The Baseball All Star Game Boycott That Wasn’t

Major League Baseball just finished celebrating and congratulating itself through its 82^nd annual All Star game.  Like all other professional sports, this is merely a popularity contest where the fans get to vote for the starting lineups.  It marks the unofficial halfway mark of the baseball season.  Unlike the other professional sports, there is a blip of meaning to this game because the winning team claims home field advantage during the World Series in October for their division.

This year’s game was surrounded with some controversy. The game was held in Chase Field in Phoenix – home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and of course anti-immigration law SB 1070.   This is the same law that has cost Arizona millions of dollars in tourist revenue.

Professional baseball has remained mum about the subject of immigration during these festivities.

Although, there are protestors outside the stadium, baseball turns a blind eye to them.  It would appear that baseball would rather take questions about the Home Run Derby as opposed to anti-immigrant hysteria.  In fact, only one All-Star, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was vocal about the law claiming that he was against treating immigrants bad since he himself was an immigrant.  He then went on to say that the All Star game was not the best place to protest.

Major League Baseball once prided itself as being a trailblazer, as far as civil rights are concerned.  They knocked down the racial barrier when it came to Jackie Robinson, but this was the last crusade of sorts because baseball will stand behind certain immigrants – provided of course they can throw a 100 mile per hour baseball or hit the baseball over 400 feet.  The game is now an institution that can only be circumvented by talent that can be readily exploited.

Sixteen players did not choose to participate in the game or the festivities — but not necessarily as part of the SB 1070 boycott. I hope that immigration advocates do not pat themselves too hard on the back.  This All Star week might not be as profitable as past All Star weeks – but that has nothing to do with immigration protests. Six of the pitching stars were excluded due to a technicality that states that pitchers who started games on the previous Sunday are not allowed to pitch on Tuesday’s exhibition game. Other players cited fatigue as to the reason why they were excluding themselves.

Alex Rodriguez was to have surgery, while Derek Jeter was trying to save himself for the second half of the season. He is not a young man anymore and it makes sense that he would take the extra days to rest his injuries – rather than flying across the country for an at bat and three day autograph signing session for fans and players alike. This set of players was crucified by baseball fans not because of their political ideologies but because they feel these multimillionaires owe them. 

I listened all night as random fans called in radio shows foaming from the mouth because they feel that these players should be honoring their votes by playing – injuries be damned. They feel cheated, but in reality some players are there to collect performance bonuses, usually worth more money that the average fan makes in a year. The bottom line is that these are all very wealthy men playing a game designed for children.  The days of Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson are done.  The days of the role model are merely implied and not to be taken seriously.

Follow Oscar Barajas on Twitter @Oscarcoatl