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MLB moving All-Star Game from Georgia after state passes....
new restrictive voting laws!Major League Baseball announced today that this season's All-Star Game and draft will not be held in Atlanta in response to Georgia's recently passed laws that placed new restrictions on voting.
The new host city for the July 13 game has yet to be announced, according to the league.
"Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft."
"Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," Manfred said in the statement.
The new law in Georgia introduces new impediments to voting, reducing the number of drop boxes in heavily African American areas and allows the state to intervene to assert control over the conduct of elections in Democratic counties.
Last edited by Spunky (4/02/2021 5:35 pm)
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Re: MLB moving All-Star Game from Georgia after state passes....
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump have weighed in on Major League Baseball's decision to move its All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to Georgia's new sweeping election law that imposes significant new obstacles to voting.
Obama on Saturday congratulated the league "for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens," following MLB's Friday announcement.
The Democrat's tweeted support of the move struck a starkly different tone from the rump's statement late Friday that called for a boycott of baseball and all of the "woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections.
"With its Friday announcement, MLB said it still plans to honor baseball legend and Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who played for the Atlanta Braves, at the All-Star Game.
In his Saturday tweet praising the league's move, Obama added that "there's no better way for America's pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who always led by example."
The new host city for the July 13 game has yet to be announced, according to the league.
Last edited by Spunky (4/03/2021 12:09 pm)
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Re: MLB moving All-Star Game from Georgia after state passes....
Georgia was key to President Joe Biden's victory over Trump in November, and Biden has called the bill "Jim Crow in the 21st Century" and "an atrocity." On Wednesday, he told ESPN -- before the MLB made its decision -- that he would "strongly support" moving the game out of Atlanta.
Atlanta's Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Saturday that the MLB's decision would likely be the "first of many boycotts of our state to come" and urged Republican state lawmakers, who passed the measure, to repeal it or make changes.
Bottoms said that while she doesn't like MLB's decision to pull the game from her city, "I certainly understand it," adding that "it is hurting our economy and it's my hope that, finally, leaders across the state will listen."
"Just as the legislators and the governor made the decision to go forward with this bill, people are making decisions not to come to our state. And it's going to impact millions of Georgians, employment, small businesses, our corporations, and it's very unfortunate," she said.
Last edited by Spunky (4/03/2021 12:14 pm)
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