The Atlanta Braves sent eight players — a franchise record — to Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Seattle, and the Braves received even more good news this week when Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that Atlanta is on the short list for hosting the 2025 World Series.
Atlanta is “in the mix” to host the 2025 All-Star Game, Rob Manfred said.
— Gabe Burns (@GabeBurnsAJC) July 11, 2023
“MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed Atlanta was on the short list of potential host cities for 2025 along with Baltimore, Chicago, Toronto, and Boston,” reports Bradley Smith at WSB Radio.
Atlanta hasn’t hosted an All-Star Game since 2000, although you might remember that MLB initially selected Truist Park as the site for the 2021 game. Then, after Georgia passed its election integrity law, Stacey Abrams got involved and forced MLB to relocate the 2021 All-Star Game to Denver.
On March 31, 2021, Abrams wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for boycotts of the Peach State:
The impassioned response to the racist, classist bill that is now the law of Georgia is to boycott in order to achieve change. Events hosted by major league baseball, world class soccer, college sports and dozens of Hollywood films hang in the balance. At the same time, activists urge Georgians to swear off of hometown products to express our outrage. Until we hear clear, unequivocal statements that show Georgia-based companies get what’s at stake, I can’t argue with an individual’s choice to opt for their competition.
USA Today later stealth-edited the piece to soften Abrams’ language about boycotts, but the damage had been done. MLB moved the Midsummer Classic to Denver despite the fact that Colorado’s voting laws had similar ID requirements and fewer early voting days than Georgia’s.
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“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement at the time. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Moving the All-Star Game reportedly cost the area around Truist Park and the Battery some $100 million. Many of those businesses are minority-owned, but the Braves got the last laugh by winning the World Series that year. When the Braves did make it to the World Series, Manfred backpedaled a bit, touting the Braves’ relationship with nearby Native American tribes.
So what’s different between the 2021 All-Star Game and the one to come in two years? Georgia strengthened the protections in the law this year, so will that be a cause for MLB’s concern?
The elections that have taken place since Georgia enacted the new law have proven that it worked. Turnout has grown, especially among minorities, and wait times were markedly shorter. A poll from the University of Georgia showed that 0% — zero percent — of black voters had a negative experience voting in the 2022 midterm elections, which went largely in favor of the GOP.
Honestly, it’s crazy to expect Manfred and MLB to ever apologize to the Atlanta Braves and the state of Georgia, but it sure would be nice. If the league wants to make good, the best way would be to do that would be to bring the 2025 All-Star Game to Truist Park — and not take it away.
