All-Star Boycott Coming? Baseball Players Lash Out at Arizona Immigration Law

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: In The News

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols hits a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, July 10, 2009, at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

(Credit: AP)

With the All-Star Game set for tonight in Anaheim, opponents of Arizona's controversial immigration law are spotlighting comments from Major League Baseball players opposing the law - including some who says they would boycott next year's All Star game in Phoenix over the legislation.

"I'm opposed to it. How are you going to tell me that, me being Hispanic, if you stop me and I don't have my ID, you're going to arrest me? That can't be," St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols told USA Today.

Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Jose Valverde told the Arizona Republic the law is "the stupidest thing you can ever have."

"Nothing against Americans, but us Latinos have contributed so much to this country," Valverde said. "We get our hands dirty and do the work gringos don't want to do. We're the ones out there cleaning the streets. Americans don't want to do that stuff. "

Another All-Star, Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo, added, "If the game is in Arizona, I will totally boycott."

Here's the San Diego Padres' Jerry Hairston Jr., speaking to ESPN: "It reminds me of seeing the old movies with the Nazis when they ask you to show your papers. It's not right. I can't imagine my mom -- who's been a U.S. citizen longer than I've been alive, who was born and raised in Mexico -- being asked to show her papers. I can't imagine that happening. So it kind of hits home for me."

And Padres catcher Yorvit Torrealba, on next year's game: "I think they should move [the game], because it's going to be a lot of Latin players in the All-Star Game. I guarantee you they want to take their families. In my mind, I would be like, 'I wonder if my family is all right here?' That's why they should move it; that way nobody has to worry about that stuff."

"If I'm voted [into the All-Star team] I'm going to have to really think about [playing], because I have a lot of friends that are not white," added teammate Heath Bell. "Sometimes you need to stick up for your friends and family."

While many baseball players don't much like the Arizona law, polls have shown that a majority of Americans support the measure. A new poll out of Pennsylvania shows that voters in that state "approve 52 - 27 percent of the Arizona law and by 60 - 27 percent they think the Obama Administration's lawsuit to block its implementation is a bad idea."

The Republic reports that a small group of protesters, armed with a petition with more than 100,000 signatures, called on Commissioner Bud Selig to move the All Star game over the immigration measure -- something he is unlikely to do. There have also been calls for baseball to move its Cactus League Spring Training games out of Arizona.

In May, the Phoenix Suns basketball team wore "Los Suns" jerseys "to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation" in response to the law.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by Cyberposter July 15, 2010 6:52 PM EDT: It's amazing how the anti-immigrant loo*nies keep playing the "illegal alien" card, when the US was founded on the illegal invasion of the American continent by Europeans and the slaughter of most of the Native inhabitants. Mexicans are mostly an Native American population, whose ancestors have been in this continent for thousands of years.

After independence, the formerly Spanish territories were under Mexican control. Mexico forbid Anglo immigration. Gr*ingos consistently broke Mexican law when they illegally invaded California and the Southwest. In Texas, the Mexican government had given permission for some whites to emigrate. But thousands more Anglo immigrants, or criminals, arrived illegally.

Prior to 1823, there were less than three thousand white people in Texas. At that time, the Mexican government had given Stephen Austin permission to live there along with a few hundred other gr*ingos, with the condition that they would become Mexican citizens, they would speak Spanish, and they would pledge allegiance to the Mexican government. But white colonists began to enter the territory illegally and brought their slaves with them. Within a decade, whites outnumbered the Mexican inhabitants. Whites were interested in the rich agricultural lands of the Texan territory. These were the illegal ali*ens of their day, see Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. By 1830, whites outnumbered Mexicans 25,000 to 4,000.

Houston Chronicle's Rick Casey writes: "Some ill*egals came to escape debts or domestic obligations. Some were simply adventurers. Some were fugitives from justice, "sporting brands on their faces marking them as miscreants." (Think gang tattoos, only not voluntary.) Some of these, not surprisingly, continued their criminal careers in Texas. Colonists who caught them at it considered the Mexican prohibition of the death penalty to be inconvenient and carried out executions. These immigrants not only entered illegally or violated the terms of their legal entry, but rather than keep their heads down and try to fit in, they lived in active defiance of the law. So much so that the Mexican government in 1830 passed a law barring all new American immigrants from entering Texas."

According to Mexican Lieutenant Jose Maria Sanchez, the foreign intruders ?have taken possession of practically all the eastern part of Texas, in most cases without the permission of the authorities. They immigrate constantly, finding no one to prevent them, and take possession of the sitio (location) that best suits them without either asking leave or going through any formality other than that of building their homes.?

The Anglo invasion of Mexican territory was not confined to Texas. They arrived in droves and illegally occupied great parts of the Southwest and California. California Governor Pio Pico warned of how "we find ourselves threatened by hordes of Yankee immigrants who have already begun to flock into our country and whose progress we cannot arrest."

By the late 1800s, Anglos had acquired four fifths of the Mexican land. See A History of Multicultural America, by Ronald Takaki. Six years after Texas independence, 1.3 million acres had been seized by 13 anglos. David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas.

Believing in its racist ideology to wipe out other races by killing Native Americans and stretching to the Pacific Ocean, the United States had previously offered to purchase the Mexican territories of California, New Mexico, and Arizona for $15 milion. Mexico had indignantly refused the offer. Just as George Bush used the pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction to attack Irak, US President James Polk then instigated war against Mexico in 1846 in hopes of acquiring Mexican territory. The US forced Mexico to cede its territory under US military occupation. Most historians agree that this war was unjustified. Opponents of the war included Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Clay, Mark Twain and Daniel Webster.

But this unjust and illegal war cannot be justified, just as I cannot break into your house, put a gun to your head, and force you to sell me your house for $5.; Reply to this comment


by dadirt July 15, 2010 12:10 PM EDT: I guess major leage baseball owners can put a bunch of money into their pockets because the get the latins for cheap. Kind of like crop pickers. How can anybody fault a start for upholding the laws we allready have. Glad I don't support major league baseball. Those that do should consider boycotting baseball until they wise up! Take it where it hurts, out of the ball players owners pockets.; Reply to this comment


by svivar9087 July 15, 2010 12:10 PM EDT: How did we become such a hateful, intolerant society. I have friends overseas that just can't believe the ignorance, that was once just an opinion, prove to be true.; Reply to this comment


by ArnoldJRimmer July 15, 2010 8:35 AM EDT: Oh look, Multi-Millionaire Liberals who are ignorant of the law and have feign outrage.
Maybe we should boycott them!; Reply to this comment


by endurorob_5 July 14, 2010 8:14 AM EDT: I hadn't realized baseball players were such idiots.; Reply to this comment


by legendlime July 14, 2010 1:21 AM EDT: LANSING, Mich. - Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox plans to file a legal brief supporting Arizona's immigration law and sent a letter Monday asking other state attorneys general to join him.
I guess that means Valverde who plays for the Detroit Tigers will have to boycott games in Michigan. Valverde stand up for what you believe and stay home.; Reply to this comment


by RobAla July 14, 2010 1:01 AM EDT: These guys who make $millions chasing balls around in a stadium, should stick to chasing balls around in a stadium.; Reply to this comment

by TXGal99 July 14, 2010 12:43 AM EDT

I do not expect the likes of Pujols, Gallardo, or Valverde to understand the complexity of the immigration laws in this land, since they or their families fled the Dominican Republic and Mexico to come to this land of opportunity. They became multi-millionaires entertaining people through sports. I wonder how they would feel if we crashed the gates to their properties and set up our homesteads. I am certain they would try to evict us from their property since they hold the legal title to it. Well, we are trying to evict or make it extremely unattractive to people who have entered this country without the property authority and set up shop in our homeland. Furthermore, I am certain that Mr. Pujols and Mr. Valverde would not dare to speak so freely against the Dominican government's immigration policies. Remember Haiti is their neighbor and they do not allow the Haitians to cross the border freely to escape their economic hardships. So to the baseball players, until you become educated about the immigration issue, keep playing ball and thank God there are people who are willing to pay you millions to play a game in this country!

Reply to this comment


by endurorob_5 July 14, 2010 8:18 AM EDT: Very well said.


by TXGal99 July 14, 2010 12:40 AM EDT: I do not expect the likes of Pujols, Gallardo, or Valverde to understand the complexity of the immigration laws in this land, since they or their families fled the Dominican Republic and Mexico to come to this land of opportunity. They became multi-millionaires entertaining people through sports. I wonder how they would feel if we crashed the gates to their properties and set up our homesteads. I am certain they would try to evict us from their property since they hold the legal title to it. Well, we are trying to evict or make it extremely unattractive to people who have entered this country without the property authority and set up shop in our homeland. Furthermore, I am certain that Mr. Pujols and Mr. Valverde would not dare to speak so freely against the Dominican government's immigration policies. Remember Haiti is their neighbor and they do not allow the Haitians to cross the border freely to escape there economic hardships. So to the baseball players, until you become educated about the immigration issue, keep playing ball and thank God there are people who are willing to pay you millions to play a game in this country!; Reply to this comment

by KyleMucerPhD July 14, 2010 12:24 AM EDT

It is very interesting that these professional ball players are being persecuted for standing behind something they believe in. Many of you sound uneducated and are acting like jealous little children who are not getting their way. Grow up.

You are correct barb_az when you say "Whatever....what does it mean to destroy a whole state? Who cares? We are all racist here in Arizona. Get used to it. We are...... whatever......"

It is clear that there is a strong history of racism in Arizona and people should not expect less. Like most things, this law will eventually change and Arizona will join the other states. Much like their flip flopping over the Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

Cheers!

Reply to this comment


by legendlime July 14, 2010 1:17 AM EDT: PhD People are just expressing their opinion, how are the Players being persecuted? Yeah lets take our overeducated opinion and stir the pot.