Posted on by Californiacontrarian

A “Woke Up” Call


Background:

In April Major League Baseball decided to move its All Star Game from Truist Park in Atlanta in response to Georgia voting rules signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on March 25. Critics, including the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, have condemned the changes as being too restrictive.

NEW (from ABC 6, Atlanta on 6/1/21):

However, Major League Baseball received a “woke-up call” this week as a small business advocacy organization filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Major League Baseball, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Major League Baseball Players Association and executive director Tony Clark. The suit demands the Major League Baseball All-Star Game return to Atlanta immediately or the “defendants pay $100 million in damages to local and state small businesses.”

“MLB robbed the small businesses of Atlanta – many of them minority-owned – of $100 million, we want the game back where it belongs,” said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network. 

Below is data provided by the Job Creators Network:

  • More than 8,000 hotel reservations were canceled.
  • Revenues from ticket sales, concessions and events at Truist Park – including the Futures Game and Home Run Derby Contest – by the more than 41,000 fans expected, were lost.
  • According to Cobb County Chief Financial Officer William Volckmann, the county would receive a “robust return” on its roughly $2 million investment to host the events. Previous MLB All-Star events have generated between $37 million and $190 million for their host communities.
  • Atlanta is 51% African-American, Denver is 9% African-American. U.S. Census data indicates there are roughly 7.5 times more African-American-owned businesses in Georgia than Colorado.

OLD (from ABC 6, Atlanta on 4/5/21):

Political insider Armstrong Williams says it’s important to actually read the bill in question.

Williams says that the MLB and Delta “did not read the bill.”

“There is no way you could read the bill, and not come away with the fact that this bill has empowered people to vote,” said Williams.

“I took it upon myself to read the bill. I thought there would be gross misrepresentations where it would malign American Blacks the vote, and what I found out, in fact, it empowers all voters,” said Armstrong Williams. Williams says the changes to voting protocols outlined in the bill include new ballot dropboxes, early voting expansion, and a bipartisan commission to oversee the election.

He continued:

“Even if you don’t have a voter ID, the bill allows you to use either your bank statement, your utility bill, your electric bill, your heating bill, just to make sure that that piece of information verifies that you’re actually a living, breathing person at that residence.”

Did MLB ever actually read the Georgia bill? Personally I doubt it.

To be clear: I do not have any strong connection to the city of Atlanta.  I have visited there a few times and it was okay. However, now with the MLB All Star Game kerfuffle, I will be right there – standing during the seventh inning stretch, singing “Take me out to the ballgame,” and “God bless America” … all the while cheering on the city of Atlanta in its suit against woke MLB.

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