Rubio Rips MLB Commish Asks if Manfred Will Give Up ID Required Membership to Augusta National
The battle between Major League Baseball and those who see the league commissioners as selectively woke has erupted to a senatorial level as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has now jumped into the fray. In a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, Rubio eviscerated the commissioner who has yet to denounce his membership at Augusta National. “I write to ask you whether you intend to maintain your membership at Augusta National Golf Club. As you are well aware, the exclusive members-only club is located in the State of Georgia,” Rubio wrote.
Augusta National, the annual host of the Masters Tournament, one of the most prestigious tournaments in golf, didn’t invite a Black player to compete at the Masters until 1975, and the club itself didn’t admit its first Black member until 1990.
“I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member of Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta,” the senator concluded.
Marco Rubio to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred: “I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member from Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All Star Game from Atlanta.” pic.twitter.com/4ep07Kf7vu
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) April 5, 2021
Rubio rightly implied that Manfred was 100 percent engaging in a hypocritical double standard, as Leftists are prone to do, by supporting the decision to remove the All-Star Game from Georgia because of criticism that the state’s new voting law discriminates against Black voters in metropolitan Atlanta. He also said the decision to move the All-Star Game “will have a bigger impact on countless small and minority-owned businesses in and around Atlanta, than the new election law ever will.”
And he said it “reeks of hypocrisy.”
Like most well-known Republican lawmakers, Rubio is a potential 2024 White House candidate, also challenged Manfred to reevaluate baseball’s relationship with China and Cuba, two countries with a history of human rights violations.
“Will Major League Baseball now end its engagement with nations that do not hold elections at all like China and Cuba? Will you end your lucrative financial relationship with Tencent, a company with deep ties to the Communist Party and actively helps the Chinese Government hunt down and silence political dissidents?” Rubio wrote.
Rubio predicted that MLB won’t boycott China because it could result in a substantial drop in revenues.
“Taking the All-Star Game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market,” he wrote.
Additionally, The Washington Free Beacon notes, the league “has a streaming deal with Tencent, a Chinese tech supergiant accused of leading a large-scale crackdown on political freedom in China, including the freedoms of Uyghur Muslims.” MLB has also “inked deals with the Castro regime in Cuba, allowing an exhibition game between the Cuban national team and Tampa Bay Rays in 2016, as well as an agreement allowing Cuban baseball players to sign with MLB teams without defecting from their home country.”
His letter follows calls by fellow Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a fellow White House hopeful, and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), to end MLB’s antitrust exemption.
EXACTLY right. And @SenMikeLee & I will be working hard to END MLB’s antitrust immunity.#GowokeGobroke https://t.co/NuERnvF8FT
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 2, 2021
Lee tweeted: “It’s time for the federal government to stop granting special privileges to specific, favored corporations—especially those that punish their political opponents.”
And with that, Manfred has a major decision to make. How woke is he willing to go, especially when his side, led by the lunatic fringe of ESPN’s Bomani Jones and Keith Olbermann has been beating the ‘Boycott The Masters’ drum? Is Rob ready to man up and tell the Masters he won’t be back to enjoy a round? Is Rob ready to go back to fighting for a badge like the commoners?
Rob’s screwed here since Major League Baseball, led by Manfred, is now of the mindset that it must punish Georgia for passing a voting law it doesn’t agree with. He can’t attend the 2021 Masters and needs the dust to settle in 2022 to get back to a place he loves.
Content syndicated from TheLibertyLoft.com with permission.
