Amid growing pressure from voting rights advocates as well as current and former players, Major League Baseball has decided to move the 2021 All-Star Game away from Truist Park outside Atlanta because of Georgia’s controversial new law.
MLB’s draft, which was slated to be held in Atlanta, is also being relocated.
‘Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views,’ read a statement by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. ‘I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.’
Georgia’s new voting law – which critics say unfairly limits access to the ballot box, especially for people of color – had prompted calls from as high as the White House to consider moving the midsummer classic out of Atlanta.
MLB had awarded the game to Atlanta on May 29, 2019. It was scheduled for July 13 as part of baseball’s midsummer break that includes the Futures Game on July 11 and Home Run Derby the following night.
Amid growing pressure from voting rights advocates as well as current and former players, Major League Baseball has decided to move the 2021 All-Star Game away from Truist Park outside Atlanta because of Georgia’s controversial new law. ‘Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views,’ read a statement by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. ‘I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft’
The game was set for July 13 at Truist Park, the Braves’ 41,000-seat stadium in suburban Cobb County. It would have been the third time Atlanta served as host, having previously held the event in 1972 and 2000. Several companies, such as Delta Airlines, have criticized the law
In the face of repeated assertions by former President Trump that Georgia’s election was fraudulent, the Republican-controlled legislature approved a sweeping new law that would, among other things, place new ID requirements on absentee voting by mail and prohibit handing out food and water to voters standing in line.
Supporters of the law have said it merely ensures election integrity and stamps out potential fraud. Others have said the motives are more sinister after an election that registered nearly 5 million votes with no credible evidence of serious wrongdoing.
‘Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,’ Manfred’s statement continued. ‘In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States.
‘We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.’
Manfred went on to invoke the memory of Braves legend Hank Aaron, the African-American slugger who famously endured intense racial abuse and violent threats to overtake Babe Ruth for baseball’s all-time home run record.
‘We will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron during this season’s All-Star festivities,’ Manfred continued. ‘In addition, MLB’s planned investments to support local communities in Atlanta as part of our All-Star Legacy Projects will move forward. We are finalizing a new host city and details about these events will be announced shortly.’
One of baseball’s biggest stars, Braves first baseman and reigning National League MVP Freddie Freeman (pictured), weighed in on the divisive issue Thursday, just a few hours before Atlanta opened the season in Philadelphia. Freeman suggested that the game should remain at Truist Park, but be used as a platform to promote voting rights. ‘Why not?’ he said. ‘What’s happened in the last couple of months has already gone through’ the state Legislature and been signed into law last week by Governor Brian Kemp. ‘Why not use what we already have here as a platform in the city and the state it’s been passed through,’ Freeman added. ‘I think it would be better to keep it (in Atlanta) and use it as a platform’
One of baseball’s biggest stars, Braves first baseman and reigning National League MVP Freddie Freeman, weighed in on the divisive issue Thursday, just a few hours before Atlanta opened the season in Philadelphia.
Freeman suggested that the game should remain at Truist Park, but be used as a platform to promote voting rights.
‘Why not?’ he said. ‘What’s happened in the last couple of months has already gone through’ the state Legislature and been signed into law last week by Governor Brian Kemp.
‘Why not use what we already have here as a platform in the city and the state it’s been passed through,’ Freeman added. ‘I think it would be better to keep it (in Atlanta) and use it as a platform.’
Others have taken a different tack.
Biden told ESPN he would ‘strongly support’ pulling the game out of Atlanta because of a law he described as ‘Jim Crow on steroids.’
Two of Atlanta’s sports team owners also seemed to express their opposition to the law in statements that bemoaned restrictions on voting access, though neither specifically cited the new statute.
‘Every voice and every vote matters and should be heard through our democratic process in Georgia,’ said Arthur Blank, owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United. ‘We should be working to make voting easier, not harder for every eligible citizen.’
Tony Ressler, owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, noted that his team was the first in country to open its arena as an early voting site for last year’s elections. He said the team remains ‘committed to endorsing steps that promote equality and encourage participation by all who seek to cast a ballot.’
A truck bearing an ACLU message against the recently-passed Senate Bill 202 which was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp appears on a truck passing near the state capitol
Sports has long been a conduit for promoting social change, a movement that only grown over the past year with America’s renewed reckoning over racial injustice.
Often, it involves major events with hefty economic clout.
In the early 1990s, the Super Bowl was moved out of Arizona after the state failed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official holiday. Once the state reversed course, the game was held in Arizona in 1996 and will return again for the fourth time in 2023.
For years, the NCAA barred holding its championships in states where the Confederate battle flag was officially recognized. The last of those states, Mississippi, adopted a new flag in January that removed a banner many consider a vestige of slavery.
The 2017 NBA All-Star Game was stripped from Charlotte because of objections to a North Carolina law that limited anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people. After the so-called ‘bathroom bill’ was repealed, the NBA brought its showcase event to Charlotte in 2019.
While numerous GOP-governed states around the country have pushed for new restrictions on voting in the wake of Biden’s victory over Trump, Georgia has become a lightning rod for the issue because of its pivotal role in the November election.
With the hefty turnout buoyed by early and absentee voting, Biden won a narrow victory over Trump in the Peach State – the first time Georgia has been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.
Also, the state’s two Republican incumbent senators were defeated by Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, giving their party effective control of the U.S. Senate.
While much of the attention in the sports world has focused on the All-Star Game, a civil rights organization called on the PGA Tour and the Masters to pull the tournament – the sport’s first major championship of the year – out of Georgia by not playing at Augusta National.
The National Black Justice Coalition also urged professional golfers not to refuse to play in Georgia until the law is repealed.
The PGA Tour has no control over the Masters. The tournament is run by Augusta National, an exclusive club that has previously faced protests over its one-time exclusion of Blacks and women from the membership rolls. The club ignored the request and carried on with a women’s amateur event that leads into next week’s Masters.
The PGA Tour holds its season finale at East Lake in Atlanta, and it has another tournament in the fall on the Georgia coast at Sea Island.
Another prominent women’s tournament is set to be held in suburban Atlanta this summer.
The Women’s PGA Championship, one of five majors on the LPGA Tour, is scheduled for Atlanta Athletic Club on June 24-27.
The PGA of America said in a statement, ‘The KPMG Women´s PGA Championship is a partnership between three organizations committed to diversity, equity and inclusion: PGA of America, LPGA and KPMG. Like many entities, we are monitoring developments related to the new state legislation on voting access. We believe elections should be accessible, fair and secure, and support broad voter participation.’