Baseball Fails Again
Photo by Matt Dodd
As the Baseball Playoffs are in full swing, I’d like to address one issue that had occurred earlier in the season. Another glaring incidence of ignorance that has been allowed to continue in our lives. For many years, Major League Baseball (MLB) has tried to do the right thing, but fear of losing dollars and upsetting a few players has stayed their hand.
MLB has discouraged teams from wearing Pride logos on uniforms. This in an effort to supposedly protect the players. But what they actually said was that this policy was to placate players that were not comfortable or flat out refused to wear a Pride logo. MLB is hiding behind this statement to sleep at night. They say this about the new policy. “Not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views”. So, player safety was not the real reason after all. The funny thing is that MLB is in total control. If players do not want to wear the logo, then suspend them from the league. Where are they going to go? Will they go play in Japan or Venezuela? I pretty sure that will not happen. What? Oh, they are some of our better players? So, what! They play for us, the people. We buy the tickets, the merchandise, the parking and the food. Those are our dollars players get paid with. We should have a right to say what happens in some things. And if we want to have a special night for the LGBTQ+ community then we should be able to have one.
League wide, 29 of 30 Major League teams hosted a Pride celebration. Good for them! The Texas Rangers were the only team that did not. No surprise there. In 2022 Several Tampa Bay Rays refused to wear rainbow Pride gear due to personal beliefs. MLB “Did not want uniform space to promote specific causes that were not league driven.” Why is it not league driven?
At one time MLB did not allow Black players to grace its fields. When Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the color barrier there were horrible repercussions. As the first Black man to play in the Major Leagues, Robinson endured more than any could ask of one man. But he stood tall and won a tremendous victory for his race and mankind. Today Jackie Robinson is celebrated by all of baseball. Every team in every city stands up to represent this special man. Who will be the “Jackie Robinson” for the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, not the Commissioner of MLB, Rob Manfred.
I have heard people say that they do not want these issues put into their faces. Fight your fight but keep me out of it. But that is part of the problem. The fight needs these issues in the forefront. And it needs people to step up and help. I understand that there are differing points of view out there in the world. But to discriminate and hold down a group of people because it is inconvenient for you or your beliefs then that is just too bad. Get off the couch and join the Human Race. And that goes double for professional sports and other highly visible public entities. The LGBTQ+ community are human beings, please treat them as such.
