Professional Sports is a huge business.  Major League Baseball (MLB) is near the top of the heap when it comes to money-makers.  Yet, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp may have positioned himself for the 2021 “Bonehead of the Year” award when he agreed and signed into law the hat trick created by state legislators and voting officials in the disguise of voter protection.  Senate bill 202 professes to be a bill designed to correct flaws in the voting system.

THE PROBLEM

On surface just about everybody agrees there is nothing wrong with correcting something that is flawed.  The problem is during the recent 2020 general election Kemp and voting officials all agreed there were no issues on the voting process.  Sure, there may have been some minor adjustments needed but none rising to the level of needing a new law?

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They vehemently protested when the sly Donald J. Trump started his charade of irregularities.  To boot, the courts threw out or ruled against the numerous cases by Trump and his allies that something was amiss.  Kemp, the legislators and voting officials apparently misunderstood who Trump was.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln

Trump built a career on hustling (taking advantage of people) and adopting gangster-like moves way before he decided to run for the presidency.  The problem is many people did not know who he was and felt, “how bad could it possibly be?”  His moves did not change.  He merely brought the same style during his term as president.  As hustlers do, once the race for the 2020 presidency heated up, he went into action.  He threw out all sorts of insinuations and ridiculous banter to cloud the issue of fairness.  This was done as a type of insurance policy as surely, he wanted to win but just in case he was on the losing end, he would have created some protection or justification that he was somehow harmed.

Even though I haven’t forgotten once the 1996 Olympics was over, the stadium was supposed to be named after famed slugger – Henry Aaron.  Instead, ego or some other calamity overcame team owner Ted Turner and he named the stadium “Turner Field.”  To add insult to injury less than twenty years later officials agreed the stadium needed to be moved and relocated to a more favorable part of Georgia which offered easier access to their predominate fan base.  Nothing is wrong with that – business is business, although I’m still not convinced something nefarious occurred because they left the “hood” for greener pastures.  Truist (SunTrust) stadium is in Cobb county and actually not that far from the old location.  It’s a great venue with all of the modern amenities needed to attract a wider swath of fans who might like baseball but really appreciate the developments that have restaurants, bars that add to the fan experience.  Plus, the stadium features a great plaque and memorial to Aaron.

Everybody seems to want to chime in on this issue.  Your political perspective pretty much dictates your opinion.  As a matter of fact, those who embrace a conservative ideology such as writers David Harsanyi and Jeff Greenfield have penned recent articles stating moving the games from Georgia is a mistake.  Worse, they point out MLB has been tricked or bullied by those with a “left-wing” ideology!  What?  They point to Colorado having some voting guidelines which some might consider suppressive.   What they fail to realize is unlike Georgia they did not change laws after swearing everything was alright.  So, what they try and communicate to their readers is what some might call a “red-herring.”

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There are thirty MLB teams and each one thirst at the opportunity to host the All-Star game.  When they selected Truist to host the 2021 event it was a no-brainer as it was fit to be a great host.  Then came the darn 2020 general election which included voting for president.  By normal standards the election wasn’t even close.  It was just a matter of counting all of the ballots.  Lo and behold Joe Biden snakebit Trump for the presidency and the cous de gras was Joe Ossoff and Rafael Warnock turned everything upside down by capturing the two Senate seats.  Immediately after professing everything was copasetic, someone must have tinkered with the legislators and Kemp’s water?  They immediately went to work and inadvertently bought into Trump’s malarky (Biden) and other’s that the voting system was indeed flawed.

Perhaps, it is like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell waking up and realizing it has been the donations from major corporations which fueled his ascent to power?  MLB surely woke up.  They realized the new law was a ruse where you give one but take two or three or however you define it, the outcome is to make voting more difficult for a certain part of the electorate.  By another definition that is called voter suppression.  Most will confess, in political races you don’t need to win by a zillion.  A couple here, a couple there and even though it may be a close race, victory can be had.  Many corporations sided with MLB and promptly issued their public outcry that the new bill was a solution looking for a problem.

Poor Jared Polis who is the Governor of Colorado was minding his own business.  I mean it is April and Christmas has long passed and won’t return for a couple of months.  His state was already on MLB’s roster to host an upcoming All-Star game.   However, since Kemp couldn’t muster up the courage to maintain his position that Georgia’s recent election was in order, he kowtowed to those like Trump and other malcontents and the result is his gift to Polis.    

MLB quickly ratified the move and the rest is history as Georgia is left wandering like Rip Van Winkle felt once he awakened.  “What the hell just happened????” And to add insult to injury Kemp’s move forced MLB to demand Atlanta Braves players cover over any and all All-Star logos.