This week Major League Baseball pulled the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta, citing the state of Georgia’s passage of legislation which restricts access to the ballot box.
This made a lot of people really mad and was widely regarded as a bad move.
It also made a lot of people really happy and was widely regarded as a good move. Yay America!
But what aspects of this move have people miffed? Aren’t businesses allowed to make whatever decision they think is best for them? Don’t we have a free market?
A few of the more common reactions out there were:
- No one asked MLB to do this.
- The players don’t care about this issue.
- Other states have similar or worse voting legislation.
- And of course the dodo bird of sports/politics intersectionality discourse, “leave politics out of sports!”
The major reaction that seems to be lost in the brouhaha here is that Georgia is the only state that just passed legislation to restrict voter access as a reaction to record voter turnout that resulted in historic losses in not one, but three races. It is truly the Bill Polian of states -- if you can’t win the game, change the rules. Many states are trying, with Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania making the biggest pushes (sensing a theme here?), but thus far only Georgia has actually passed legislation.
Since the discourse on this topic continues to revolve around the four misguided points previously mentioned, let’s go through them to illustrate why all of them are either misinformed or futile ...
No one asked MLB to do this/the players don’t care
While there were not widespread calls specifically for MLB to move the All-Star Game out of Georgia, enough of its own players did care specifically about this issue to force Rob Manfred’s hand. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told the Boston Globe on March 26:
“Players are very much aware...As it relates to the All-Star Game, we have not had a conversation with the league on that issue. If there is an opportunity to, we would look forward to having that conversation."
Could there be a combination of the league pleasing it’s players as well as the league viewing the move as positive PR? Sure. Since the move, Georgia-based companies such as Delta and Coca-Cola have released statements condemning the legislation. To these companies and to MLB, opposing this legislation in the wake of it’s passing is viewed as a good move for the company. That’s not to say Rob Manfred or the CEOs of these companies don’t morally oppose the legislation, but we’ve seen enough statements from corporations and sports organizations in the past year to know moves like this aren’t always done in good faith. Regardless, enough MLB players went to Tony Clark about this issue to warrant the decision being made by MLB.
Other states have similar or worse voting legislation
Before addressing this point, let's reiterate that no other state has successfully pulled off the all time sore loser move that Georgia just did. Powering ahead, the context of how Georgia flipped in these three elections is important in understanding why the legislation was egregious enough to prompt the MLB to move the All-Star Game.
While there are a multitude of theories that likely all contributed in some capacity to Georgia flipping, the Stacey Abrams-led registration of black voters in rural areas and voters of all ethnicities in the Atlanta area was undoubtedly one of the major reasons Georgia flipped. Get-out-the-vote efforts resulted in record turnout by blsck voters in the Senate elections. These are black votes. In Georgia, a state that even prior was already one of the notoriously most difficult states to vote, the reaction of the state’s ruling party was to restrict access to voting under the guise of widespread “election fraud,” which it’s own Republican election officials say did not exist.
The needless audacity of this reaction is what prompted MLB to listen to the concerns many of their players voiced.
That is almost an aside to the assertion being made about the voting laws in other states. Much of the immediate reaction to the decision by MLB came in the form of comparisons to New York and then to Colorado voting laws, where the All-Star Game has since been moved.
In Colorado, a voter can register to vote the same day as an election.
“They have a voter ID law too!”
A voter in Colorado can literally use their electric bill at the voting booth. In Georgia it has to be a state-issued ID. Those cost money. You and I may be able to afford to pay for an ID, but someone born into poverty may not. That is “pay to vote.” There is no comparison to be made here.
New York does have a shorter mail-in period than Georgia and does not allow same-day voter registration, but voters do not need to present an ID at the polls. No one is saying New York allows cats and dogs to vote, but it’s not some wildly more or less restrictive place to vote than Georgia. Regardless, New York also has not done what Georgia just did, so the comparison is pretty futile.
“LEAVE POLITICS OUT OF SPORTS”
It must be nice to not concern yourself with the strife of people who don’t look like you or come from the same background as you, as if they chose. Anyone who still says this has long been left behind by the discourse on this subject.
Aside from those discussions, there is a serious conversation to be had about the economic impact of this decision by MLB--economists estimate the relocation of the MLB All Star Game will cost the Georgia economy over $100 million. Working class and wage labor workers in the area won’t see the financial payoff they may have expected from the event. It’s impossible to quantify how many of these workers are more or less disenfranchised by the legislation, but regardless they’re all humans who deserve pay off for hard work and who also deserve to not have their voting access restricted.
That conversation hasn’t dominated the discussion on the topic. It’s been dominated by either misinformed or bad faith arguments that ignore or distract from the real issue of voter suppression and MLB’s right as a business to make the decision it thinks is best for itself and for its employees.