Late last week Major League Baseball made the announcement that it would be granting hosting duties for the 2025 All-Star Game to the Atlanta Braves and Truist Park. What was notable was in what was not announced. We saw no mention made of the rash decision in 2021 to yank the Mid-Summer Classic away from the Braves over political hysteria.
The report from MLB was rather boilerplate in its notification. And MLB Commissioner Ron Manfred’s comments coming out of the owners’ meeting were rather tepid, in that he gave no indication as to why he decided to reverse course on this matter.
“I commend…the entire Braves organization and the Atlanta Sports Council for leading this effort,” Manfred said. “As a model of success on and off the field, the Braves deserve to host the All-Star Game. Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta will provide fans a world-class experience in 2025. We look forward to working with the Braves and local leaders to deliver a memorable All-Star Week that brings people together and benefits the community in many ways.”
Oh…kay. But say Rob? What happened to your rather bold declaration a couple of years ago? Recall, when you were adamant about preserving voting rights and that MLB was standing up for the people of Georgia (by, um abandoning them)? What changed?
These questions are rhetorical, of course, because nothing has changed. Georgia has not altered its supposedly restrictive voting laws. No action has been taken and no pledge to alter anything has been tabled. This decision to bring the All-Star game to Georgia is a testament that Manfred was completely off base in making his move to steal the game from the state. It has gone from “Jim Crow” to Manfred eating crow.
The only difference in any of this posturing and peacocking from Manfred is that he, and all of the hyperbolic Democrats have been proven completely incorrect. Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and Raphael Warnock were all in a state of dystopian bluster that the new voting laws were restrictive, racist, and a power grab made by the GOP leadership in the state.
Then the ensuing elections took place, and the polar opposite played out. First, during the primaries, record turnouts were witnessed, a phenomenon repeated during the general election. This was not a case of selective floods of voters either, where massive surges of targeted demographics turned out while some races were excluded. A University of Georgia poll conducted when precinct polls closed showed that 99% of voters reported having no issues with casting their ballot.
This debacle from MLB and Manfred was a case of reactionary actions rooted in nothing more than emotional activist raging. There is an ease with which the verbal outbursts are made and a supreme lack of calm and reasoned thinking being applied to issues. The knee-jerk reaction is “Something Must Be Done!!” The always avoided process is in looking into the use of that word “must”. Like so many other examples, this act showed there was zero need for action.
In making the brash move away from Atlanta there was so much in the way of stunted thinking. The claim was that this was done on behalf of black Georgians, but many of their businesses suffered as a result of tens of millions in commerce being blocked. Making the switch to staging the game in Denver meant the game was made available to a fan base that was far more white. Census figures peg Atlanta’s black population at just over 50%. Denver, in contrast, is 80.9% white and 9.8% black. Just brilliant work there, Rob.
The supposed opposition of voting restrictions ("Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," said Manfred at the time) was completely laughed at because the decision was to play the game in Colorado, a state with nearly idential voting laws in place as the supposedly racist restrictions in Georgia.
This entire episode has been one of incompetence and embarrassment. Manfred was reportedly influenced to move the game by President Biden and Stacey Abrams, and almost instantly they realized the idiocy of their emotional outburst. Abrams immediately went into denial mode, claiming she never wanted actual boycotts. The press joined in with the cleanup, allowing Abrams to stealth edit an op-ed she previously penned supporting boycotts. The blowback from voters was that significant.
So now baseball wants to smooth things over and pretend everything is just swell - after the damage has been incurred. This is no different than the virus epidemic revisionism we are experiencing, with the previously militant voices who are now proven wrong and are calling for there to be a Covid Amnesty applied.
The problem in both cases – the All-Star punishment and the calling for pandemic pariahs to be forgiven – is that there were voices at the time declaring the charges and accusations were completely misguided. Those voices were not only roundly ignored, but the activist mentality was to lash out at those delivering the cautions.
Instead of contemplating they resorted to demonizing, and pushed through their damaging effects. Those adverse effects were not accidental, they were intentional, and as we now see they sprang up out of anger and ignorance. It is quite difficult to ignore the problems created when saner voices called for rational decisions, and instead they were met with contempt. The people begging for forgiveness are the very ones in need of accountability.