{"id":4824,"date":"2010-05-03T18:37:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T01:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=4824"},"modified":"2010-05-04T04:10:22","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T11:10:22","slug":"senate-bill-1070-and-baseball%e2%80%99s-role-in-the-coming-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/03\/senate-bill-1070-and-baseball%e2%80%99s-role-in-the-coming-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Bill 1070 and Baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Role in the Coming Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a storm brewing in the southwest.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter how strong the retractable roof that intermittently hangs over Chase Field might be, this tempest will flood baseball in Arizona.\u00c2\u00a0 This inclement weather threatens to do more than delay a first pitch or wash out a baseball game.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about a new definition and direction in immigration control in American society.<\/p>\n

And just as always, baseball stands just outside the epicenter, trying to determine in which direction to leap.\u00c2\u00a0 On April 20, 2010, the Arizona state senate passed Senate Bill 1070.\u00c2\u00a0 This is an immigration control law that its proponents argue allows law enforcement officers to effectively do their jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 On April 13, Nicholas Riccardi of the \"Protestors<\/a>Los Angeles Times<\/em> wrote,<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person’s immigration status.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opponents argue that the wording of the law opens the door for racial profiling.\u00c2\u00a0 Technically, the bill refers to all undocumented immigrants from all countries of origin.\u00c2\u00a0 However, pundits worry that allowing police officers to demand paperwork from anyone they suspect of being illegal aliens will lead to a minority of people willing to strictly enforce the law, and ultimately lead to Arizona\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Latino and Mexican population to be targeted.<\/p>\n

Since the passage of the law, athletes and personalities, mostly from the arena of Major League baseball, have spoken out against the bill.\u00c2\u00a0 Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen along with Adrian Gonzalez, the first baseman for the San Diego Padres, have already presented the notion of boycotting the 2011 All-Star Game, which is scheduled to be held in Arizona\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chase Field.<\/p>\n

Rod Barajas, the catcher for the Mets whose father is of Mexican descent, spoke on the issue as well.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If a blond-haired, blue-eyed Canadian gets pulled over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said,\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you think they are going to ask for their papers? No\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the details, but if I leave the park after a game and I get stopped, am I supposed to have papers with me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

What may prove more troubling than the All-Star Game coming next summer is Major League Baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longtime relationship with the state of Arizona in regards to the eight weeks of spring training.\u00c2\u00a0 During this time, thousands of ballplayers, many of whom hail from countries other than America, descend on Arizona to participate in the Cactus League.\u00c2\u00a0 Though almost all of them are here legally, most are kids barely of high school age, who have been displaced from the culture they once knew and thrust into a world of smokeless tobacco, rosin bags, and pine tar.<\/p>\n

Watch the movie Sugar<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell me that Miguel \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Santos wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been asked\"Miguel<\/a> to present his papers under the stipulations of SB 1070.\u00c2\u00a0 What are the odds that an 18 year-old transplanted Dominican carries his work visa around with him at all times?<\/p>\n

Look, I write for Seamheads.com, not the Huffington Post<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my job or my desire to stand up on a soapbox and tell the Arizona legislators what to do or where to go.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Lupica has already done so brilliantly<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0Ross Douthat analyzed the issues quite expertly in Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Major League Baseball finds itself in a seminal position, where it can help determine the outcome of this debate.\u00c2\u00a0 Bud Selig could force MLB to re-evaluate its decision to allow Phoenix to host the All-Star Game, ostensibly holding millions of dollars in tourist revenue for ransom.\u00c2\u00a0 Baseball players and athletes whose followings are exponentially larger than my own have already begun to speak out against the law. Even Jesse Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting in on the action, so you know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to be an important issue.<\/p>\n

For those who would stand up and cry foul, arguing that athletes should be seen and not heard, I wonder if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lived inside the fictitious walled-off world of the Truman Show<\/em> for the majority of your life.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve clearly missed the past century of professional athletics.\u00c2\u00a0 The list of sports figures who have taken up the reigns of civil rights and political activism is a mile long.<\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente fought the segregation and inherent stereotypes undermining Major League Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost ten years earlier, Max Baer, a Jewish boxer with the Star of David proudly emblazoned on his trunks, defeated Nazi \"Ali\"<\/a>figurehead heavyweight Max Schmeling in Yankee Stadium.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesse Owens stunned Berlin, Joe Louis exhilarated Yankee Stadium, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs, Muhammad Ali stood against the Vietnam War and racial intolerance in America, the post-apartheid South African Rugby team united a nation torn by segregation; all but a few examples of the central position sports can assume in our society.<\/p>\n

In 1993, the NFL fought Arizona\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statewide refusal to acknowledge Martin Luther King Day as a holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 It pulled the Super Bowl out from under Arizona and moved it to the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

I applaud the members of Major League Baseball who have taken advantage of their First Amendment rights and spoken out against SB 1070.\u00c2\u00a0 All too often, we sports fans bemoan the fact that today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s athletes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t role models.\u00c2\u00a0 They show little love for the games, we say, \u00c2\u00a0and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only in it for the money.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, when something like this comes along, we dismiss them as uneducated hicks here for our amusement whose opinions mean nothing.<\/p>\n

We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have it both ways.<\/p>\n

This law affects them as much as any of us.\u00c2\u00a0 Why not hear what they have to say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a storm brewing in the southwest.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter how strong the retractable roof that intermittently hangs over Chase Field might be, this tempest will flood baseball in Arizona.\u00c2\u00a0 This inclement weather threatens to do more than delay a first pitch or wash out a baseball game.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about a new definition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,9],"tags":[6935,132,6937,759,6933,871,6943,6939,6938,6936,6941,6944,191,6946,6945,6940,2159,2192,6934,6942],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-general","tag-arizona-state-senate","tag-baseball-game","tag-chase-field","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-coming-storm","tag-first-baseman","tag-illegal-aliens","tag-illegal-immigrant","tag-immigration-control","tag-immigration-paperwork","tag-immigration-status","tag-inclement-weather","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mexican-descent","tag-mexican-population","tag-reasonable-suspicion","tag-rod-barajas","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-senate-bill","tag-undocumented-immigrants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t