MLB Buckle Down

Bowing down to Hollywood, DC, and a few other groups is not something that should happen. But MLB is doing it. A week ago, a law passed in Georgia in regards to voting. From what I gathered, photo ID is required. A ban on giving out food and water and one absentee ballot in each county. The absentee stuff, I would be a little bothered, but the other two, I don't see the issue. Unfortunately, others do and pressure mounted to move the All-Star game out of Atlanta. On Friday, the league did that.

Very obviously, Atlanta is hugely disappointed. I don't know if Hollywood will fully go with their plan, but they are looking to boycott the state in terms of filming movies and other projects. What I think complicates things is ESPN doing an interview with President Joe Biden and his thoughts on it. He didn't force MLB to move it, but the network can be an influencer. Basically, we're back to where they were in 2016-17 when ratings tanked on several programs because of politics.

But here's the thing. The Associated Press lately has had polls about having ID. Both sides of the political spectrum are in favor of it at over 50 percent. That's a shocker. Unless I'm missing something, shouldn't celebrities and sports leagues want to reduce voter fraud? Make sure that their vote counted and other factors? And the cost of a photo ID isn't even expensive.  I'm struggling to see where this is voter suppression and targeting specific groups of people. The only thing I would not agree with is the absentee voting being in one part of a county. Two or three would have sufficed per county.

Unfortunately, MLB is buckling down to pressure. I think a lot of has to do with sponsorships. You can make the case of Washington going after them if they wanted to. Right now, there are some senators that are looking to remove an antitrust exemption the league has had since 1922. There is no win win situation at all. Rob Manfred keeps putting himself in the crosshairs as he has for the last year and a half. Honestly, I don't think anyone is looking at the details of this bill. Feels like a lot of outrage over nothing. Very disappointed at baseball. But money and power are the only things that matter in regards to corporate companies.