MLB: All-Star Game could be part of election law protest.
GLENDALE, ARIZ. » Sports’ big events have been used to make political points before and it might be MLB’s time to use one of theirs.
In 1991, the National Football League responded to the state of Arizona’s decision not to recognize Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday by pulling the 1993 Super Bowl (scheduled to be played in Phoenix).
The move is estimated to have cost the Phoenix metropolitan area over $200 million in revenue. The state of Arizona voted to make MLK Day a holiday shortly after and the Super Bowl was played in Phoenix in 1996.
In 2017, the NBA made a similar move, pulling its All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina in response to legislation in that state that limited anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals. In response to the same issue, the NCAA temporarily banned any of its championship events from the state of North Carolina.
After the law was partially repealed by the state legislature, the NBA held its All-Star Game in Charlotte in 2019.
This year’s MLB All-Star Game is scheduled to be played at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 13, and Major League Baseball might now have to decide whether to use its power in the same fashion after the state of Georgia passed controversial laws restricting voter access in that state under the guise of election reform.
Players’ union executive director Tony Clark said in an interview with The Boston Globe on Friday that “players are very much aware” of the situation in Georgia. No discussion has been started with MLB relating to the AllStar Game and any potential move or boycott of the event as a means to protest the controversial voter restrictions in the state, but “if there is an opportunity, we would look forward to having that conversation.”
As manager of the defending National League champions, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will lead the NL All-Star team for the third time in the past four years.
The son of an AfricanAmerican father and a Japanese mother, Roberts has become more vocal about racial equality in the past year. He expressed support for Mookie Betts’ decision to kneel during the national anthem on Opening Day last year and when the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants elected not to play an August game in support for equal justice protests that were going on around the country.
Roberts also sent an internal email throughout the Dodgers’ organization last month, expressing his feelings about the rising number of hate crimes aimed at Asian-Americans.
On this issue, Roberts said he does not consider himself fully informed. But whether or not to participate in an All-Star Game in Atlanta would be a personal choice he would have to make.
“I will certainly consider it. I don’t know enough about it right now,” he said Friday. “But when you’re trying to restrict AfricanAmerican votes — American citizens — that’s alarming to me to hear. So as we get to that point and I know more, I will make a better decision. But I do think that if it gets to that point, it’ll certainly be a decision I’ll have to make personally.”
For openers
Left-hander Clayton Kershaw made his final preseason start Friday night and gave up nine runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. Over his final two Cactus League starts (he pitched in a ‘B’ game in between), he gave up 14 runs (13 earned) on 17 hits and three walks in 7 1/3 innings.
“You can do what you want. I am not worried about it,” he said when asked what to make of those numbers. “Well, I mean, I’m not worried about what you think. I am worried about it. But I’m going to try and do better.”
Kershaw’s velocity was better than his previous Cactus League start against the Milwaukee Brewers, sitting at 90-91 mph. And he said “I actually felt like there were some pitches that were better” in Friday’s start.
“At times I felt like I knew what I was doing and that’s good,” he said. “I think I’m going to just be thankful it’s spring training right now, I guess.”
Kershaw said he has had no physical issues this spring and is ready to make the ninth season-opening start of his career April 1 in Colorado.
“Yeah. I don’t have a choice so I’m going to be ready,” he said. “I’m excited to get going. I really am. I’m excited to get there and have that adrenaline, those butterflies and get going again. I’m excited about it.”