It’s Time To Get Louder. Bud Selig Can’t Hear You!
Don’t cry for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, sports fans. Sure, this year’s MLB All-Star Game posted its worst ratings in history. But poor ticket sales aren’t the only thing on Selig’s mind. The calls are getting louder and louder for Selig to move next year’s All-Star Game from Phoenix in protest of Arizona’s controversial immigration law – SB 1070 – yet he doesn’t think baseball fans have the power to influence the decision.
Selig told Sports Illustrated that the situation “will be solved in the political process at the appropriate time … we’ll do things when baseball can influence decisions.” However, fans know that while a few innings in a ballgame might have little effect on history, the movement leading up to it can have a incredible effect on public opinion and put forth a dramatic message.
This Tuesday, Wisconsin’s own Voces de la Frontera joined MoveTheGame.org in organizing crowds of Milwaukeeans outside Selig’s office, with Jacqueline Baumgart (formerly Jackie Mattson) a catcher for the Kenosha Comets (1950-1951, All American Girls Professional Baseball League) to send him the message that fans won’t stand for anti-immigration stances that demonize minorities. The collective national fan voice is pretty loud: over 100,000 fans have signed up at MoveTheGame.org, supporting the cause.
And they’re not the only ones. Three top performing players (Jose Valverde of the Detroit Tigers, Yovani Gallardo of the Milwaukee Brewers and Joakim Soria of the Kansas City Royals) have already made it their intention to boycott the game if it continues as planned. I know. That’s huge, right?
Moreover, Voces de la Frontera’s launched a drive to encourage native Milwaukeean Bud Selig to make the right decision. You can join them signing the petition, asking Bud Selig’s office to ask for the game to be moved.
Dozens of players, officials, managers believe that SB 1070 not only will have disastrous consequences on the players of Hispanic origin but on the country at large. “Conventions and major sporting events are huge revenue generators for states,” Melanie Benesh of Voces de la Frontera said, “so it was logical to push for the boycott of the all-star game, especially because many major league players are immigrants (especially from Mexico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela).” Since Selig is from Milwaukee, the action has both a local and national impact, as Voces de la Frontera coordinated with national groups to ensure that their message gets heard.
Why is it so important to move the game from Arizona? In 1987, Arizona Governor Evan Mecham cancelled the state’s Martin Luther King holiday, which caused the NFL to vote to move the Super Bowl from Phoenix. Effectively, this boycott, among the many others that occurred, cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism and commerce revenue. Soon after the holiday was restored, the NFL decided to host the Super Bowl in Phoenix.
Major League Baseball has the unique opportunity to create dramatic change and stand behind the beliefs and desires of players, their families and their fans in moving the 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix and making a definitive statement that organized sports cannot afford to overlook laws that have such profound and disastrous effects. For more information about Voces’ campaign, click here.
IF YOU DISLIKE THE FACT THAT AMERICANS ARE TRYING TO DEFEND OUR COUNTRY AGAINST DRUG DEALERS INVADING OUR COUNTRY YOU SIR ARE NO BETTER THEN THE SCUM THAT THEY ARE.YOU CAN’T BE A TRUE AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think a real American would want the basic constitutional provisions of equal protection and due process to be upheld for all, even if it means sometimes drug dealers slip through the cracks.
A TRUE AMERICAN WOULD UPHOLD CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES ABOVE ALL ELSE.
If we really want to keep drug dealers out, we would be trying to end the demand for narcotics that draws them here. The U.S. is the #1 market for narcotics in the world. We want what they have. As long as dealers can make a quick buck, they’re going to find a way to do it. Hell, the DEA captured two submarines used for smuggling a while back. If you’re going to end supply, you need to decimate demand. Economics 101.