Momentum is building behind efforts to pressure Major League Baseball to boycott Arizona over its un-American new immigration law, and as much as I’d love to see our Seattle Mariners take the lead in standing up for the rights of the Latino players and fans who are so important to the sport, it turns out that it is the Chicago Cubs who are in the best position to make an immediate and lasting impact.
The Cubs have been a mainstay of the Cactus League for more than half a century, since long before Arizona had pretensions of rivaling Florida for Spring training dominance. And while the number of Cactus League teams has recently surged to 15, the Cubs are still by far its biggest attraction, accounting for 22 percent of the league’s ticket sales, and injecting over $138 million annually into the Arizona economy along with an estimated 1,600 local jobs.
And yet the Cubs, at the end of their lease, and playing in the league’s most antiquated facility, are struggling to get the same kind of public/private financial commitments that have drawn a half dozen other MLB teams to Arizona over the past decade. With both the state and Mesa governments unwilling or unable to put up the money, and the other Cactus League teams roundly opposing a “Cubs Tax” to pay for a new $119 million complex, the Cubs are now being seriously wooed by a group of Naples Florida investors seeking to lure the team’s lucrative Spring training to that state’s Grapefruit League.
Which of course puts Cubs management in the perfect position to both strike a blow on behalf of social justice, while improving their own bargaining position.
And such a principled stance would be well suited to a team with 15 foreign-born players on its 40-man roster, hailing from a state where immigrants comprise 13.6% of the population, and immigrants and their children a full 26%. Illinois is now home to over 700,000 Mexican immigrants, the state’s largest immigrant group, and the obvious target of Arizona’s odious new law.
So given these circumstances, there are few teams in MLB with better reasons to voice their opposition to Arizona’s racist immigration law, and no team in a better position to do something about it.
I know there are those who object to sullying baseball with politics, but these self-proclaimed purists just don’t know their history. Baseball was at the forefront of institutionalized American apartheid in the post-Reconstruction era, and again at the forefront of desegregation 70 years later. There is no question amongst historians that Jackie Robinson’s performance on and off the field contributed significantly to the civil rights movement, and laid the groundwork for desegregation nationwide. There is also little question that the Dodgers profited handsomely from Branch Rickey’s dismantling of baseball’s color barrier.
The Chicago Cubs now have an opportunity to make history too. They are both the biggest draw in the Cactus League and the team best situated to make good on a threat to leave the state.
America’s pastime can and should take a stand against Arizona’s un-American immigration law… legislation that specifically targets both its players and its fans. And it’s time for Cubs fans to urge their team to lead the way.
leave politics out of this nations most sacred of sports for fucks sake.
If the Cubs do that, there will be a tremendous backlash from Cubs fans. You’ll see half-sold out Wrigley field.
http://www.fox11az.com/news/lo.....28474.html
“Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik says he’s received death threats, but he still won’t enforce Senate Bill 1070, unless he’s forced to. Dupnik calls the law signed by governor Jan brewer last week a ‘national embarrassment.’
“I think the law, as I have said, is unwise, it’s stupid, and it’s racist,” says Dupnik.
Surrounded by members of his border crimes unit, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik wasn’t shy about expressing his feelings on Senate Bill 1070, “The state law is unnecessary.”
Way to go Sheriff Dupnik!! Pima County is right on the México/AZ border and is a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise Conservotard state.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<:)
re 1: We’ll keep politics out of baseball if you’ll take the politics out of American Christianist clerics.
re 2: Care to make a wager on that?
@4…fail. You dont go to church anyway, WTF do you care?
It occurred to me that the timing of the passage of Arizona’s law is rather clever. Arizona certainly doesn’t want to risk losing its flood of winter tourists from the frozen north (and their money). Had this happened last fall, the manure could have indeed hit the propeller if one of Joe Arpaio’s good ol’ boys had ended up shaking down…oh, say Felix Hernandez. Instead, it happened oh, so conveniently after the Cactus League had adjourned. It’ll probably be challenged in Federal court and most likely be at least blocked by next fall, thus preventing not only a problem with tourism but a sudden shortage of cheap, compliant labor in construction and agriculture. In the meantime the Arizona GOP can make a bunch of trouble for the administration, distract everyone from more important things, and look like heroes to their drooling, gun-totin’ knuckle-dragging xenophobic base.
@3
Considering that Arizona is 30% latino it should be pretty easy to ignore the law.
@6
We are forced to care, because Christianists don’t keep -their- religion in church, but insist on stuffing it down everyone else’s throats.
Illegal is not a race.
[Deleted]
WTF is a “christianist”??
is this progressive “new speak” for christian.
and spare me, nobody is stuffing any religion down your throat…fing crybaby…
re 6: Fail on yourself. You don’t go to baseball games.
Is your position that only churchgoers can take the church out of politics. That’s stupid. The only reason they have a tax exempt status is on the premise that they stay out of politics.
I have to remind you again thaT WHEN YOU THROW A ROCK AT A PACK OF DOGS, the one that yelps is the one you hit — and you are yelping.
@12 Excuse me, but people who demand prayers in public schools (but only Christian prayers) or Ten Commandments displays (but not Torahs) in public buildings want to use the power of the state to force their religion on others.
Leave politics out of major league sports? Sure, jackass, as soon as MLB ceases to be covered by the political exemption from anti-trust regs, and pay market value for every damned one of their arenas, parks, and stadiums, oh, and while we’re about that, the tax-exempt luxury boxes for our betters in the executive suites whose investments in iffy bonds are being covered by my payments into the Social Security trust fund and my union IRA funds. Go fish.
re 12:
“So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist.”
http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....-2,00.html
@13..I’m a season ticket holder…I think I go to plenty of games.
and still, the only yelping I hear lately is when I give your wife the extra deep treatment..
Should sports teams boycott Washington State because our Governor headed a racist sorority in college?
@15…strawman fail….
Don’t be fatuous, Troll.
And Dr Dre is sad because his handle died, are you kidding about no one having their religion stuff down throats? Really? If I had a Roosevelt dime for every public prayer at mandatory get-togethers I’ve been at in my life (not family ones, either), I could afford to buy some real numbers of Apple stock. And yes, Christianist is our term for the American Taliban.
sounds like someone’s pussy is aching…
oh waaahhh..you had to endure a 2 minute public prayer…wahhhhhh
grow a sack….
re 17: “and still, the only yelping I hear lately is when I give your wife the extra deep treatment.”
Oh, Please. You couldn’t get a boner if a 20 year old stripper was rubbing her snatch on your little wee.
My my my…testy little christianist motherfucker isn’t he?
@19 Dr Dre is sad because his bat is hollow aluminum not solid wood, hand-waving isn’t a refutation. You lose.
24:
Maybe he’s pissed off about that term because it came from a true conservative thinker.
“Dr Dre is sad because his handle died”
I’m into humor today. Nice play on Puddy, Mark. I’m sure my friend the doctor can laugh at that one too.
Dr. Dre is as Christianist Cleric as he wanna be
RightThink is GroupThink.
DreTroll has probably gone to some wingnut site for his 10 minute hate.
@24:
A-yep. Whole mouthfulls of testys! It’s what teabaggers do!
Zotz, you rawk!
Zits and GBS Beria go into projection mode again….
@23…LMFAO…so says the old guy and ole wrinkly..
@25…nah, was done with the aluminum stuff in college….they didnt allow it after that
but you knew that….or maybe not….
@24..hey rujax! which church are you targeting tonight with one of your “visits”?? you going for broken windows or you gonna keep it mellow tonight and just tag the side of the building?
re 34: He’ll be too busy following you to make sure you keep your hands off the little boys.
Dre: Sure talks big for a coward.
Also, someone that stooopid should not be shootin’ off their mouth like that – liable to get it cracked.
By the way, I was aught to respect my elders and calling people names is a third grade level tactic (old and wrinkly?) – wow, is that the best you have. Go back to Faux news and take your minature brain with you.
Oh, I just love the way the GOP keeps putting one political foot on top of the other then exercising their 2nd Amendment rights vigorously!
African-Americans vote overwhelmingly Democrat, and have done so for generations. Now the GOP has delivered the Hispanic community to the Democrats for generations to come.
You know this law is bad for the Republicans when Karl Rove comes out against it.
Love Karl or hate him, he knows what influences elections and he knows this is peeling off Hispanic votes from the GOP.
Enjoy your radical Teabagger grandstanding. I know I’ve come to love it.
I hope to see MLB, including our Mariners, boycott AZ.
re 36: ….he was claiming to have boinked my wife.
So, if I’m old……
I thought Goldy was for immigration reform. Now that Arizona craft an immigration reform law, he’s calling it un-American. Why is Goldy flip-flopping on this issue?
@23 “a 20 year old stripper was rubbing her snatch on your”
I want one of those. And if you’ve got an extra one let’s give Goldy a present.
@38 “he was claiming to have boinked my wife”
He probably was just stating facts. We do that a lot around here.
Back in the days of Elian I was starting to actually believe that you wingnuts really wanted brown, illegal immigrants to cross America’s borders and take up residence here.
Momentum is building behind efforts to pressure Major League Baseball to boycott Arizona over its un-American new immigration law,
Goldy… The law was crafted after already passed US Law. Even most level headed live brained libtardos admit that. The Arizona law makes it criminal to be in Arizona once you’ve been found out to be illegal. The US Federales choose not to enforce it. Hop over the border to Mexico and see how you are tracked by Mexico when you enter. Ask them Goldy, if you ever make it there.
Hey it only makes sense to a progressive. Judge Napolitano already is on record saying illegals WILL RECEIVE health care under the new law through the constitutions equal protection clause so naturally it makes sense to try and make them citizens just in case the Supremes say illegals can’t have health care!
The link is available from the arschloch. He’ll gladly deliver it from his personal HA Blog copy to a libtardo Moonbat!.
Amazingly some levelheadedness, unlike the fools here on HA Libtardos.
The word of the day is ‘crafted’. It’s not just a law written by a former Bushista who has KKK ties and has been profiting from legal challenges to the law (he defends the govt. It’s ‘crafted’ into the laws). It’s been carefully ‘crafted’.
You dumbfucks have taken it in the ass again (or been ‘crafted’ in aforementioned orifice).
It’s refreshing to see how headless lucy@46 hates America and the country’s laws.
Good job headless lucy!
i’m amazed how lefties only favor unlimited mexican immigration….
@48 no, tabien nos gustan los chinos, los irlandeses, los colombianas, ai hombre hay muchas linditas alla, y los cubanos, guatemaltecos, salvadorenos, chilenos, todos….asi como los canadienses.
Por que lo mas vienen todos lo mas puedemos esperar a tener mas votos que derechistas chingadas como Vds., tan tontos que no sepan ni un idioma extranjera, jajajaja.
Cualquier imigrante de cualquier pais, les decimos bienvenidos a los EEUU, y quiere que le ayudemos a registrar para votar?
Ahorita los hispanos somos el 15% y los negors un otro 15% y si se echan encima los liberales es un otro 30% y si puedes contar.. .pues guey somos 60%…..buena suerte con este sueno de “los EEUU Blanquisimos Sobre Todos” jajajajaja!
pendejo!
@45 You pretending to know anything about “levelheadedness” is a fucking joke.
@48 “i’m amazed how lefties only favor unlimited mexican immigration….”
We don’t. That’s your ADHD getting out of control again.
@43 Elian was a simple child custody case, and a no-brainer at that. The kid’s mother attempted to flee Cuba with her young son but drowned during the difficult and dangerous crossing to Florida. The son made it alive, and his father living in Cuba wanted hin back. Distant relatives in Florida wanted to keep his kid away from him for political reasons. As a judge, it would take me 3 seconds to decide this case.
@48: “i’m amazed how lefties only favor unlimited mexican immigration….”
What do you have against free markets?
I just thank god that the illegals that are flooding this country are mexicans. they are hard little workers. imagine if it was some nation like nigeria or the congo that bordered us. what a fucking nightmare that would be.
How about if we simply adopt the same law in regards to immigrants and immigration that Mexico currently has in place? That’d be “fair” wouldn’t it?
49
Really poor attempt to speak Spanish. What you are trying to say is quite racist and grammatically very poor. You probably had a little high school Spanish, and then got on some internet site to help you out. Doesn’t work. Lo siento.
@55 Troll
It is God.
@49
beginning and end we like the Chinese, Irish, Colombian, there are many Lindita ai man there, and Cuban, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Chilean, everyone …. as well as Canadians.
Why are all the more what more can be expected to have more votes than right-Ching as Vds, so dumb they do not know or a foreign language, hahaha.
Any immigrant from any country, we say welcome to the U.S., and wants us to help you register to vote?
Right now, Hispanics are 15% and 15% negors another and if put the Liberals over a further 30% and if you have .. . Because we are 60% … dude .. good luck with this dream of “On All U.S. whitest” hahahahah
Az Re-enacts The Own Alien and Sedition Acts
This law was not written to deal with the very real problems of illegal immigration. As written, it is unenforceable if only because Az will not be able to pay the costs of imprisoning the illegals.
Oh yeh .. tell me bubbelah, when a citizen hiking in Az is stopped because someone thinks the hiker is a vagrant and the citizen does not want to show his driver’s license or maybe is not carrying it … Az will do what?
The authors of this law no doubt also foresaw its inevitable outcome, Az as a civil rights target makes good PR for the Tea bag suckers and disrupts efforts by the responsible folks in Congress to set priorities. Now imagine a few thousand civil rightsies jaywalking as a form of protest while carrying Mexican flags. The cops will do what about this? Imagine the contributions to the Palinistas when Beck does his Az is Oz show.
The real intent is provocation … more of the same effort by radical right to create chaos.
The sadness is that we do need real reform. The obvious way to do this is to have a national ID. Ideally this would be a biometric card that could be required at time of employment. No card, no job. A card law would also help with airline security, simplify border crossings with CAN and MEX, and greatly facilitates health care.
interestingly the Dem’s draft of an immigration bill already includes a national ID card! I wonder if the script for Beck’s show is already written?
Cross Posted at SJ
@59 hey nice try, use the computer. Brilliant. You are not so estupid I am thinking. Try this:
@48 No, we also like chinese, irish, colombians, wow those colombianas are hot, and cubans, guatemalans, salvadorans chileans, all of them…also canadians.
Because the more they all come the more we can expect to have more votes than you fucking right wingers, so stupid you don’t even know a single foreign language, heh heh.
Any immigrant from any country, we say to them welcome to the USA — and may we help you register to vote?
Right now we hispanics are 15% and the blacks are 15% and if you throw on top the liberals that’s another 30% and if you can count….hey doood we’re 60%…..
good luck with that dream of “The Super White United States Uber Alles” heh heh.
* De nada * amigos. Andale andale arriba arriba, Espeedy!
@57
“we welcome all immigrants” is racist?
Si no te gusta lo que he escrito — por que no se nos escribes algo tu, compay? Echar la culpa es facil, es mejor hacer algo ti mismo.
Por que luego no mamerias tanto, Sr. el uptight-white-liberal.
@57 ahora que has entrado en el sjeto:
Naci en un pais latino
He vivido en dos paises latinos
Tengo parientes (primos) en Chihuahua … si, ellos recordan bien a Pancho Villa hombre…
y tengo parientes cubanos tambien.
Me disculpes si te ofendi en cualqueir manera, no observo las regulaciones raciales que propones, me gusta leer y hablar en espanol, discupleme, jokay?
Y por que has preguntado lo estudi cuatro anos en la escuela, assisti un curso intensivo en Xela, hasta que estaba platicando con los maestros quienes trabajan con los guerrilleros al fin de los setenta, vivia en espana, trabajaba por el gobierno de espana, trabajaba en Spanish Harlem charlando en espanol con los clientes alla, y trabajaba en una compania internacional con clientes de todas partes de latino america, y tambien he viajado en mexico guatemala, nicaragua y costa rica.
espero que ahora me des permiso para hablar espanol.
Muchas gracias, culo.
Only a fucking moron could draw a relationship between AZ law and a baseball club’s roster of foreign-born players. What fucking part of “illegal” do you not understand?
re 57:
now that you have entered sjeto: Naci in a Latin country I have lived in two Latin countries I have relatives (prime) in Chihuahua… if, they recordan to Pancho Villa well man… and I also have Cuban relatives. You excuse if you ofendi in cualqueir way, I do not observe the racial regulations that you propose, likes to read and to speak in Spanish, discupleme to me, jokay? And so that you have asked estudi four anuses in the school, assisti course intensive in Xela, until it was platicando with the teachers that work with the guerrillas to the aim of the seventy, vivia in Spain, worked by the government of Spain, it worked there in Spanish Harlem chatting in Spanish with the clients, and worked in an international company with clients of all parts of Latin America, and also I have traveled in Mexico Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. I hope that DES now permission to speak to me Spanish. Thank you very much, ass.
re 64: I understand the part about it being illegal to hire undocumented aliens.
Which part of illegal are you talking about?
Gotta love headless lucy’s favrit peeps treating law officers to hot lead…
Wow CNN’s Jack Cafferty finally gets it… Oops… http://cnn.com/video/?/video/b.....travel.cnn
“Arizona’s tough new immigration law hasn’t even gone into effect yet and it’s already working. Mexico has issued an alert for Mexicans traveling to Arizona. Mexico urging its citizens to be careful that they may be harassed and questioned without further cause at any time should they go to Arizona. That’s not the case at all, of course, but it’s ironic, isn’t it? Travel warnings usually work the other way around with various countries warning their citizens not to go to Mexico because of all of the drug-related violence there.
However, no good deed goes unpunished. The Obama administration says it might challenge Arizona’s new law in court. They’re apparently concerned the law would take away resources needed to target criminals. How utterly absurd. There are 460,000 illegal aliens currently inside Arizona’s borders, and the reason they’re there is that the federal government refuses to enforce our immigration laws.”
Hey Jack, you are one of the few progressive leftists who gets it. Maybe you could talk to the HA pinhead progressives here on HA Libtardos.
@65
Como vas a competir en un mundo globalizado si no puedes hablar espanol? Este es el idioma tan facil para aprender, no es como el ruso, el chino o el arabe. Sin embargo, no puedes mas que traducir por maquina? Ai que tonto.
Miedo que nunca podran hablar chino o ruse si no puedes hablar espanol. Ai mames tanto guey!
Oh my Puddy missed this Jack Cafferty moment earlier this week.
“So Arizona passes a tough law against illegal immigration and suddenly they’ve got Washington’s attention. One poll finds 70 percent of Arizona voters support this new law, so hey, maybe we better do something, too. And like the lemmings they are when they smell a chance to score some political points, and some of them need a lot of help with the midterms coming up, there is now talk of rushing immigration reform through Congress. President Obama called the Arizona law misguided. What’s misguided, Mr. President, is the federal government’s ongoing refusal to enforce the laws that are already on the books. Read the Arizona law. Parts of it are word-for-word the same as the federal statutes which continue to be all but ignored. Now we’re hear all sorts of blathering from our Washington gerbils about the need for a new federal law. There’ll be news conferences and interviews and committee hearings and draft legislation and polling, all the usual carnival acts that accompany any hot button Washington issue. Instead of simply closing the borders and enforcing the existing law so they could turn their attention to something like the national debt and the fact that the country is bankrupt, instead we’re going to get this freak show. Washington’s position on illegal immigration is patently dishonest from the top down. No enforcement, no border security. Just pandering to the Hispanic voters and the corporations that hire the illegals. And then, when one of our states that’s being ravaged by the presence of 460,000 illegal aliens inside its borders does something about it, the President says that’s misguided. What a shame. Here’s the question: Will the federal government ever enforce our immigration laws?” Emphasis Puddy!
Jack, not if the NorthWest Division of Lunatic Progressive Moonbat!s have anything to say about it.
Hey headless lucy and other illegal loving leftist progressives… another of your friends in action…
“Illegal Immigrant Impregnates 13-Year-Old”