Many are talking about the All-Star Game in the context of Arizona hosting it in 2011. This all takes place against the backdrop of the unconstitutional immigration law. With that in mind comes another good read. This time from ESPN.
Civil rights groups, some politicians and even the Major League Baseball Players Association have, to varying degrees, publicly denounced the law, which can be enforced beginning July 29 unless an injunction by the federal government is granted. Groups organizing protests at this week’s All-Star Game in Anaheim promise to increase public pressure on baseball for next year’s game, which is set for the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“We don’t hold MLB as a party of this unfair law, but we do see the game of baseball as upholding diversity. The law flies in the face of what baseball represents,” said Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and national campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, the country’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization. “This is about civil rights.” Unlike the politicians and civil rights groups, the players’ union has not pressured MLB — whose Opening Day rosters included 27.7 percent of its players born outside the U.S. — or commissioner Bud Selig to move the game. That hasn’t stopped others from urging Selig to follow the path of the NFL, which moved the 1993 Super Bowl out of Arizona after the state failed to officially recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday.
“It would be a very strong statement that professional sports do not tolerate racism and discrimination,” said the Rev. Eric Lee, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the first president of which was Dr. King. “I’m hopeful he would [move the game]. Bud Selig seems to be a just man.”