An all-star game worth boycotting [With Comment by John]

Major League Baseball is heading into the all-star break. Next week, it will hold its home run derby on Monday and the all-star game on Tuesday.

Both events, and various others, will be held in Denver, Colorado, not Atlanta, Georgia as originally scheduled. MLB pulled the game from Atlanta because the Georgia legislature passed election integrity reforms that Democrats don’t like and contend are racist. MLB thus inserted itself into a political disagreement and sided with the Democrats.

MLB is promoting the derby and the game hard. It’s counting on Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani to sell both. He’ll be hitting in the derby and pitching in the all-star game.

Ohtani deserves the attention he’s been getting. He leads baseball in home runs with 32, is an outstanding baserunner, and a good pitcher.

However, Ohtani doesn’t deserve to be pitching in the all-star game. There are 40 major league pitchers with more wins above replacement player (WAR) than he has. His ERA is 3.49. Ohtani’s appearance in the all-star game as a pitcher is a gimmick intended to capture viewers, not reward merit.

All of which is irrelevant to the central point. Baseball has cast its lot with Democrats in a political dispute. That’s improper from any reasonable perspective, and deeply offensive if one is a conservative.

I don’t intend to watch the all-star game or any event associated with it. I hope I’m far from alone in taking this stand.

JOHN adds: I have been, for many years, an avid baseball fan. But I learned last year that I can quite easily get along without sports. When MLB sided with the Democrats in Georgia, I thought I might sit out this season. When I learned that the Minnesota Twins have Black Lives Matter lettered down the left field line and a memorial to George Floyd in right field, I resolved to spend my summer on other pursuits. I have not watched, or listened to, a single pitch of the 2021 baseball season, and I don’t intend to. And I was a season ticket holder when the Twins were lousy. I don’t know how many former fans have abandoned Major League Baseball, but I am pretty sure I am not alone.

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