MLB Shoots Itself In The Foot While Bending Knee To Woke Left — Again

Major League Baseball (MLB) should have learned a valuable lesson in 2021 after it humiliated itself by moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta due to pressure from the woke left-wing mob and its dishonest opposition to the state of Georgia’s election integrity law that simply made it easier to vote and harder to cheat.

Sadly, it looks like MLB and its Commissioner Rob Manfred didn’t get the memo. Instead of standing up for the U.S. Constitution and against political strong-arming by the unhinged left — it’s come to light that the league apparently threatened some San Francisco Giants players recently who dared to display biblical verses on their caps in response to the team’s gay pride night that had the Giants wearing hats with a rainbow theme.

Let’s be frank; kneeling at the altar of wokeism and political correctness is not a good look for baseball, particularly when it involves an attack on Christianity. Congress should demand that Commissioner Manfred and other representatives from MLB testify before Congress about their horrendously flawed and biased lack of judgement. (RELATED: ‘Mother’ Is Not A Problem To Be Solved)

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri hit a home run in his letter to the commissioner when he courageously wrote, “The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate. Americans of every creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime will not single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league’s own choosing.”

It would be smart for baseball brass to voluntarily come forward without delay to state in no uncertain terms that the First Amendment and religious liberty rights extend to their players and employees 100% of the time — full stop. One has to wonder how MLB would have reacted had a player displayed a verse from the Quran as opposed to the Bible.

I think we all know the answer to that question — and that’s the problem.

Donning a biblical verse or symbol isn’t controversial and MLB needs to explain what on God’s green Earth it was thinking. For tens of millions of Americans, this fully appropriate expression of one’s faith is no different than a cross attached to a necklace or pinned to a uniform. The same goes for Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or any other religious symbolism for that matter — and that’s one of the many things that makes the United States of America an exceptional and unique country.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s historic 2024 re-election that saw wokeism, cancel culture, and anti-American DEI policies summarily defeated at the ballot box, the Christian symbolism matter in San Francisco was the perfect opportunity for Major League Baseball to get it right this time around. Instead, they chose to double down on failure and a mind-blowing display of ignorance regarding the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the God-given protections that every American is supposed to be able to enjoy without fear of reprisal.

For MLB to adhere to the same old broken playbook as radicalized Congressional Democrats is a tragic mistake that must be corrected — it just takes some Trumpian guts.

Unlike its boneheaded decision to move the All-Star game in response to a law that actually paved the way for record voter turnout — the exact opposite of the woke left’s “Jim Crow 2.0” lie that the league’s front office swallowed hook, line and sinker — Commissioner Manfred should have just done the right thing and let those Christian players freely exercise their First Amendment rights, just like he allowed the San Francisco Giants to speak out in support of gay rights.

Imagine that!

MLB of course has the same free speech rights as any other individual, corporation, or organization and can advocate for any cause it chooses, but in return it must also allow others to exercise their own constitutionally protected rights. When families come out to the ballpark to take in a game and eat hot dogs and peanuts, the last thing they want to be talking about is politics or violations of the First Amendment by Major League Baseball.

Moving forward, MLB would be wise to stick to what it’s good at: promoting and protecting the quintessential American game of baseball in all its glory.

David Bossie is the president of Citizens United and served as a senior adviser to the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign. In 2016, Bossie served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President and deputy executive director for the Trump-Pence Transition Team.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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