Rob Manfred says a whole lot of nothing when pressed on Rangers' lack of Pride Night
By John Buhler
Find someone who loves you as much as Rob Manfred loves not bringing in new fans to the sport he commissions. Being a league commissioner is not an easy job, but Manfred lives to find new and creative ways to make his job even harder, while simultaneously alienating everyone who is not a seamhead or has access to their local RSN to watch their favorite hometown team like grandma does.
As the MLB All-Star Game came and went at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, it should be noted that the Texas Rangers are the only MLB franchise that does not hold a Pride Night. I understand that baseball may be more of a conservative sport, but everyone else is doing it, it is the right thing to do and you are missing out a tremendous opportunity to create new fans inside the LGBTQ+ community.
Manfred was pressed on this by national reporters and gave us all some empty-calorie nonsense.
"Look, there are a whole lot of factors that go into deciding who's going to get an All-Star Game. I don't view whether you hold a Pride Night or not as an outcome-determinant issue. It's an issue. We look at all those issues and try to make a decision and give it to the place that we think is going to be the best. And it's really important here to remember there's a massive public investment in terms of creating a great new facility. And honestly, that's an important consideration in terms of awarding All-Star Games."
I remember baseball pulling the 2021 All-Star Game from Truist Park in Atlanta over voting issues.
Globe Life Field is state of the art, but this just reeks of corporate greed from the league office.
Robert Manfred was fine with All-Star Game despite LGBTQ+ concerns
Baseball is supposed to be fun and it is supposed to be for everyone. It is America's pastime, a sport that should be bringing people together of all backgrounds, not creating a division within its perpetually fractured fanbase. I don't care what you look like, where you come from or what you're into, or whatever. If you're a member of Braves Country, I'm ride or die with you. You are my people.
It is just more of the same double-standard schtick from Mr. Piece of Metal. It is not a piece of tin, this is baseball. Manfred's predecessor didn't get it all right. Bud Selig may have loved the small-market Milwaukee Brewers more than anything, but he did love baseball. Selig was not a great commissioner either, but I never thought he made it a point to drive fans away from the game he loved. Not one time.
This isn't about Atlanta. This isn't about Arlington. This isn't even about the Rangers not having Pride Night, to be honest. It is about a man in charge of a league that has withstood countless generations in this great country of ours, doing seemingly everything in his power to create divisiveness and an increasingly crap-tastic domestic product. I will slap with my Atlanta Braves, but not much else, man.
This whole debacle has made a lot of people in DFW feel really stupid, and no one likes to feel dumb.