Boycott the Arizona Diamondbacks?
That seems to be the growing sentiment by a number of folks upset about the passing of SB1070 - the new Arizona immigration law. The tie between the Diamondbacks and the law is that the owners of the Diamondbacks - the Kendrick's - are big contributors to the Arizona Republican party and the Republicans in power in Arizona are behind this new law.
This is of course relevant to the Cubs who play the Diamondbacks for the next 4 games in Wrigley and plenty of folks around the country are upset and some of them will be protesting today outside Wrigley and I assume throughout the weekend. The Cubs for their part are attempting to stay neutral by not allowing some scoreboard messages that protesters tried to buy. I can only hope that policy has always been enforced. Of course, it's a bit of slippery slope for the Ricketts who are counting on the same Arizona politicians behind this law to deliver them a new deal on their spring training complex, and I'm sure aren't interested in ruffling anymore feathers.
The law is absurd and most likely unconstitutional and I only hope the good people of Arizona vote out the people in power behind it. But the rhetoric from some of the opponents using terminology like apartheid and leading to WWII prison camps is from the same extremist fountain of bullshit that gave us President Obama is a facist and the socialism of health care reform. Different sides of the coin, but both guilty of trying to stoke the flames and frenzy up the crowd, rather than intelligent debate on the real issues.
The Cubs and sports in general are an escape to me from everyday life. And when the two worlds collide like this it's really no fun for me. And damnit, baseball is suppose to be fun as is running this blog. So I support the protesters and the boycotts, but hit them where it hurts. If you're against this bill, boycott actual Diamondback games in Arizona or boycott spring training, that's the type of stuff that worked when Arizona wouldn't honor the Martin Luther King holiday. In the meantime, let's snap this losing streak.
*Johnson, *Drew, Upton, Reynolds, *LaRoche, Young, Gillespie, Snyder, Kennedy
vs.
Theriot, *Fukudome, Lee, Ramirez, Byrd, Soriano, *Fontenot, Soto, *Lilly
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