I did not know that there was such a thing as The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC. It’s a horrible idea. Politicizing baseball is foolish, and it’s especially dumb to donate to individual candidates. It looks like some baseball lobbyists were asked/invited to attend an event for Cindy Hyde-Smith and got shaken down for the maximum allowable $5,000 contribution.
They’re returning the money because Hyde-Smith has been exposed as a neo-confederate proto-fascist and that’s a bad look for an organization that prides itself on integration and has retired Jackie Robinson’s number ’42’ league wide.
But, let’s be honest here. Hyde-Smith isn’t out of the mainstream for her party on racial issues. In fact, she’s a moderate compared the president. If baseball’s money can’t be associated with Hyde-Smith then it can’t be associated with most Republican office seekers.
Truthfully, though, the national pastime shouldn’t be alienating fans of any political stripe, and it should just refrain from giving out checks to politicians irrespective of what party they represent.
Individual owners are free to do what they want, but the Office of the Commissioner should show more common sense.
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