Major League Baseball (MLB) - American or Un-American

@speakeasy (4171)
United States
May 5, 2010 12:45pm CST
If you have been following the contraversy over Arizona's new immigration law, you may have seen mention that the MLB is thinking about planning to boycott or cancel playoffs in Arizona because of this law. The excuse they are using is that is would result in possible harrassment of their players. Players, not fans. The AZ law only requires police officers to ask for identification if they reasonably suspect the person is illegally in the country; and then, only if they are stopped for something else - traffic stop, drugs, domestic violence, etc. So, this has had me wondering and wondering why this would be an issue to the MLB. Are they worried that their minority players are so unruly they would be stopped frequently for these types of violations? Are their players here in the US illegally? Do they have such a high number of legal immigrants that it would be a problem if even a small percentage were stopped on routine violations and asked to produce their paperwork? (Note: federal law also requires them to keep their work visas, passports, green cards, etc. with them.) All of these questions lead me to wonder why American baseball teams are not hiring American citizens to play baseball. At schools all across the country, young men are striving to achieve a place on a professional baseball team. Are these teams unable to find a talented American citizen to play on the team? Do they have to recruit immigrants (legal or illegal) to fill the team roster?
1 person likes this
1 response
cbjones
@cbjones (1147)
• United States
5 May 10
I was watching the Dan Patrick Show this morning, and Torii Hunter(fun interview, imo) spoke on this issue. He basically said a player could forget his papers at the hotel, get pulled over, and be thrown in jail for not having his papers on hand. He also spoke on the low percentage of black players in baseball, and how he doesn't think it's the MLB's fault. you have all these kids around the world who find a way to get supplies needed to play the game of baseball. You have kids in this country who either play for a school team growing up, or play other sports that don't need all sorts of equipment. On the issue of the MLB not making an effort to get more American players(no matter their race) into the league, I can't see any kind of conspiracy involved. I think that more and more kinds just like playing basketball and football nowadays in this country. They might start out with an organized baseball team, but the more athletic kids are likely to later move on to other sports. The MLB's stance on this issue is something I would agree with to a certain extent(I think the law can still be tweaked to make almost everybody happy). It's the narrow point they are trying to make that I don't get behind. I don't think MLB players have much to worry about. I think they will be able to stay out of trouble, and not have to worry about dealing with police officers. It's the family members of these players who may want to show up at an allstar game held in Arizona that may have to worry. If there is some sort of incident, and somebody gets drunk and starts causing trouble, aren't the witnesses open for some sort of background check? What if they don't have their passport or whatever on hand when questioned about what they saw?
speakeasy
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
5 May 10
"a player could forget his papers at the hotel, get pulled over, and be thrown in jail for not having his papers on hand." - all the player would need to do is call his coach, have him pick up his papers and take them to the jail. IF the only charge the player is being held on is lack of papers the player would be released. Small delay and no big hassle - no more than if a legal citizen is picked up for driving without a valid drivers license if they are idiots and leave their licence home. - They should be treated better than our own citizens? "he doesn't think it's the MLB's fault" - are you honestly saying that we do not have enough athletic youth to fill professional basketball, football, and baseball teams in this country? One, the physical types that are needed for basketball and football are not the types that make good baseball players. And, did you ever stop to think that the reason they may not be pursuing baseball careers is because they are repeatedly seeing immigrants being placed in these slots simply because they are willing to play for less money. "It's the family members of these players who may want to show up at an allstar game held in Arizona that may have to worry." - so, the family members are here illegally? Or, the family members are in violation of federal law which requires them to keep their papers with them? The law requiring immigrants to have their papers available is not a law that Arizona made up. The law that Arizona passed only requires state, county, and local police officers to assist in enforcing the federal law which requires this. Current estimates are that there are 12 million illegal immigrants from all countries currently in the US. There are not enough federal officers in the entire country to enforce that one law even if they had no other federal laws to enforce - kidnapping, counterfeiting, etc. Every other federal crime can be and is enforced by state, county, and local police either on their own or assisting federal officers; why should immigration laws be any different?
cbjones
@cbjones (1147)
• United States
6 May 10
Baseball, like football and basketball, takes great hand eye coronation, and reflexes to play well. Multi-sport child athletes aren't exactly a rare thing. You've got little wannabe Bo Jackson's all around this country who play soccer, baseball, and basketball. They don't have to be super stars, just interested and have some skill when playing these games. Aside from the abundance of downtime in the game, there's nothing turning kids in America away from playing it except the lack of equipment, and difficulty of gathering enough people to form two teams. like I said, kids in other countries improvise to get it done, but America kids see other sports as options. You have a bunch of poor kids in bad situations try wanting to get out of that mess. They are more driven, and see baseball as the way out How can you be sure the Dominican players, and others are getting low balled with their contracts? Or are you one of these people who just like to assume that anyone from another country is just here to steal jobs? Surely the foreign players in Major League Baseball can hold their own against the red blooded American whites, and the handful of black players who chose to play the game. If you disagree with what someone has to say, why not take their entire statement into account? taking individual sentences, and using bold in a condescending fashion doesn't really help to get your point across. that's something a bitter old politician would do when met with a differing viewpoint. Cherry picking isn't cool unless you're handing out ice cream sundaes as well.