Marco Rubio Asks MLB Commissioner if He'll Give Up His Membership at Augusta National Golf Club
Last week, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred folded under the pressure of outright lies from President Joe Biden and the establishment media regarding the new voting laws in Georgia. As a result, he decided that the MLB would move both the 2021 All-Star Game and the 2021 MLB Draft out of Atlanta.
Unfortunately for Manfred, this decision is incredibly hypocritical. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida wrote a letter to Manfred on Monday in which the senator identified some of the contradictory positions that Manfred holds.
“I write to ask you whether you intend to maintain your membership at Augusta National Golf Club,” Rubio said. “As you are well aware, the exclusive members-only club is located in the State of Georgia.”
Augusta National Golf Club, located in Augusta, Georgia, is one of the most famous and exclusive golf courses in the world. It annually hosts The Masters Tournament, one of the four major golf championships, which will take place this week.
Since it is an invite-only private club, Augusta National represents one of the most coveted memberships in the sport of golf. However, if Manfred is going to live up to the standard that he himself created, he will need to give up this highly prestigious membership.
“Last week, you ‘decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game’ from Atlanta because of Georgia’s revised election law,” Rubio wrote in the letter.
“It is a decision that will have a bigger impact on countless small and minority owned businesses in and around Atlanta, than the new election law ever will. And one that reeks of hypocrisy.”
Rubio pointed out that Manfred’s membership at Augusta National is not the only hypocritical position the commissioner holds.
He allows the MLB to do business with countries who do not hold elections at all, which is much less democratic than requiring an ID at a polling place.
“Will Major League Baseball now end its engagement with nations that do not hold elections at all like China and Cuba?” Rubio asked.
“Will you end your lucrative financial relationship with Tencent, a company with deep ties to the Communist Party and actively helps the Chinese Government hunt down and silence political dissidents?”
Like many others, Rubio suspected that he already knew Manfred’s answers to these questions. While Manfred is happy to virtue-signal to the woke left by moving the All-Star Game, Rubio felt he would be much less likely to take stands against injustices if they hurt his wallet.
“I am, of course, under no expectation any of this will happen,” Rubio said.
“Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market.”
Even in its everyday transactions, the MLB contradicts its stance that requiring an ID to vote is somehow racist. According to Fox News, the MLB requires that fans present a photo ID in order to pick up tickets at will call.
Is the MLB actively discriminating against minorities at the entrances to their ballparks, or is Rob Manfred a cowardly liar? The answer is clear to Rubio.
Additionally, the MLB’s choice to host the All-Star Game in a state that has stricter voting laws than those passed in Georgia further adds to Manfred’s hypocritical choices.
“Critics are scratching their heads over Major League Baseball’s decision to yank its All-Star Game from Georgia and move it to Colorado — where voting laws are actually more restrictive than those in the Peach State which prompted the boycott,” the New York Post reported.
The Post added that in Colorado, a photo ID is required for in-person and first-time absentee voters, and campaign operatives cannot provide food or drinks to potential voters at polling places.
These requirements are very similar to two of the supposedly offensive and suppressive provisions in the new Georgia bill, but Manfred seems to have ignored that fact.
By politicizing America’s pastime, Manfred has exposed himself for the raging hypocrite he is and alienated half of the country. That’s a bold strategy for a league the requires fan participation in order to stay afloat.
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