True baseball fans won’t join boycott against MLB
In a mystifying development, people who apparently are baseball fans starved for the game’s return are joining a #BoycottMLB movement on Twitter. They’ve waited months for the return of the game they love, and now that it’s almost here, they want to boycott it.
Why would people who love baseball do such a thing? Apparently, some of them are angry that Dr. Anthony Fauci is throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ home opener Thursday evening. Many others are unhappy that a few San Francisco Giants took a knee Monday during the playing of the national anthem.
These people might call themselves baseball fans, but they really are little more than ideologues. They don’t like science, aren’t big fans of knowledge and despise the Black Lives Matter movement – or some combination.
Just a guess, they might also be racists.
President Donald Trump, never one to be left on the sidelines when there is trouble afoot, didn’t personally join the #BoycottMLB brigade but did add his own special brand of fuel to the fire:
“Looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!”
A question: Isn’t this the man who defends the Confederate flag and is fighting to keep U.S. military bases named for traitors who fought against this country?
A prediction: Trump is not going to be watching many sporting events this summer and fall.
If you have lived through the last eight weeks in America, how could you possibly be surprised by the Giants’ peaceful protests? Wherever sports have been played since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, in the United States and abroad, athletes have taken a knee, so of course baseball players are going to kneel.
Once the NBA and WNBA get started, kneeling will be commonplace, assuming the anthem is played beforehand. And if high school, college and pro football is played this fall, well, let’s just say Trump is not going to be happy.
The urge from Trump and the Twitterverse to hold onto these last vestiges of another time – a whiter, sexist, intolerant time – has been rebuffed by people who, interestingly enough, know a bit about fan behavior, selling tickets and marketing sports teams.
In other words, successful capitalists who know exactly what works in 21st century America.
Boycott that at your peril, sports fans.