Texas Governor Greg Abbott had been invited to throw out the first pitch in the home opener for the Texas Rangers. However, after Major League Baseball decided to move their all-star game out of Georgia to protest a bill that makes it harder to cheat in elections, he decided to respond.
I was looking forward to throwing out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers' home opening game until @MLB adopted what has turned out to be a false narrative about Georgia's election law reforms.
It is shameful that America's pastime is being influenced by partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/pNJApYBHpw
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 5, 2021
After Abbott correctly chided MLB for “perpetuating false political narratives,” he went on to note that he would not personally participate in any more events and the state will not host any other special events for Major League Baseball.
Greg Abbott didn’t have to do this. After all, Major League Baseball went after Georgia, not Texas. However, what Abbott did here was show other Republican politicians what leading by example looks like. If a corporation wants to try to score points with the woke crowd, they need to understand that Republicans will make sure that there are consequences for doing that. Now, many people may think that simply having the Governor of Texas refuse to throw out the first pitch for game while telling MLB it’s not welcome back for a special event in Texas is a small thing. In one sense, they’re right.
However, this also creates a scary dynamic for baseball because if the cool thing to do in Republican circles is take shots at Major League Baseball, that can become a big problem for them. Ted Cruz is already talking about going after their anti-trust exemption.
EXACTLY right. And @SenMikeLee & I will be working hard to END MLB’s antitrust immunity.#GowokeGobroke https://t.co/NuERnvF8FT
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 2, 2021
What happens when inevitably some team wants a tax break to move to a Republican state or build a new stadium? That would have been a gimmie with Republicans a week or two ago. Today, not so much. At the end of the day, that’s all corporations like Major League Baseball understand. Does something cost them money or make them money. Making sure that picking fights with Republicans costs corporations money is in our interest. Greg Abbott understands that and is doing his part. More Republican politicians should join him.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know. You can follow him on Parler here.
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