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Apr. 11—DENVER — The people in charge now are not doing what they say they’re doing. They’re doing the opposite of what they say they’re doing.
They’re hurting the people they claim to help.
Take the MLB All-Star Game stolen from Georgia and gifted to Colorado. Perfect example. The same week Major League Baseball appeased scaredy-cat billionaire corporate types by moving the All-Star Game out of Georgia, The Masters conducted business as usual — in Georgia. CBS, ESPN and the event’s various corporate sponsors got their golf tournament, and Atlanta’s and Cobb County’s working class got the shaft.
Now Denver gets the All-Star Game on July 13 and Atlanta gets shorted the estimated $100 million windfall that comes with it. Denver’s 10-percent Black, by the way. Atlanta’s 51 percent Black. Squashing the latter’s biggest payday in 18 months sure is a funny way of achieving social justice.
But punishing the powerless is par for the course these days. It’s what the people now in charge do. It’s what the press that enables them readily and gleefully promotes. In the case of the All-Star Game, they just paid for a new round of political points by robbing Atlanta’s working class.
I’m not mad at the MLB All-Star Game coming to Denver. I grew up in Denver. I write about sports in Denver. Shoot, it’s not crazy to think Denver’s July could see both the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup finals played in LoDo, and now you’re going to serve MLB’s All-Star Game as a nightcap? Count me in for that hot mess of fun. The family vacation in Buena Vista can wait. I’ve lamented and written about the sad, predictable crash of downtown Denver. While projections of $100 million sound more like a feel-good campaign promise than a lock, the All-Star Game is a good thing for Denver.
Maybe by July you can even take peanuts into Coors Field. Who knows? A fan can dream.
But it comes at a painful cost to the good people of Atlanta who don’t deserve a paddling from the self-righteous. The CEOs and politicians who forced the move won’t lose a damn thing over this. Their checks cash just the same.
“I don’t think it should be lost at how controversial it is to move the game. It’s a big deal,” said Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon, who grew up near Atlanta and calls it home.
“Everything that is so great about getting that game is what’s so bad about it leaving Atlanta. It’s going to really hurt those people and they’re going to miss out on an incredible opportunity,” he said.
What should incense anyone with a heart is how the Zoom class continues to crush the communities that can least afford to be crushed. They promote lockdowns that elevate the rich and hurt the poor. They widen the education gap by keeping public schools closed while private schools follow the science and remain open. They demonized all manners of law enforcement, and anyone with a brain and without an agenda could guess what followed shortly after: the most dangerous surge in violence this country’s ever seen. But Cherry Hills isn’t getting shot up. Neither is Highlands Ranch, Golden or Parker. Try Five Points and Green Valley Ranch. Next up is the inevitable push for vaccine passports, and take one guess who’s going to be restricted the most when those go through: the communities with ample reason to distrust the medical community.
That’s because the people now in charge aren’t doing what they say they’re doing. They’re doing the opposite.
If you believe Georgia voters shouldn’t be restricted by having a free ID, 17 days of early voting, an absentee ballot that’s a click away and are incapable of packing their own water, no worries. Take the fight to Georgia. Protest there. Bring awareness to an issue whenever you see it. But stop punishing the little guy to benefit the box store. Don’t outsource $100 million that struggling small businesses surely had earmarked after the small business hell that was 2020.
This is coming from a Denver guy: MLB failed a struggling community on this one, and commissioner Rob Manfred should be ashamed. Maybe you’ll find him Sunday at Augusta. He’s a member.
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