During ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball telecast – featuring the "Little League Classic" between Baltimore and Boston in Williamsport, Pennsylvania – former President George W. Bush snuck in a jab at MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Both men were guests on the broadcast when play-by-play man Karl Ravech asked Manfred about whether there'd be another such event next season. Manfred jokingly responded that he didn't want to get into trouble by "making news" like he had in the past, prompting Bush to ask, "Is that when you canceled the All-Star Game in Atlanta?"
The Commissioner replied, "Ah, come on," before pivoting away:
MANFRED: “The last time I made news with you it didn’t go that well for me.”
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) August 22, 2022
BUSH: “Was that when you cancelled the All-Star Game in Atlanta?”pic.twitter.com/acqZn4JDE7
Major League Baseball, under Manfred's leadership, yanked the All-Star Game out of Atlanta after Georgia passed its common-sense voting reforms last year. Leftist activists, led by Stacey Abrams, had been demagoguing the proposed law as "voter suppression" and "Jim Crow 2.0." President Joe Biden of Delaware described it as worse than Jim Crow, an insane comment, and endorsed MLB's boycott. It was all a lie. The law had been distorted beyond recognition by critics, whose overheated talking points bore no resemblance to the actual legislation. A number of major corporations and organizations caved to the mob and came out against the law, with the ignorant hypocrites at MLB taking one of the most dramatic steps on that front. When the blizzard of misinformation was put to the test in the 2022 Georgia primaries, the vote was "suppressed" to record-shattering turnout numbers:
Nearly 1.2 million Republicans alone turned out in this cycle's primary, eclipsing the entire bipartisan total from four years ago. And more than 720,000 Democrats voted on their side this go-around, a massive increase over 2018, when their base was more fired up and there was a real primary fight underway. This cycle, Abrams ran unopposed, and Sen. Raphael Warnock faced only token opposition. In all, turnout went up by more than three-quarters-of-a-million people, utterly demolishing the prior record -- and dramatically outpacing Georgia's population growth. Turnout spiked. Voter participation flourished in a record-setting manner. This is the textbook opposite of "suppression."
Major League Baseball insulted many of its fans based on an ugly, partisan fabrication. It faced some prompt karmic justice, thankfully, and Manfred has since mumbled a few things about MLB steering away from political controversy in the future. But has he and the league really learned their lesson?
Just under two-thirds of MLB fans identify as either Republican (32%) or Independent (30%). So who is MLB catering to by promoting the 1619 Project, "White Fragility," Ibram X. Kendi and Angela Davis on its website? Certainly not the majority of its fans:https://t.co/gtfkGkvgnU
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) August 19, 2022
Hochman is referring to this 2020 data, which also broke down the R/I/D affiliation of each team's fan base. Only a small fraction of baseball fans are likely to support poisonous left-wing racialism in any way. Perhaps the 1619/Kendi stuff is just an empty sop to a number of woke employees and players in order to keep them mollified. But MLB and other organizations must be repeatedly reminded that the leftist fringe isn't the only portion of their customer base they should be worried about alienating. Bush wasn't being overly pointed with his comment to Manfred, but it was at least a little reminder that there are a lot of people who haven't forgotten his poor, craven, fact-free decision. I'll leave you with this, which sounds wacky and fun – but it's also not baseball:
.@MLB's attendance and TV ratings are dipping. Meanwhile, @TheSavBananas are packing ballparks, playing by their own unique rules.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 18, 2022
Banana Ball is meant to be fun — and they might have some solutions for the big leagues.https://t.co/bIBTSVYOMWhttps://t.co/1Fy6E5w5JT
