Major League Baseball’s All-Star game is tomorrow night. Players from both leagues will come together in Anaheim for an exhibition of sportsmanship and skill. But activists from CHIRLA and other organizations will also be in Anaheim, to show the world that baseball fans don’t want to see the sport tarnished. Next year’s game is planned to take place in Phoenix, AZ. Today an op-ed in the Washington Post laid out the case for why the 2011 game doesn’t belong in Arizona:
Major League Baseball is scheduled to play its 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix, where discrimination and racial profiling will effectively be sanctioned by SB1070, Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. Unless the league acts, next year our favorite all-stars could enter a hostile environment, and the families, friends and fans of a third of the players could be treated as second-class citizens because of their skin color or the way they speak….
What is happening in Arizona is a regression from the freedoms we hold dear and a violation of our civil rights and fundamental values. We are not asking Selig to weigh in on immigration policy; we are asking him to take a stand against bigotry and intolerance.
So what exactly has Selig said on the record? ESPN has the story:
Just what Selig might do is unclear. The only time he has addressed the issue of whether he should move the game was May 13, after he emerged from an owners’ meeting about various topics. He referenced his sport’s record on civil rights.
“Apparently all the people around and in minority communities think we’re doing OK. That’s the issue, and that’s the answer,” Selig told reporters. “I told the clubs today: ‘Be proud of what we’ve done.’ They are. We should. And that’s our answer. We control our own fate, and we’ve done very well.”
He then was asked by MLB.com after the press conference whether the game would stay in Arizona.
“I think I adequately answered that question.”
[Emphasis mine.]
That’s right — almost exactly two months since Selig’s last statement. What has he done in the meantime? Well, he refused to rule on a controversial call that an umpire admitted he misjudged. And he also presided over the 2010 Civil Rights Game. The game is a recent baseball tradition meant to honor MLB’s commitment to diversity through its history. That commitment is admirable, but it means less if baseball doesn’t do the right thing now and move the All-Star game.
It’s been two months since Selig’s last statement on the 2011 All-Star game. He thinks he “adequately” answered the question of whether the game will be moved. If you want a better answer from Selig, click here to tell him to move the game.
Categories: California
Tags: bud selig, major league baseball
