John's Eclectic Topics Blog: April 2021

There is a huge propaganda campaign being waged by the Democrat party and their mainstream media minions to steamroll their H.R. 1 election-rigging bill through Congress. Yet despite all that effort, a recent Rasmussen poll confirmed that a large majority of Americans still favor voter ID laws. You would never know this if you relied on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS or Lester Holt's 'media fairness is overrated' network - otherwise known as NBC.

It shows a whopping 75 percent of the American people favor Voter ID requirements. What's even more surprising is despite the current political climate, a huge majority - 69% - of black voters also support it. (1) As much as anyone with a modicum of fairness and common sense, they realize that insuring the integrity of elections is the best way to protect our republic. People need to have faith in our elections. Perhaps too, they tire of the insulting condescension of the Democratic leadership constantly telling them they are simply too incompetent to present a driver's license or state ID card at the polling place, just like they do when they withdraw money or cash a check from their bank, board an airplane, or pick up a prescription at the pharmacy.

Nonetheless, Major League Baseball - apparently not to be outdone by all the self-important preening and gutless pandering of the NFL and NBA last year - has decided to wage a full on, left-wing, crazy, race-baiting, politically woke war against most of their fan base.

One could argue they were duped by the lies of the President or Stacy Abrams or the Democratic media chorus, but truth be told, they wanted to be lied to. Believing the lie was a convenient way to extract themselves from a difficult public relations squeeze. A squeeze, on the one hand, between negative publicity in left-leaning major market press and electronic media - and - an entire season of dealing with nasty player's union antics like they saw in the NBA and NFL, such as disrespecting veterans, the flag, & the anthem combined with game boycotts that directly affect revenues. Of all their constituencies, they gutlessly chose to offend the loyal fan base, likely counting on us momentarily accepting the woke narrative at face value and our short, post-pandemic memory.

While I feared this was coming all week, I still had some glimmer of hope that the Great American Pastime would somehow find a way to rise above the partisan political thuggery of other professional sports and do what it does best, provide entertainment that bridges boundaries across generational, racial, and language barriers. Disappointed does not come close to how this gut-punch made me feel.

Yes I am only one voice, but even if no one else may join me, I wasted no time letting Commissioner Robert Manfred, Jr. know that his decision comes with a cost, however insignificant the loss of one fan may be:

Dear Commissioner Manfred,

I have been a fan of Major League Baseball as long as I can remember... and wish you weren't working so hard to change that.

I remember listening to the Minnesota Twins on the radio in the summers on the farm while still in elementary school. I remember my first in-person game - a "knothole game" where Kenny Landrieux's hitting streak was ended. As a young man, calling in for hours on a Saturday morning in 1987, attempting to get a chance to buy World Series tickets at the Metrodome. My first time attending a World Series in 1991.

Sadly you have made the American past-time a political exercise. You are making the MLB just another tool in the Democrat Party's propaganda machine, by officially signalling to baseball fans that professional baseball is now aligned fully with the political left. You can count me out.

I'm done. I will not watch you play your figurative or literal games.

Interestingly, in the scanty defense of your ill-thought out political position, your primary citation is Joe Biden, a politically divisive figure and a man known both to be easily and often confused and one who frequently supplants truth with his own politically advantageous fabrications (on request, I will be happy to provide you a list of examples). What you clearly and conveniently do not cite are any specifics from the Georgia election law SB202 that bolster your assertion that it is a threat to "Fair access to voting." And of course you didn't - because there are none.

In fact, SB202, attempts to ensure fair voting by curtailing election fraud and illegal voting. So in a perverse sense that seems to be beyond your comprehension, it will indeed, as you say in your press release, "restrict voting access" by ensuring that only lawful citizens of this country, residents of Georgia, and of legal voting age, cast a single election ballot. Those are restrictions that the political left opposes, since it stymies its favorite attempts at voter fraud.

I also note that you claim to have "engaged in thoughtful conversations" with your teams and players over the past week. Yet the reasoning given and the decision you made, and which you claim best demonstrates our "values as a sport" defies reason and denies the facts.

By aligning the MLB with the far extremes of the left, you are unnecessarily politicizing a sport which could unify us as a country, pandering instead to the vocal, extreme minority, and alienating many of your fans.

I am sorry to say goodbye to the professional sport I enjoy the most. Please let me know when you are ready to denounce the woke and politically divisive tactics of the Democrat party and get back to enjoying sport for the sake of sport again.

Sincerely,

John Scott Niessen
Andover, MN

That was my actual letter to the commissioner. If you feel as betrayed as I do when told your favorite professional sport has gone all woke on you and people like you are no longer welcome, I'd encourage you to let him know your thoughts as well. If nothing else, I find that putting pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard - can not only be cathartic, but help one to clarify his thinking.

Let's just hope that professional baseball will regain it's sanity and one day soon return to being America's favorite pastime, while there is still an America that is recognizable to us.

Postscript: In the interests of fairness (and very much unlike self-proclaimed journalist, Lester Holt), I am including the entire pathetic original statement from the Baseball Commissioner (April 2, 2021):

'21 All-Star Game, Draft moved from Atlanta

2:35 PM CDT

Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it will relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and Draft, originally scheduled to take place in Atlanta, to a to-be-determined location.

The decision comes a little more than a week after the passage of SB 202, a Georgia law that President Biden criticized earlier this week, saying that it will restrict voting access for residents of the state.

Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr. issued the following statement in making the announcement:

“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. 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.

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box. 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.

“We will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron during this season’s All-Star festivities. 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.”

This is a developing story, and it will be updated throughout the day.