Arizona Immigration Boycott Zeroes in on Baseball

Major League Baseball has a strong presence in Arizona and a high number of Latino players, making it a prime target for opponents of Arizona's new immigration law who hope to persuade the state to change its divisive law through economic boycotts. Activists and sports columnists across the country are calling on baseball fans to ask the MLB to pull the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix and to relocate the spring training Cactus League.

Protesters are also already picketing Arizona Diamondbacks games. A small group gathered outside of Coors Field in Denver yesterday, the Denver Post reports, to protest the law as Phoenix's team took on the Colorado Rockies. About 40 protesters chanting "Boycott Arizona" and "Reform Not Racism" gathered outside of Wrigley Field Thursday as the Diamondbacks played the Chicago Cubs. They vowed to be back at the stadium for the next three days.

The controversial law, signed by Arizona's governor on Friday, would require immigrants to carry documents verifying their immigration status. It would also require police officers to question a person about his or her immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion" that person may be illegally in the country.

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva (D), among others, has called for a boycott of all things Arizona in order to fight the law. Many are making the case that a MLB boycott could have the biggest impact.

"Fifteen Major League Baseball teams now make Arizona's Cactus League the annual home of their Spring training, setting up MLB as the national organization that in both visibility and economic impact, could perhaps play the biggest role in pressuring the state to repeal," writes Seattle blogger David Goldstein.

Furthmore, Goldstein points out, 27 percent of Major League Baseball players are Latino, and 28 percent of the players are foreign born. The league also makes concerted efforts to reach out to Hispanic fans.

"So why should MLB and its teams continue to shower such immense economic largesse on a state that just passed laws intended to harass nearly a third of its players and the fastest growing segment of its fan base?" Goldstein writes.

"Major League Baseball has been identified immediately as a major target," Jeff Parcher, communications director of the Center for Community Change, told Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney.

"My Washington Nationals schedule shows the Diamondbacks come to town Aug. 13 for a three-game series," McCartney writes. "I expect I'll have something else to do that weekend."

Similarly, sportswriter Dave Zirin writes, "When [the Diamondbacks] arrive in my hometown in D.C., my back will be turned, and my television will be off. This is not merely because they happen to be the team from Arizona. The D-backs organization is a primary funder of the state Republican Party, which has been driving the measure through the legislature."

Zirin reports that Diamondbacks Managing Partner Ken Kendrick and two of his family members have made contributions to the Republican party totaling more than $1 million. The Arizona law was driven by Republicans in the state.

"If the owners of the Diamondbacks want to underwrite an ugly edge of bigotry, we should raise our collective sporting fists against them," Zirin writes.

A spokesperson for the team said Wednesday that Kendrick actually opposes the new immigration law, the Phoenix Business Journal reports. However, the team itself is politically neutral.

"The D-backs have never supported State Bill 1070 and have never taken political stances," a statement from the team said, the Business Journal reports. "The D-backs represent all of our employees, players, owners and fans who all have different political affiliations. It would be unfair and unjust for the D-backs to take a position because it can't be reflective upon everybody's views."

Mike Freeman, a national sports columnist at CBSSports.com, writes that it is in the sport's best interest, and perhaps morally imperative, for the All-Star Game to pull out of Arizona.

"The weighty power of sports leagues has always been utilized to help enact social change, going back to Jackie Robinson and beyond," Freeman writes.

Activists and columnists all point to the precedent set by the National Football League, which moved the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix to Pasadena, Calif., when Arizona refused to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Pulling the All-Star Game out of Arizona could cost the state millions. By comparison, the St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce and Growth Association estimated, before the game, that the 2009 All-Star Game would bring in an extra $60 million in business to St. Louis, the Atlantic reports.

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[ordphx]

Boycott......... It's your right. We really don't care. There will be more tickets for real Americans to attend the game then.......Let all the racist hispanics stay home, and everyone else can attend the game in peace. Works for me.

[arosek]

It is amazing how many negative things people have to say about illegals when they know nothing about them! Illegal immigrants DO PAY TAXES!!! Any illegal receiving a paycheck pays taxes out of each one. They just don't get any money back like I do at the end the year. They pay taxes every time they buy something! To those of you who say that they just mooch off of our system- how many illegals do you actually know? Because most of them are hard working, and most do NOT receive any type of government aid. Oh yes, and as for taking our jobs... Did any of you apply for the job of slaving in the fields for minimum wage???

[drthvader]

If the illegal receives food stamps he does not pay taxes for food.
Illegals pay no taxes usually. Most are paid off the record (under the table) They are hard working and sending their monies back to Mex.sometimes.
Also there is the criminal element that crosses the open borders that the State of Arizona is forced to live with. If the current president has a Katrina, this is it. BUT you and I are simply typing words of things in our own heads. You nor I can imagine what the open border states live with. About your statement ..most do NOT receive any type of government aid. I don't know where you live, but that's not the case here. These illegal aliens pay taxes out of their paychecks you say. How do they do that? If one is hired "under the table" there is no taxes paid. There are no employee records, no employee insurances paid. An undocumented alien has no paperwork, unless they use someone else's. They are undocumented. They don't exist.

[drthvader]

So you like corporate america..Funny the corporate farmers near the open border are losing property and money. Risking their lives to try to live themselves. Arizona is right. Also other border states. This is poltical and things to war over. Whatever is done will be a political move. Not because anybody cares about you or me as a person.
Politics can be brutal.

[icarebut]

I am really sorry we can't sit down and come up with a good solution to the "illegal issue" Yes my ancestors came to this country but they came"Legally" and they did not live off welfare, free medical and they paid their taxes I just don't see how so many people can't see that "illegal is illegal" and you can bet if the tables were turned Americans would be booted out of another country if we did not carry our weight..... How is boycotting an AMERICAN STATE a solution to anything??????????? So now the way to solve this is to hurt our own that are here "legally" great thinking???????????

[RollandGnavnakost]

You must be ignorant or something. The issue is not the legality of illegal aliens being in Arizona, the issue is about requiring police officers, and giving them the right, to stop any person who isn't white, and force them to bring proof that they're legal around with them every where. Sure you're "legal" but you can't tell me there's no illegal Caucasians running around in Arizona too, thus you better carry your proof around with you too just in case.

So you go to a ball game, and a cop stops a korean couple just because their english isn't perfect. And you, you get to walk by as if nothing is wrong. Sure, it means nothing to you, but what about the korean couple who are legal... is it fair for them to get stopped 100 times a year, anywhere and everywhere they go? That's racial profiling.

[arosek]

Do you know what should be illegal? People treating others like garbage. People like you thinking that just because their ancestors came here a long time ago, that they are more deserving of life's necessities, like food and medicine.
By the way, illegal immigrants DO pay taxes. Most do NOT receive any type of government aid. Did they take a job from you? Did you apply to go work the fields for minimum wage? How many illegals do you actually know?
You talk about carrying our own weight, well guess what- your weight is being carried by the "illegals" that you obviously think are less than you. Without them, your happy little world would not exist.
Maybe next time you encounter an "illegal", you should stop and say thank you.

[Delta9r]

Check out this forum with one guy that seems to be a voice of reason being drowned out by a clan of so called survivalists. Please take a min to make a comment on this forum and let them know that there are more than one voice of reason and that this IS racial profiling.
http://thebushmanforum.8.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1043

[doctorfurby]

Everyone does have to carry papers your drivers liscence and proof of insurance. If you don't have one or both you can have your car towed away in Texas.

[RollandGnavnakost]

And that's if you get stopped for some reason. Imagine getting stopped because you don't look white, or you don't speak perfect english. Come on, wake up.

[drthvader]

Probably not theirs, they're special.

[sneadster]

I had plans to go to 10 games this year in Atlanta. That is 40 tickets that I would have purchased! I will use that money to buy Arizona souvenirs! I was already going to go to Arizona because of the Mexican boycott. If there are no Mexicans there in the next 3 months it should be safe! I will be boycotting ALL MLB until they decide to get out of politics! They can't even keep their players in line, getting worse than the NBA!

[Dgunner]

When the option to break the law and continually get away with the act are removed . Only the law breakers and the people who support law breakers are the ones who shout the loudest. This makes it real easy to find the guilty.I don't think baseball is doing itself justice by getting involved. When the seats in the stands become empty and the salaries can't be met then the oppossers will be stepping back and saying perhaps we should have kept our mouth shut and just played ball. I wonder if mcdonalds is still hiring?

[mmvale]

Baseball should stay out of politics. Baseball is shooting itself in the foot.

[RollandGnavnakost]

So when spring training is around, considering that 27% of baseball are foreign, 26% are Hispanic, how much do you wanna bet that there will be plenty of cops stopping even some of these foreign players and requiring them to carry proof? That's why baseball is involved. If this law stays, cops better pull over white and black folks also, because who knows, they could be illegal also.

[underdogus2009]

There are many valid points, however, this smells of Nazism. Our drug addictions in America, has more to do with our weak will than people bringing drugs into our country. Typically, people do not like to admit their own short comings, we enjoy pointing fingers. With that being said, there is a right and wrong way to get things done. I do not believe that America needs to adopt the practices of China (suffering from communism since 1949). The people of this country have been made discontent by the media. Do not forget, your family was once new to this country. Here is something else to think about. Germany, fell victim to Nazism when its finances were also in the air. I am not sure how educated you are about world politics or ideologies, but study up, we as Americans are in for a long ride.

[compton79]

ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL AFTER ALL ....WHATS THE BIG FUSS ?????????????

[underdogus2009]

Immigrants have been coming here legally and illegally since the land was settled. You could argue that at least half of the south was stolen and thus settled illegally--first from the natives who lived here and then from tejano farmers. They will continue to come as long as America remains a bastion of freedom and hope. There is no stopping this.

[drthvader]

underdogus...This is a political and Illegal issue not an issue of racism.