Put baseball ahead of political games

Politics and sports have been mistakenly intertwined for years. MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred's announcement that the league awarded the 2025 All-Star Game to the Atlanta Braves serves to push politics out of baseball. This announcement comes four years after moving the game from Truist Park to Denver’s Coors Field over objections to changes in Georgia’s voting rights laws. People are allowed to disagree. These disagreements should not take over the game.

Atlanta was initially chosen to host the 2021 All-Star Game and festivities back in May 2019. However, MLB abruptly shifted gears in April 2021, just three months ahead of the event, relocating it to Coors Field. This sudden move sparked widespread criticism and support alike, with detractors arguing vehemently against Georgia's perceived restrictive voting laws. Manfred's decision to pull the plug on Atlanta's hosting duties came after conversations with individual players and the Players Alliance, a coalition of black athletes catalyzed by George Floyd's death in 2020.

Manfred said of the decision in 2023, “I made the decision in 2021 to move the event, and I understand, believe me, that people had then and probably still have different views as to the merits of that decision.”

Decisions like these should not have to happen. These events take years of planning to execute both safely and effectively. Nothing should interrupt that practice. This is not to say players are not allowed to express their discontent with certain laws or moments in our society. They have a fundamental right to free speech. The difference is that the league should not let that alter the game, particularly one as sacred as America’s pastime.

There is a middle ground in this conflict that no one is talking about, but it is a middle ground many people already live with. It is to limit any speech that can be construed as partisan to be off of the field. These players have massive social media followings, so they can use those to advocate or distance themselves from causes. This allows players the freedom to express their identities, but when they perform their duties, they must set aside their personal ideologies. Many careers already use this practice.

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The International Olympic Committee already heavily regulates political speech within its Games. This is a model to adjust and follow for the future of sports in America. From the disqualification of Tommy Smith and John Carlos in response to their famous Black Power salute in Mexico City in 1968 to forbidding Ukrainian athletes from wearing black armbands in memory of victims of violent conflicts in the country at the 2014 Winter Olympics, the IOC has always acted swiftly to discourage mixing Olympic sports with political protest. Even the most well-intentioned protesters have been punished because they brought viewpoints to their event.

The most favorable solution is to regulate speech in the building of gameplay or while in team uniform. The players, when on their own time, can do whatever they’d like. The fact we have not found an appropriate way to address this problem is ridiculous.