I have been asked to comment on the role of baseball and politics, specific to MLB and the All Star Game in Arizona.
I don’t want to debate the law on this site. It’s not what we do here.
I’m trying to think about where baseball making a statement would end.
Say baseball takes the All Star Game away from Arizona and moves it to Flushing. What if the NRA smells blood and sees that MLB can be pressured, so the NRA decides to use the game to protest Bloomberg’s handgun policy. Then what?
What about a player? Folks sit out All Star Games for all sorts of reasons. What about a three game series against the Diamondbacks? Do you sit that out? What if you are traded to Arizona?
I saw a protest outside Wrigley against the Diamondbacks. As if the actual Diamondbacks have anything to do with it. It’s 25 guys who wound up playing for a team that could just as easily be called the Nippon Ham Fighters.
Players have celebrity status which they can use whether they want to sell sneakers, raise awareness for a charity, date Madonna or speak out on issues.
Perhaps a player or players could use their platform to encourage discussion and an exchange of ideas.
I’m not smart enough to solve this one. All I know is the Arizona baseball team has a dopey name, a stupider short form name and some really fugly uniforms.
Speaking of which, I’m just trying to rid the world of black uniforms, failing miserably, but will take another stab in an hour.
Nah, you’re as smart as any Mets fan around – that doesn’t wash!
I’m with Barajas, who is doing more than encouraging a discussion. He’s taking a stand, as is the players association. Sometimes you have to stand up in life – even in baseball, which, after all, is part of our society and culture.
Tom, I actually missed Barajas’ comments – I see this article in the Saturday Times , and I don’t think I ever did a news-sweep on Saturday. I tend to make that my less-blogging day. The way Barajas handled it is what I was getting at. He comes across perfectly-reasoned, and I encourage healthy respectful discussions.
My unawareness of the Barajas comment is part of the reason I have been quiet on this topic. I’m very aware I am undereducated on this story as I haven’t read much about it, and am not even familiar with the specifics of the law or if it was a statewide vote, or the state legislature made up something (like NJ and snow-removal off cars) and it got passed.
I try to discuss things I feel I know something about (like the ability to see on TV that you can’t see the NY on a hybrid cap) and I feel underprepared on this one.
Keep in mind that the NRA isn’t likely to protest Bloomberg’s handgun policy. The only difference between Bloomberg’s policies and the NYC gun policies of the last 35-40 years is that Bloomberg tried using the courts to go after gun dealers in other states who were not following existing Federal gun control laws requiring background checks and waiting periods after discovering that a handful of out of state gun shops were the source of a disproportional percentage of the unregistered guns that ended up in NYC. Protesting Bloomberg’s action will draw attention to the fact that existing gun control laws are often not enforced, which is not a road the NRA wants to go down.
As for how to respond appropriately to the law, I think there are limited things that can reasonably be done. I think it’s right for the MLBPA to ask that the league pull the 2011 All Star Game from Arizona, just as the NFL refused to hold the Superbowl in the state during the years in which it did not recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I think that it was a reasonable level of protest for the Suns to wear their Los Suns jerseys last night, and I think that it would make sense for the Mets to use their Los Mets jerseys when playing the Diamondbacks as a quiet protest that wouldn’t disrupt the games. (I hate them as much as you do, but as a means of protest, I’d give them a pass.)
I think that Barajas’ comments are dead on. This will really hit the fan the first time a team is missing a starter in Arizona because a player got stopped during the day. The question is figuring out the way to send the message to Arizona without punishing the Diamondbacks themselves and without players benching themselves unnecessarily from games that count. (I still don’t think of the All Star Game as counting.)
JMP wow wearing the Los Mets jerseys against Arizona is VERY interesting. I’d like to tackle that on Friday. If you have more thoughts on that email me. Same for anyone.