Protest Baseball: Are the Diamondbacks Disproportionately Targeted for SB 1070?

The staff of the Washington Nationals did extensive checks of bags, more in depth than usual, looking for anything that could be used to protest the law like banners. Of course, that could only stop it for so long, and many protestors stayed outside the stadium until the found a way to get in. It’s funny, because since the court system shot down a lot of aspects of SB1070, technically, Virginia has a more strict immigration policy and no one seems to be talking about that at all.

in choosing the Diamondbacks as the scapegoat, they’ve (collectively, I guess) chosen the worst team in Arizona of the four major sports. The Cardinals, Coyotes, and Suns are all playoffs teams, while the Diamondbacks are one of the worst at their sport. If you wanna attack a team to gain awareness, it seems like you’d best do it against a team that’s, I dunno, high-profile. Though, we pull in about 24,000 people a game, while the Coyotes pull in around 11,000. The Suns pull in around 17,000. The Cards, 63,000. Seems like the most popular team is deserving of the most scorn, but granted, football hasn’t been around during this whole deal. I guess the Snakes are the most popular team to attack, simply due to baseball’s wide-reaching audience (and intense traveling, as you said)…

Is that the getting the All-Star Game moved away from Chase presents a goal, in a way that none of the other sports teams can offer. Because of the NFL shifting the Superbowl out of Arizona [albeit under radically different circumstances], there is historical precedent. Protesting the Cardinals, etc. has no prospect of achieving anything concrete at all.

Very well-written. I mentioned in a previous thread that I wrote a paper on this very topic for my English class and mine entailed also about protesters trying to get the All-Star Game moved out of Arizona and also about the initial reactions first to the law being passed. I even quoted our very own Augie Ojeda, as he was mentioned in many of the articles I researched for my paper.

I like what you said in this article. You pretty much put into words I believe how we all feel about this topic

that the Dbacks have just become a convenient target. I still don’t agree with the law, per se, but I’m seeing less problems with the idea behind it. (but then you look at some…uh…other things Russell Pearce is trying to pass, and it makes them all look like crazies)

The DBacks have done awful this season when they were supposed to be contenders. The only logical conclusion is that the protesters have directly impacted the team with their actions.

Regardless of the fact that the NFL is the 800 lbs gorilla in the sports world that everyone wants to emulate, baseball is the sport of the US. If you want an example look at the steroid scandal. You cannot tell me an equal if not greater number of pro-football players were using steroids, HGH and other performance enhancers at the same time as the hey-day of baseball’s use. Even with earlier testing you still get a lot of football players testing positive including most of the defensive line of the Vikings a couple years back who only got to keep playing because a state judge blocked the suspension (Not biased at all, nooooo). In Minnesota Jared Allen got caught and everyone just shrugged, whatever. If Joe Mauer were to get caught…the state would implode.

I’ve seen a lot of other people talk about it too, that Baseball will always be more scrutinized and more looked at even if its not the most popular simply because it’s baseball. It’s not , “Mom, apple pie and hockey,” It’s baseball. No other sport is as ingrained and thought of as being purely American as it, even as football climbs in popularity. Couple of years back in an ESPN poll MLB was still more popular than college sports even.

So part of it, in my estimation, is the fact that baseball hits a nerve with a lot of people. It’s been there through some of the darkest moments in US History and been the first thing to help start with the healing or to keep things normal. That combined the high number of Hispanic players and you get why I think they’ve gone after the D’backs, because you go after what’s most American to try and prove a point.

I’m so sick of this. Moving the ASG would hurt the people that these protesters are supposedly “fighting for.” Just like boycotting the state would. Protest in general is fine, of course, and can be effective if done intelligently, but this idea that the All-Star Game needs to be moved? Sigh.

Oh, and twenty-some states are thinking of following Arizona’s lead on putting a similar bill in place in their own states.

Of the most active of the activists, the DBacks are the target because of Kendrick. He came out against 1070 but in their eyes he gave money to politicians who actually voted for the thing.

I think generally people see the ASG as having a much larger economic impact than it actually has. For this reason, Joe Average activist wants the ASG moved.

Out of the players, it is a combination of actual fear of the provisions themselves, fear for family perhaps (though this is much less likely for baseball players—they have money and resources) and a feeling that if you are speaking Spanish, you are being picked on.

A couple reasons why I personally oppose the boycott are:

1) boycotts never reach the intended targets especially in a free country like the US. They just hurt the working stiff.
2) I think it just emboldens the Pearce’s and the Arpaio’s of the world. A lot of the problems we are going to have is because of the “FTW” attitude that’s going to result from pulling the All Star Game.

Is the people who run out onto the field are not shown on television, usually, out of principle, so your audience is the other people at the game who came to SEE the game, and probably didn’t get a great look at the banner before they were dragged off, thus impressing nobody.

I ain’t an SB 1070 fan, but I’m content to let the courts sort it out, as they’re supposed to in this country. While both the D’Backs and politics can make me want to throw things against the wall, I like to keep em separated.

Raul Grijalva told me to boycott Arizona, his own damned state?

Also, I’d like to barbecue Raul Grijallva over boycotted coals.

has come from the opposition. The protesters words and actions have done more to sway my opinion than anything else.

have done thier bit to take the heat of the Diamondbacks by attending Glenn Beck’s rally.

Is how the Suns got such praise for wearing their Los Suns jerseys, when the DBacks have had Los DBacks jerseys for Hispanic Heritage Day (or whatever) for years, and no one seems to care.

and only popular among certain left wing groups.