Manfred’s polarizing All-Star move will be appreciated by history

Updated Wednesday April 7, 2021

Rob Manfred is what baseball needs but can’t stand.  He’s a commissioner who insists on leading a sport that does not want to be led from a past that’s glorious and checkered.  In taking action against voter suppression he’s turned Major League Baseball into a political football.  He wreaked economic havoc on Georgia and other states that had skin in the All-Star Game.

After consulting with baseball players and owners, Manfred pulled the 2021 Midsummer Classic from a city that wanted to use it for, among other things, celebrating the greatness of Hank Aaron.  If Manfred is the leader he’s trying to be, he will figure out ways to honor Atlanta’s greatest sporting hero who was a study in perseverance, courage and reliability.   

Milwaukee was a popular choice for the relocation, given that’s where Aaron spent the majority of his big-league career.  But Wisconsin’s Republican legislature is pondering “voter integrity laws,” and Manfred was worried that he might have to move the All-Star Game again. 

So Manfred decided on Denver, in the blue state of Colorado, where voting laws are unlikely to be changed and the Covid rate is relatively low.

Of course, many will not forgive Manfred for turning his back on Atlanta.  Surely the self-styled City Too Busy to Hate would have provided ample opportunity for grievances to be aired about politicians making it difficult for the other side to vote.   

I spoke to some baseball lifers – scouts, coaches, retired big-league players (though none of them Black) — who all expressed the same sentiment: Manfred did not help anybody by turning his back on Atlanta.

Former Commissioner Fay Vincent criticized the move, saying, “Major League Baseball can’t become a weapon in the culture wars.  It must stay above politics.” 

Georgia’s new voting regulations are not as “Jim Crow” draconian as President Biden made them appear.  The New York Times analyzed the law and concluded it was not as restrictive as what other states, including New York, have enacted and that it would have little, if any, effect on changing the course of future elections.

Even some of Georgia’s Black politicians who agreed with Manfred on voting rights complained of their capital city losing $100 million and hundreds of workers losing jobs.  Of course, Atlanta’s loss is Denver’s gain.

Manfred knew that some of the sport’s biggest celebrities would not be involved if the All-Star Game were held in Atlanta.  Dave Roberts, who is African American, would be manager of the National League side but said he was considering boycotting.  History could prove that Manfred’s decision benefits mankind and will even result in baseball regaining some of its lost popularity.

Ned Foley, chaiman of constitutional law at Ohio State University, said on MSNBC: “The most dangerous feature of the new law is that it takes power away from the secretary of state.  It looks like this law in part is revenge for him standing up for truth and fairness when President Trump tried to manipulate last year’s election.”  

Under the new law, the legislature selects the chairman of the elections board, rather than the board being chaired by Georgia’s secretary of state, an elected position that’s supposed to be nonpartisan.  Georgia has put the next presidential election in the hands of its legislature.

Perhaps the paranoid fringe will rethink their need for a war against voting fraud that never happened.  Dozens  of cases were filed across the USA, but no court found any fraud.  Even Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, renounced Donald Trump’s effort to overturn — by all means he could devise —  the 2020 presidential election.

But it’s more likely the attack on tolerance will continue, at the behest of Trump, who maintains a kinship with blue-collar workers even though he’s never been one: “Time for Republicans and Conservatives to fight back.  We have more people than they do—by far!  Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, UPS, and Merck.”  

This is a tall order indeed, and 200 other corporations have joined in opposing Georgia’s new voting restrictions.  

The political party that’s always supported big business now wants to bring down some of the largest corporations at a time when a pandemically ravaged economy teeters on recession.  Can you imagine this sort of plea ever coming from Ronald Reagan?

Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate leader, said, “Corporate America should stay out of politics” but should continue to make donations to politicians.  In other words, shut up and give.

Perhaps Georgia can follow the backtrack of North Carolina, which in 2016 barred transgendered people from public restrooms.  The National Basketball Association responded to that legislation by announcing it was moving its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte.  

When the state repealed the most onerous parts of its bathroom law, the NBA rescinded its relocation.  It’s too late for Georgia to reclaim the All-Star Game, but the future is in the balance.  

It’s good to see Manfred showing concern for an African American community that’s drifted away from baseball, which has much to do with the sport’s decade of steadily declining attendance and television ratings.  Manfred hasn’t even paid lip service to reviving youth baseball in the inner city – an idea advanced by predecessor Bud Selig.

This country for 2 ½ centuries has prided itself on being a melting pot that celebrated the similarities and differences of its many ethnic components.  America was never supposed to be us against them.

Rob Manfred is not beloved by baseball players and hard-core fans who are satisfied with the game as it is.  They have doubts about his passion for their sport.  In trying to speed up the pace, he advocates major changes in baseball’s fundamentals.  But even if some of his efforts are misguided, I think his heart is in the right place.  This wonderfully accessible and historic game could land in the dustbin of history if it can’t remodel and adjust to changing times.  Manfred understands this, even if his message, for now, is largely unappreciated.