At Yahoo Sports, Hannah Keyser argued that it is impossible for Major League Baseball to be apolitical in 2021. That is, of course, because a loud group of left-wing activists is determined to drag the league, and every other cultural institution, into every political fight they decide to pick.
“Baseball is culture and culture wars are the battleground of modern politics,” Keyser wrote. “To move within the milieu at all is to be forced to navigate the battle lines drawn around social issues and reality.”
Organizations like MLB are indeed forced to navigate those battle lines because Keyser and her ideological allies make sure of it. Keyser cheered the “bravery” of athletes delaying their games by a couple of days so they could show their support for Jacob Blake, who was, in fact, armed with a knife while disobeying police instructions after violating a restraining order against a woman he was accused of sexually assaulting.
Keyser also pretended that Georgia’s voting law “restricted voting access in direct response to right-wing furor over the results of the 2020 election.” She stopped short of calling it Jim Crow, as Democratic politicians and activists disgracefully did, but it’s clear that she was coming from the same place. Keyser also raised the issue of the “tomahawk chop,” which sports media have decided to try and eliminate as the Atlanta Braves play in the World Series.
It is people like Keyser who ensure that MLB cannot be apolitical. It’s activists and sports media figures who incessantly complain about things such as the tomahawk chop or the name of the Cleveland Indians. They are the ones who demand the league talk about “institutional racism” and “voter suppression” and other political talking points that have nothing to do with a baseball league. Keyser saying that MLB can’t be apolitical isn’t an observation — it’s a promise.
MLB doesn’t actually have to listen to these political obsessives. League officials could simply ignore them, let players make whatever ill-informed political statements they want, and focus on the “baseball” part of Major League Baseball. But like so many other institutions and organizations, MLB is worried about the dumb narrative Keyser and others want to push, and they will never stop until MLB officials fully submit.
