On Thursday afternoon, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the league will be moving its annual All-Star Game and accompanying All-Star Week back to Atlanta in 2025. What baseball fans didn’t hear from Manfred, however, was an apology.
In 2021, MLB and Manfred moved the league’s All-Star operations from Atlanta to Denver, Colorado, following pressure from high-profile Democrats to pull out of Georgia in protest of state Republicans’ voting law, SB 202. Despite containing commonsense provisions such as voter ID requirements for absentee voting, SB 202’s passage prompted Democrats to launch an unhinged smear campaign against the law. This included baseless accusations that the statute would “suppress” non-white voters and harm “voting rights.”
The most egregious attack, however, came from President Joe Biden, who grossly labeled SB 202 as “Jim Crow on steroids” and called on MLB to pull its All-Star events out of Georgia.
Manfred acquiesced to the president’s demands not long after. In his statement announcing the move, the commissioner regurgitated Democrat talking points by falsely claiming SB 202 created “restrictions to the ballot box” hindering citizens’ ability to vote. He also asserted the company’s decision represented “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”
That same year, Manfred said bringing the league’s All-Star events back to Atlanta would “certainly be an option at some point in the future,” but that he would first “need to see” change before that could happen.
MLB did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on what made Manfred change his mind about moving the league’s All-Star events back to Atlanta, even as SB 202 remains Georgia law.
But it wasn’t just Georgians’ faith in their state’s election system that was damaged by MLB and Democrats’ vicious lies. The league’s decision to pull out of Atlanta also significantly harmed Georgia’s economy. Some business leaders estimated MLB’s move cost the state “upwards of $100 million” in lost revenue.
Contrary to MLB and Democrats’ slanderous claims the law would suppress Georgians’ ability to vote, the state saw record early voter turnout for the 2022 midterms and subsequent Senate runoff election. A poll conducted after the midterms also revealed that zero percent of black Georgia voters said they had a “poor” experience voting in the 2022 contest.
Furthermore, a Georgia district court judge struck down a Democrat-backed challenge to SB 202 last month. In denying the request that an injunction be placed on the law, Judge J.P. Boulee ruled that the Biden administration and Democrat plaintiffs were unable to provide any evidence showing that SB 202 discriminates against black voters.
MLB did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether the league or Manfred will apologize for falsely claiming SB 202 would restrict Georgians’ ability to vote and for the economic harm the league’s decision caused the state of Georgia and its residents.