Boycott Diamondbacks, I'm In

My turn to weigh in on the draconian Arizona immigration bill, but, like Amato at Crooks and Liars, my take is from a baseball point of view.

With Major League Baseball players 25%+ make-up of Spanish, Hispanic, Latino, etc. origins, many holding dual citizenship, and many more not carrying passports (having them being held in lock and storage by team management so as not to lose them), the question of "show me your papers" is very real to these people when they have to play in Arizona.

Little, by little, players are standing up against this new law. The 2011 All Star Game is set to be played in Arizona, and some are stating that if this actually stands up and is law in the next few months, certain players (Adrian Gonzalez for one) will NOT play in the game. I am sure over the next few weeks, more and more major league players will boycott the All Star Game, and Bud Selig will have a major dilemma on his hands. (And we aren't even counting the Cactus League teams that play in Arizona, for goodness sake!) Talk about shooting yourself in the foot for a bigoted right wing talking point! Arizona IS baseball, and BASEBALL is comprised of a lot of Spanish speaking players, whatever their nationality and citizenship is. To put these players and their families under the spotlight of "show me your papers" will produce catastrophic results in Arizona with baseball shrinking it's relationship with that state.

I hear Nevada is not bad for spring training (laughing). And what about Florida? They have a large Cuban population, and many teams USED to have their training camps there.

To quote "Chico Esquela":

"Baseball... been berry berry good... to me."