* Play ball: MLB stadiums are open—with capacities varying. Boston and Washington, for example, will limit capacity to 12 percent. Houston is at 50 percent, and Texas is 100 percent. The Rays are a little less than30 percent.
* This summer’s MLB All Star Game, originally scheduled July 13 for suburban Atlanta (Truist Stadium) home of the Braves, has been moved. Corporate sponsors, (such as Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines), the MLB Players Association, the black Players Alliance, individual players and other Atlanta sports teams all weighed in because of opposition to Georgia’s new, more restrictive, voting law. The relo move is not unprecedented. The NFL once move a Super Bowl out of Arizona when the state failed to make MLK Day an official holiday, and the NBA moved an All-Star Game out of Charlotte over a North Carolina law that cut anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people.
Bottom-line takeaway: Doing the right thing for the right reason is often, as we know, not nearly enough. Especially in a uber-polarized political climate. Forums and leverage matter mightily. Such as that wielded by high-profile activists and corporate heavyweights.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp minced no partisan words in his response. “Major League Baseball caved to fear, political opportunism and liberal lies,” he declared. “Major League Baseball’s knee-jerk decision means cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included.”
* More than 1 in four MLB players were born outside the U.S. The top three: Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba.
* Leaving aside all the problematic details in determining if college athletes (OK, elite football and basketball players) should be paid by their universities, this still makes the most sense: NCAA athletes should be allowed to earn money for the marketing of their names, images and likenesses.