Revenge of the Braves

Revenge of the Braves
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 25, 2021

For the first time since 1999 the Atlanta Braves will represent the National League in the World Series. While the series will open Tuesday, October 26 in Houston as the Astros will be the American League standard bearer, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred may not be welcome in either city.

Although Manfred was at the helm of MLB during the height of the Astros cheating scandal, only a couple players remain with the team. However, the Commish had better bring an umbrella to Truist Park in Atlanta for Game Three on Friday as the fans will rain down boos upon him like that of a monsoon for the dastardly act of spiriting away to Denver this year’s MLB All-Star Game from the home of the Braves.

Floundering in the middle of the National League Eastern division around the time of that All-Star break in mid-July, postseason seemed an out of reach fantasy, especially after losing two of their best players to serious injuries. Two-thirds of the Braves starting outfield went down for the count with season ending injuries - right fielder Ronald Acuna, Jr., one of MLB’s most exciting young players, and left fielder Marcell Ozuna. 

Heading into the All-Star break the Braves found themselves in third place with a record of a mediocre 44-45, and an even worse tally of 51-54 at the July 30 trading deadline. But the Braves maintained a busy trading schedule, swapping for right hand relief pitcher Richard Rodriguez and four outfielders, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, and the pearl-clad right fielder Joc Pederson, having such a fine postseason, he has been dubbed “Joctober.” Each of them, save for Rodriguez, had a better season once they joined the Braves, and the Braves took off like a rocket, finishing the last third of the season 37-19, for an overall record of 88-73, winning the East. Following the division win, the Braves dispatched the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Divisional Series, before sending the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers home in the National League Championship Series, setting up their date with the Astros in the World Series.

Now, the Braves are getting their revenge on Major League Baseball. After losing the All-Star Game and the MLB Draft to Denver for reasons that contradict reality, Manfred, who has made myriad awful decisions during his tempestuous tenure as MLB Commissioner, surrendered to the woke mob when announcing the move on April 2 that this is “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”

Stripping the city of Atlanta of the MLB All-Star Game was the misguided punishment levied by Manfred and MLB in response to the new Georgia voting laws. According to those opposing the amended law, who, quite frankly had not bothered to read it, say it limits minority access to the ballot and is a direct challenge to voters attempting to cast ballots by mail or in person, sans valid identification. 

In acts of cowardice and hypocrisy, Manfred, who obviously had also not read the bill/law, succumbed to the irrationality of the woke crowd and took their hysterical complaints at “face value,” said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. The Georgia legislature “passed common sense voting laws” to protect the integrity of elections, added Carr. 

People in Georgia support voter ID laws and the integrity of the drop boxes, said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), who signed the bill into law on March 25 of this year, prompting the outcry of the ignorant and Manfred’s feeble decision on April 2. Kemp indicated that this has been the “largest African-American voter turnout in the nation since 2018.” The governor added that early voting was occurring currently, “with no horror stories going on.” Kemp further pointed out that Colorado, the host of the All-Star Game, and Iowa, the August 12 host of the Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees Field of Dreams game, have “more restrictive voting laws than Georgia.”

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions at the ballot box,” said Manfred. Had Manfred bothered to conduct his due diligence and simply read the 95 page bill outlining the truth about the voting laws, all of this injudiciousness could have been avoided. Joe Biden also supported Manfred’s decision, yet another manner of knowing it was shortsighted from jump. (It should be noted that Biden’s adopted home state of Delaware does not enjoy early voting - much stricter than Georgia.) Most reports defining the bill as restrictive did so without any specific examples from the legislation itself.

ABC News reported on June 2, that Job Creators Network, a non-partisan business organization, filed a lawsuit for one billion dollars in punitive damages against Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association, Manfred, and MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark as co-defendants. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, the home base of Major League Baseball’s offices. Businesses, many minority owned, were predicted to lose $100 million during All-Star weekend. ABC inaccurately reported upon aspects of the bill/law, that, had they bothered to read the 95 page document, could have been avoided. Simple journalistic integrity.

While Manfred decided voter identification was too restrictive, it should be noted that across Major and Minor League Baseball, ID is required at stadium will call windows.

Job Creators Network sent a letter to Manfred objecting to his terrible decision, noting the importance of the All-Star Game to Atlanta and minority business owners. “Your decision is punishing the very group you claim to be defending,” wrote Alfredo Ortiz, representing Job Creators. “Small businesses in Georgia are hurting, and you pulled a multi-million dollar rug out from underneath them…. Don’t let activist groups weaponize America’s pastime to push radical ideas that Major League Baseball fans don’t support,” continued Ortiz.

“When big business teams up with politicians, they make bad decisions, and small businesses and their hardworking employees suffer the most,” said Darrell Anderson, a Black owner of a limousine service. “Politics should be decided at the ballot box. It has no place in making business decisions, like where to hold the All-Star Game,” continued Anderson, owner of ASG - Airport Shuttle Group, LLC.

According to a Rasmussen poll, the majority of Black voters opposed moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

And from the flip side, it is “ridiculous to inject politics in baseball,” Governor Kemp said, while eagerly awaiting Game Three of the Fall Classic to take the field at Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia.

Play Ball!, says this lifelong New York Mets fan, who in good conscience cannot root for the Braves, as they are divisional archrivals.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. The New Jersey native has been a loyal Mets fan since 1972. Ironically, this column was written on the 35th anniversary of the famed Mookie Wilson-Bill Buckner, Game Six of the 1986 World Series. Two nights later, the Mets would wrap up that World Series against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets have not won a World Series since. 

Biden's Meandering March Toward Socialism

Biden’s Meandering March Toward Socialism
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 20, 2021

I don’t care where they came from. I don’t care why they came here. If they are here illegally, they have broken the laws of the United States of America and are entitled to absolutely nothing, except a one way return ticket to their country of origin. Before they are appropriately deported, they must be fingerprinted and photographed - a national database must be established.

As for the unmitigated hypocrisy of Joe Biden and his cronies, if what they think is following the science, the science must be schizophrenic. Here’s the proof - as admitted by Biden press shill, Jen Psaki - that workers (American citizens) employed at a company of 100 or more employees must be vaccinated or risk losing their jobs and their ability to support their families. Yet, illegals, committing a crime by their mere presence in this country, are neither subjected to a Covid test or a mandatory vaccine. Psaki’s response: “Yes, that’s right.”

Why are the nation’s employers running scared of the Biden administration? Whether schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, corporations, manufacturers, and/or airlines - if they ALL simply refuse to mandate their employees to put a drug they may not want or need into their bodies. What do these employers think will happen? They will get fined $700,000? How does the government expect to collect this money - a punishment for not adhering to Biden’s hypocritical and inconsistent edicts? The vaccine-tax police? Employers of the nation UNITE.

If individuals want the vaccine - good - G-d bless. If they don’t, that’s good too, and G-d bless. The federal government cannot legally force drugs into our bodies. Are the vaccine police going to invade our homes, strap us down, and jab us with a needle full of a drug we may not need or want? This totalitarian behavior by the federal government will only become more severe and impactful on our lives. This is the slippery slope - first a drug - and people follow blindly - oh, right, it’s a public health crisis - but what next? Will the government ban certain foods because the Department of Health and Human Services determines are unhealthy for the general public? Or banning religious rites and practices because the government does not support or understand them?

The hypocrisy continues where public gatherings are concerned. BLM rallies and Antifa riots, arson, and vandalism are unpunished, acceptable activities, but a peaceful motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD is demonized as are outdoor Independence Day gatherings.

Congress has exempted itself from the Covid vaccine. What do they know that the rest of us don’t? Why have many thousands of doctors and nurses put their employment at risk because they have opted out of the vaccine? Again, what do they know that the rest of us don’t? Why is the federal government willing to have all these people, and possibly hundreds of thousands more, lose jobs heretofore deemed vital and essential for the past year and a half? Why is the federal government willing to put the American people in harm's way by weakening our military, numerous police and fire departments, as well as hospitals by having those essential workers fired for standing up for their principles, and their right to not put a drug in their bodies they may not want or need? Does this make America safer or stronger? 

For that matter, why should anyone spend their hard earned money in stores where rampant shoplifting goes unchallenged or unprosecuted? But that’s an issue involving well placed, far left, progressive district attorneys hand picked by the evil George Soros for the purpose of continuing to destroy the United States. But that’s not the only reason store shelves are increasingly bare.

The supply chain crisis is further impacted by the missing employees and increasingly exacerbated by the federal government continuing to encourage people to stay home instead of returning to their jobs.

“The shelves in our grocery stores are starting to resemble Third World countries,” said US Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), also a veteran having spent time the world over on active duty.

And taxes will rise to pay those not working as well as the ever steadily increasing numbers of illegals continuing to invade our borders - here illegally, yet being given free healthcare, education, food stamps, housing, and even obtaining driver’s licenses. Seven to eight billion people cannot be refugees and thus take refuge in the United States. The American taxpayer cannot continue to foot these bills, nor should they be required to do so. Eventually the American taxpayer will get tired of doing so, stop working, and like any socialist society, the government will run out of other people’s money.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.