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Strike Three: Major League Baseball’s Sordid Romance with Race-Baiting Politics
American Thinker.com ^ | August 1, 2020 | John Eidson

Posted on 08/01/2020 4:20:06 AM PDT by Kaslin

My passion for professional baseball began when I was ten. In 1954, my parents signed me up for a Little League team at the U.S. Air Force base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The six teams in the league were named after major league teams back in America.

I ended up on the team named after the Brooklyn Dodgers. With my interest in big league baseball piqued, I made a Dodgers scrapbook of articles cut from the U.S. military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes. The first clipping in my scrapbook was the line score of Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

In 1957, I mailed the scrapbook to the Dodgers shortly before the team moved to Los Angeles. A few weeks later, it was returned to me with signatures of every player on the team, including legendary baseballers Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Tommy LaSorda, Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres, the ’55 World Series MVP who pitched a 2-0 shutout of the Yankees in the deciding game.

When the signed scrapbook arrived, I was hooked on major league baseball. In short order, I’d learned the names of the top players of every major league team. Over the years ahead, I watched a ton of baseball, mostly on TV. Watching games was a relaxing pastime that took my mind away from the inevitable anxieties of life, things like worrying about my grades at Georgia Tech, health setbacks, the Cold War and Wall Street bear markets. Later on, baseball helped distract me, at least in brief increments, from the indescribable emotional pain of losing the only woman I ever loved to suicide.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: baseball; sjw; sports; woke
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1 posted on 08/01/2020 4:20:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I was a fan of the SF Giants since 1969, in the days of Mays, McCovey, Marichal and Perry. In the ensuing years, I followed and cheered for the Giants though prosperous years and miserable ones. No matter what, they were “my” team.

But then came last week’s kneeling antics, and just like that, I was done.


2 posted on 08/01/2020 4:25:36 AM PDT by ScottinVA (It's over. Split the country... it can and should be done.)
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To: Kaslin

Blacks and Whites were better off in the 80’s.
More Blacks and Whites were married.
You could still exist on one income, with the mother raising the children.
We are in serious retrograde right now.


3 posted on 08/01/2020 4:25:41 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: ScottinVA

I train for, and play, sports.
It’s far more exciting to hit a home run in a meaningless Adult Softball/Baseball League you play in than to watch some stranger hit one on tv.
You’ll also be more fit, healthy, and social than you previously were.


4 posted on 08/01/2020 4:28:03 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Kaslin

It is sad that so many Americans, growing up loving sports, are now reaching the point where they despise the athletes, the money, and most importantly, the politics...

They have forgotten why they are able to play these kid’s games and earn luxurious lifestyles...

We are witnessing our country rotting on the vine and the end will not be pretty...


5 posted on 08/01/2020 4:31:06 AM PDT by MCEscherHammer
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To: Kaslin

Have not watched baseball since they went on strike and never played the 94’ World Series. Used to be a big Yankee fan. Those cry babies are making a lot of bucks to play a kids game and they still wanted more. Just my 2 cents.


6 posted on 08/01/2020 4:32:33 AM PDT by duckman ( Not tired of winning!)
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To: Kaslin

Professional athletes have killed their golden goose.


7 posted on 08/01/2020 4:33:46 AM PDT by deweyfrank (Nobody's Perfect)
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To: Kaslin

Excellent article! My feelings exactly!

That said, I must confess I’m not a newcomer to being anti baseball. I quit watching it at least 20 years ago due to the very low percentage of players or owners that EVER expressed a scintilla of appreciation of being “born into” the Greatest Country on earth and ENABLED THEM to make millions of dollars.

Along about the same time I quit watching baseball, I retired my TV. It currently resides face down under my bed where it has been for years.


8 posted on 08/01/2020 4:42:12 AM PDT by Cen-Tejas
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To: Kaslin

So many people allow the actions of others dictate how they live. There is no more live and let live, the attitude now is - I disagree with what some people do I will therefore never watch baseball or football again, why not just watch the game that goes on between the lines.


9 posted on 08/01/2020 4:45:01 AM PDT by Jolla
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To: duckman

America is the land where black millionaire baseball players are subject to vicious racial discrimination which forces them to live in squalor.

It’s science!


10 posted on 08/01/2020 4:45:16 AM PDT by cgbg (Masters don't want slaves talking about masters and slaves.)
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To: deweyfrank
Professional athletes have killed their golden goose.

I was a Yankee and Packer fan since I was a kid. I've been a Steelers and Celtics fan for many years.

For many years now, I have lost interest in pro football, baseball and basketball - as well as college sports.

I would assume that there are many who have had a similar experience in turning off pro and college sports.

Despite those who have wlaked away from watching sports, there must still be a huge fan base for pro and college sports. Where is the money supporting these sports and players coming from?

11 posted on 08/01/2020 4:55:21 AM PDT by JesusIsLord
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To: Kaslin

Grew up playing baseball. Little league, stickball ( we played automatics - pitching, hitting, fielding. No running the bases). One of my fondest memories was going up the street to my friends house with my brother. The three of us would play a game we called “hit off the wall”. At his house there was a stone wall with rock faces jutting out this way and that. One of us would “pitch” the ball at the wall, one would play fielder and one would play first base. We used a sponge ball (does anyone remember those) or an indian rubber ball (probably can’t call them that today). The fielder was about 30 feet from the wall and, depending where on the wall it came off from, you would have to move pretty fast to field and then throw over to first base. The game really developed your reflexes (after a while I was always positioned at third base in little league). We played that game for hours. Hit off the wall.


12 posted on 08/01/2020 4:58:21 AM PDT by MarDav
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To: Kaslin

https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/report-rob-manfred-warns-that-mlb-could-shut-down-by-monday-if-it-cant-contain-coronavirus-210743171.html
This travesty, masquerading as baseball, won’t last more than a couple more weeks. After MLB shuts it down due to inclement flu conditions will the libtard players continue free agent kneeling?


13 posted on 08/01/2020 5:08:09 AM PDT by hardspunned (MAGA, now more than ever)
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To: Kaslin

I haven’t watched a ballgame for years.


14 posted on 08/01/2020 5:13:51 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Brian Griffin

We used to watch the Kansas City Royals when my Husband was stationed at Fort Riley and we lived in Grand View Plasa which was a Suburb of Junction City


15 posted on 08/01/2020 5:23:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I don’t get Major League sports at all. I hire you at an outrageous salary and then I have to let you do what you want to do and send BS messages and ruin the sport I hired you for.

To me it’s simple.. STFU, do as your told, play the game or you’re fired and once fired you’re barred for life from the sport.

Watch what you do off the field because that says a lot to who you are on the field.


16 posted on 08/01/2020 5:28:06 AM PDT by maddog55 (Only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it.)
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To: Jolla

We watch sports to relax and escape those other things. By bringing up the other things it just shoves it in our faces. And it’s never pro what we support, but always anti our beliefs. When I want to hear politics I turn on a polical station.


17 posted on 08/01/2020 5:45:10 AM PDT by stockpirate (Anyone who believes Epstein killed himself is a fool, and the DNC wacked Seth Rich)
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To: Kaslin
My passion for professional baseball began when I was ten. In 1954, my parents signed me up for a Little League team at the U.S. Air Force base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The six teams in the league were named after major league teams back in America.

Little League baseball was taken seriously on the US bases in Germany--they had both major and minor leagues. At Bad Kreuznach, I played for a minor league team, the Red Braves--there was also a Blue Braves.

18 posted on 08/01/2020 5:45:59 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Kaslin

Washington Nationals fan, just cancelled my season tickets. No NFL, MLB or NBA for me....still have NHzl....


19 posted on 08/01/2020 5:46:33 AM PDT by stockpirate (Anyone who believes Epstein killed himself is a fool, and the DNC wacked Seth Rich)
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To: duckman
Have not watched baseball since they went on strike and never played the 94’ World Series. Used to be a big Yankee fan. Those cry babies are making a lot of bucks to play a kids game and they still wanted more. Just my 2 cents.

Other travesties that have turned me off are the 7-7 tie that ended the 2002 All Star game (there's no such thing as a tie in baseball), interleague play, and the traditional organ music being replaced by prerecorded hip-hop and heavy metal.

20 posted on 08/01/2020 5:57:18 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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