose to not listen to that advice, then get the story right before you act.”
“I gave up on the NFL when the ‘Hands up don’t shoot lie’ started. Subsequent anti-American actions of each Pro League has caused me to boycott all of them. They are agenda-driven propaganda machines, from supporting domestic terrorism to supporting illegal elections,” Jim Sexton of Essex Junction said. “They have failed ethically, I hope they all fail financially.
An Island Pond woman sees parallels with the left’s discrimination against women in sports. “For me, the MLB decision to boycott Georgia, while having just made an agreement with the CCP to work in/with China is a parallel for many of the current liberal talking points,” Bekah Perry said. “For example, allowing men to compete in womens’ sports in the name of “equality”, thereby disempowering one of the groups that they claim to want to empower. It is also a signal of the liberal assumption that Americans are too stupid to look below the surface at the facts and the logic of a position.”
Play boycott!