July 30, 2002
Baseball and Politics:
Todd's Place has this thoughts on how a baseball strike might affect the mid-term elections.
I have to disagree with Todd here. I once asked Bill James why, during the 60's, especially the late 60's, no black baseball players converted to Islam. You certainly had basketball, boxing and football athletes do that. Even in the summer of 1968, I never remember stories of black ballplayers protesting. Bill told me that baseball is a conservative sport (I believe he used the word Republican). So I don't think a strike is going to drive basebal fans to the Democrats. However, I do see this as a reason for Bud Selig's unpopularity. Bud acts like a socialist. He wants revenue sharing and taxation of the rich. Those things go against the grain of conservatives in general, and most Republicans.
However, if you believe the strike would hurt Republicans, then the House should move immediately at the start of a strike to strip baseball of it's remaining anti-trust exemption. That should exempt Republicans from the political fallout.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:27 AM
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Baseball