Over a year after pulling its All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s recently enacted election law, Major League Baseball still hasn’t apologized for the damage its lies did to the state’s economy.
Not long after Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill known as SB 202 into law in March 2021, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement announcing the league would be relocating its annual All-Star Game to Colorado in protest of the measure. In his comments, Manfred falsely claimed that SB 202 creates “restrictions to the ballot box” and hinders citizens’ ability to vote.
This decision was “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport,” Manfred said. “Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”
The move by the league did not come without consequences, however. Georgia’s economy took a massive hit as a result of the decision to move the game out of Atlanta, with some business leaders estimating “upwards of $100 million” in lost revenue.
Groups such as the Honest Elections Project have since called out the league for its ruinous choice, sending mobile billboards with critical ads to the MLB’s 2022 winter meeting in San Diego, California, this week.
“MLB LIED about Georgia’s election law and moved the All-Star Game,” one of the ads reads.
“MLB should APOLOGIZE to Georgia for its $100 million lie,” another said.
The MLB did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether it intends to apologize to Georgia for its costly choice to move the 2021 All-Star Game.
Despite its purported consultation with league teams and players, the MLB’s decision to move the game did not come without outside pressure. Democrat politicians, including President Joe Biden, were among those intimidating the league to relocate the competition as a form of protest against Georgia’s election law. In an interview with ESPN, Biden grossly labeled the law as “Jim Crow on steroids” and spewed numerous lies about its contents, falsely claiming that polling places would be mandated to close by 5 p.m.
Georgia Democrats such as Sen. Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial candidate and imaginary Gov. Stacey Abrams also added fuel to the fire with their respective tarnishing of broadly supported election integrity measures like voter ID requirements.
Contrary to the MLB and Democrats’ slanderous assertions, Georgia’s voting law does not make it more difficult for citizens to cast their ballots in state elections. As The Federalist previously reported, SB 202 includes provisions that prohibit individuals from giving voters gifts or money within 150 feet of a polling place and expand early voting statewide. The bill also includes numerous measures that strengthen Georgia’s overall election integrity, such as voter ID requirements for absentee voting.
While Democrats claimed the law would suppress Georgians’ ability to vote, the results from the 2022 midterms say otherwise. In addition to record early voter turnout ahead of the Nov. 8 general election, the state has also experienced record turnout for in-person, early voting for its Dec. 6 Senate runoff.
