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Thursday, November 16, 2023

Braves to host 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta after losing 2021 festivities over Georgia voting laws

Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, will host the 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced in a press conference Thursday afternoon during the owners meetings.

“I commend Terry McGuirk, Derek Schiller, the entire Braves organization and the Atlanta Sports Council for leading this effort,” Manfred said. “As a model of success on and off the field, the Braves deserve to host the All-Star Game. Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta will provide fans a world-class experience in 2025. We look forward to working with the Braves and local leaders to deliver a memorable All-Star Week that brings people together and benefits the community in many ways.”

With the All-Star Game also comes several days worth of fun, most notably the Home Run Derby which takes place on the Monday night. The All-Star Game is a Tuesday night in July.

This will mark the third time that Atlanta has hosted the Midsummer Classic. Atlanta Stadium (later named Fulton County Stadium) hosted the event in 1972, the seventh season with the Braves in Atlanta after their move from Milwaukee. In 2000, the Braves’ relatively new home, Turner Field, also hosted the annual festivities.

Recall that Truist Park was set to host the All-Star Game in 2021, but commissioner Rob Manfred decided to move the event to Denver (Coors Field, home of the Rockies) in protest of a voting bill by the Georgia State Legislature. The Braves ended up winning the World Series that season.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: November 16, 2023 at 02:07 PM | 41 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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1. The Duke Posted: November 16, 2023 at 02:22 PM (#6147368)

I guess the Georgia legislature must have bowed to the MLB pressure and allowed more cheating....oh wait they didn't. Hmmm

2. My name is Votto, and I love to get Moppo Posted: November 16, 2023 at 02:52 PM (#6147373)

I don't think it aired nationally, but during the 2021 World Series, there was an an ad that basically said, "Hey MLB, you took away the All Star Game, but our team is hosting the World Series, neener neener neener".

3. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 16, 2023 at 04:44 PM (#6147383)

No changes have been made to the Georgia election laws, they were upheld in court, and they had none of the adverse effects predicted by their critics. Might want to remember that the next time the same folks make similar claims.

4. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: November 16, 2023 at 05:00 PM (#6147384)

They also stripped out some of the more controversial provisions after backlash, although MLB's decision was well after that.

5. Itchy Row Posted: November 16, 2023 at 05:28 PM (#6147388)

No changes have been made to the Georgia election laws, they were upheld in court, and they had none of the adverse effects predicted by their critics. Might want to remember that the next time the same folks make similar claims.

Sure.

6. Steve Balboni's Personal Trainer Posted: November 16, 2023 at 05:57 PM (#6147389)

There are many reasons why this happened:
1) Part of building new ballparks is that you typically get an All-Star Game pretty soon after it opens.

2) Atlanta is a very important city and franchise for MLB.

3) Brian Kemp is in a very different place, in terms of national public perception, than he was right before the original decision was made. Whether you like Kemp, Trump, or neither of them, Kemp's pushback on Trump and Trump's claims about the 2020 Georgia elections took a lot of heat off of him from the left, and added heat at him from the MAGA-wing of the GOP. He ended up winning reelection in 2022 relatively easily in a rematch against Stacey Abrams, and is now seen by the media and even many Democrats as a "normie" Republican. He has become a comfortable person with whom somebody like MLB can work.

4) The legislation in question, which was tweaked a bit but eventually signed into law, ended up not producing many of the drawbacks opponents of it feared. It became a non-issue politically after the 2022 midterms.

I haven't seen a single negative comment about Atlanta getting the All-Star Game today, including from friends who definitely had a problem with it in 2021. There are probably multiple lessons to be learned from this whole thing, but that's enough politics for one day.

7. Starring Bradley Scotchman as RMc Posted: November 16, 2023 at 06:02 PM (#6147390)

“As a model of success on and off the field, the Braves deserve to host the All-Star Game," Manfred said. "I just hope Antifa doesn't threaten to firebomb my house, like last time."

8. Adam Starblind Posted: November 16, 2023 at 06:08 PM (#6147392)

Georgia deserved to be punished in 2021. Whatever the effects of the law (how do people justify the statement that it didn’t have harmful effects?), the intent was to disenfranchise people the GOP is afraid of. But I’m fine with not banning the state into eternity.

9. shoelesjoe Posted: November 17, 2023 at 10:53 AM (#6147437)

how do people justify the statement that it didn’t have harmful effects?

Um, because there is no evidence that it had harmful effects? Biden's hysterical charge that the new GA laws were “Jim Crow on steroids” was shown to be false as soon as people started voting. A University of Georgia poll found that 99% of Georgia voters had no issue casting a ballot in the 2022 election, with 99.5% of Black voters rating their experience as fair to excellent.

https://sos.ga.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/9700FA83-3195-4F3B-AD36-DE83D97FFB10.GA Voter Survey-2022.pdf

If "the intent was to disenfranchise people the GOP is afraid of" then they certainly did a terrible job of it.

10. Adam Starblind Posted: November 17, 2023 at 02:27 PM (#6147472)

If "the intent was to disenfranchise people the GOP is afraid of"

If?

A University of Georgia poll found that 99% of Georgia voters had no issue casting a ballot in the 2022 election, with 99.5% of Black voters rating their experience as fair to excellent.

Critical word here -- "voters."

11. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 17, 2023 at 05:41 PM (#6147495)

Most of the non-voters in Georgia were non-voters before any changes were made to the state’s election laws. Continuing to claim that the minor changes to the law had harmful effects in the absence of evidence elevates ideology over reasoning. Georgia has a higher percentage of its voting age population registered to vote than New York & California, but I don’t recall MLB raising a fuss about any of those states’ teams.

12. Howie Menckel Posted: November 17, 2023 at 06:54 PM (#6147499)

An October 2022 study published in the Election Law Journal ranked Georgia 29th among states in "best voter access."

Relevant states below Georgia are Pennsylvania (Phillies, Pirates), Florida (Rays, Marlins), Ohio (Guardians, Reds), Missouri (Cardinals, Royals), Texas (Rangers, Astros), and Wisconsin (Brewers).

The MLB All-Star Game was played in Florida in 2017, Ohio in 2015, Missouri in 2012 and 2009, Pennsylvania in 2006 (and planned for 2026), Texas in 2004, and Wisconsin in 2002 (just going by this century).

1-2-3 - OR, WA, VT
50-49-48 - NH, MS, AR(k)

13. Adam Starblind Posted: November 17, 2023 at 09:26 PM (#6147506)

So many indignant white people pretending not to know what this was.

14. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 17, 2023 at 09:46 PM (#6147509)

Seems more like some folks who made unsupported claims of ‘voter suppression’ refuse to acknowledge that subsequent events have clearly proved them wrong.

15. JL72 Posted: November 17, 2023 at 10:28 PM (#6147510)

I want to murder a bunch of people but I am really bad at it, so no harm no foul.

I guess that works as a defense.

16. Mike A Posted: November 17, 2023 at 10:35 PM (#6147512)

As someone who actually lives in Georgia, 2020 was perfect. Ballot came in the mail, drop box was five minutes from the house. Total time: 15 minutes.

That glorious experience was taken away for...reasons. So in 2022, I ended up standing in a long line while a coughing kid exposed me to 17 diseases. Total time: 1 1/2 hours.

Everything got just that much more difficult. Can someone tell me why?

17. Starring Bradley Scotchman as RMc Posted: November 18, 2023 at 07:55 AM (#6147527)

I want to murder a bunch of people but I am really bad at it, so no harm no foul.

Because murder and voting are exactly the same thing!

Everything got just that much more difficult. Can someone tell me why?

Because "chain of custody" is a thing? Or at least it should be?

Look, neither party's hands are clean on this; they're both actively trying to make it easier for the "right" people to vote and harder for the "wrong" people to do so. That's why you'll never see meaningful election laws passed, because both sides believe they can manipulate the broken system better than the other guys can. ("Bring in the truck full o' votes, fellas! And if anybody complains, call them racists...!")

18. McCoy Posted: November 18, 2023 at 07:59 AM (#6147528)

GA GOP virtue signaled and so national liberals virtue signaled right back. What's the issue exactly?

19. McCoy Posted: November 18, 2023 at 08:03 AM (#6147529)

How are liberals trying to make it hard for the "wrong" people to vote?

20. McCoy Posted: November 18, 2023 at 08:11 AM (#6147530)

As a resident of GA since 2016 let me tell you that GA had a pretty c.rappy voter system. Designed to be slow and arduous. Even without a line it took something like 12 minutes to get to a voting booth because you had to fill out a form and give it to a teller who manually filled out 3 forms, stamped them, copied certain documents, and then filed them. And that was without a line. 2020 was great because you could simply mail in your ballot. They stopped that afterwards and you now have to jump through hoops to get a mail in ballot. Our county took over a meeting hall that went out of business amd turned it into their main election center with a lot more tellers and I believe the current GA laws have streamlined the paperwork process a little bit so now it is something like 5 minutes of time before you get to a ballot machine. The key is picking a good day and time to do early voting.

21. Adam Starblind Posted: November 18, 2023 at 12:59 PM (#6147546)

And of you commit *attempted* murder, they should let you actually *pitch* in the All Star Game.

22. bookbook Posted: November 19, 2023 at 02:02 AM (#6147608)

In this USA, it takes black and poor voters several times as long as white and affluent voters to cast their ballot. The barriers to entry have been raised in Georgia and elsewhere.

That doesn’t make it impossible to vote generally. It makes it harder. So thousands or tens of thousands more people don’t vote. And that swings elections to candidates who favor the interests of the wealthy and white.Or requires much greater resources and effort to counter the bias intentionally introduced into the system by the GOP.

The rationale: to protect vote integrity, against cheating that simply doesn’t happen because the cost of cheating is already too high and the incentive to do so too low. (individuals can’t swing elections by cheating on one vote. It takes an organized, systematic effort to move a single el3ction, almost always, which is easy to spot and catch without any of the onerous voter suppression measures.

All of the politicians on both sides know all this, as do the judges. The GOP vote suppressors are demogoguing to increase their odds, so they can continue to win seats out of all proportion to the popularity of their policies.

23. Hombre Brotani

Posted: November 19, 2023 at 02:33 AM (#6147609)

Look, neither party's hands are clean on this

Look guys, when everyone's guilty, no one's guilty. Banality of evil? Never heard of it.

24. McCoy Posted: November 19, 2023 at 07:13 AM (#6147611)

The GA law didn't really raise the barriers to vote. It actually mandated a reduction in wait time. The biggest issue, the loaded gun waiting to go off as it were, is the part where the legislative body controls and decides what votes count.

25. Starring Bradley Scotchman as RMc Posted: November 19, 2023 at 09:36 AM (#6147615)

Look guys, when everyone's guilty, no one's guilty.

"Everyone's" not guilty; it's the folks who run the two major parties who are guilty here, not the rest of us.

It's hard to devise a voting system that's both (a) easy to vote and (b) difficult to manipulate. (I'm actually in favour of making voting at least a little bit difficult: show some ID, fill out a form. Take it seriously.)

26. McCoy Posted: November 19, 2023 at 10:16 AM (#6147617)

When I lived in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania I believe both automatically registered you to vote just like Georgia does. On election day in Wisconsin all you had to do was show up at the right polling place and tell them your name. They put a check next to your name on their polling lists and hand you a ballot and a "I voted" sticker. That's it and in terms of reality that system is really hard to manipulate.

27. Mr. Hotfoot Jackson (gef, talking mongoose) Posted: November 19, 2023 at 12:59 PM (#6147622)

When I lived in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

... you voted in both at the same time, didn't you? Filthy fraudulently voting liberal!

28. Starring Bradley Scotchman as RMc Posted: November 19, 2023 at 02:16 PM (#6147630)

When I lived in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

Now that's a swing voter!

29. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 19, 2023 at 08:31 PM (#6147651)

Most election administration is carried out at the local government level, including the number, location, and staffing of polling places. There are a few jurisdictions where this seems to be problematic, with repeated reports of excessively long lines extending well beyond poll closing times. Voters in those jurisdictions should probably replace their elected local government leaders rather than blame state or federal officials.

30. McCoy Posted: November 20, 2023 at 08:39 AM (#6147669)

Well, in the case of GA the state has removed a lot of local decision making and they don't allow counties to accept private donations for the election process. So. . . .

31. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 20, 2023 at 02:39 PM (#6147715)

Few states allow privately funded election administration. That inevitably leads to partisans funding more voter registration efforts, polling places, voting machines, and poll workers only in their strongholds, while ignoring other areas. A terrible idea, which undermines uniform statewide standards. There’s a reason election administration is a core governmental function, and it’s unfortunate that some jurisdictions skimp on it. Now, it is true that jurisdictions that have early voting, easy absentee voting, and/or vote by mail, may have less need for Election Day voting sites and can cut back some, but areas repeatedly having long lines are doing it wrong.

32. Traderdave

Posted: November 20, 2023 at 03:48 PM (#6147732)

How are liberals trying to make it hard for the "wrong" people to vote?

Yeah, I have the same question.

33. McCoy Posted: November 20, 2023 at 07:41 PM (#6147767)

Re 31 and GA removed easy vote by mail (2020 Covid crisis answer which was an awesome answer to long lines) added some kickers that make late amd possibly disallowed votes more likely, and refuse to process votes early (beyond opening the mail).

Whereas Florida because of the 2000 election debacle has an awesome and robust election process that counts almost every single ballot a mere few hours after the polls close.

34. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 21, 2023 at 01:01 AM (#6147796)

#33 is a rather imprecise description of a law that at the time of enactment provided easier voting than many other states, including New York & Delaware, to name but a few. Vote by mail was still as easy as ever, the requester merely had to include his or her driver's license or state ID number, last four digits of their Social Security number, or a photo copy of an accepted form of identification, such as a utility bill, when requesting a ballot, rather than just a signature. The law required 3 weeks of in-person early voting, an increase in many areas. Unsurprisingly, the legal challenges to the law almost entirely failed.

Again, the number and location of polling places is a county government responsibility in Georgia, and it has been the counties in the Atlanta metro area that have had repeated problems with long lines. Despite that, some folks continue to give those poorly performing county government officials a pass, while relentlessly attacking the state government, seemingly because many of those Atlanta metro area counties have been controlled by their preferred political party for decades.

35. McCoy Posted: November 21, 2023 at 05:48 AM (#6147804)

The GA law made it less easy than it was in GA previously and yes as you described they make you jump through more hoops to get a ballot and dropping it off isn't as simple as it was. What do we gain out of all of this? Nothing.

The bill also infringes upon counties free will, as it were, when it comes to the election. It sets limits and rules upon drop boxes and the biggest thing of all is the state legislative body can decide what votes count and takeover local election bodies.

36. JL72 Posted: November 21, 2023 at 04:00 PM (#6147873)

I want to murder a bunch of people but I am really bad at it, so no harm no foul.

Because murder and voting are exactly the same thing!

No. But when I intend to do something and tell everyone that, it is not a defense that I am bad at it.

But you knew that.

37. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 21, 2023 at 04:34 PM (#6147876)

Actually, the Court didn’t find the ‘intent’ that the plaintiffs and some here so confidently asserted was present. Not only did the judge find that the plaintiffs hadn’t shown discriminatory intent, he also found that they hadn’t shown a disparate impact on black voters. The so-called ‘hoops’ that Georgia voters have to jump through are found in many jurisdictions, and about as difficult as anyone under 25 buying a six pack of beer. Voters have weeks to vote by mail, vote in-person early, or place their vote in a drop box, as well as traditional Election Day in-person voting. Strengthening acceptance of election results by providing a modicum of ballot security is a legitimate governmental function, even where it may be somewhat prophylactic.

38. McCoy Posted: November 21, 2023 at 04:53 PM (#6147878)

That's a lot of words to say nothing

39. The Yankee Clapper Posted: November 21, 2023 at 05:01 PM (#6147881)

Court rulings that contradict your points aren’t ‘nothing’.

40. McCoy Posted: November 21, 2023 at 05:14 PM (#6147884)

I have no idea what a court ruling has to do with what we're talking about.

Strengthening the acceptance of election results? Please

41. McCoy Posted: November 21, 2023 at 05:16 PM (#6147885)

Duplicate

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Thursday, November 16, 2023

Braves to host 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta after losing 2021 festivities over Georgia voting laws

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