Former baseball star David Wells says he refuses to watch the sport after the decision by the MLB to move this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta, Georgia, in protest at the state’s voting law changes.
After President Joe Biden urged a switch in location, the MLB caved to pressure earlier this week when it confirmed it was moving the July All-Star spectacular to Denver, Colorado, in a fit of anger over polling changes in Georgia which it has described as discriminatory.
The step has predictably been hailed by liberals, although others have pointed out that original host city Atlanta now stands to lose out to the tune of millions, while others have bridled at the further intrusion of politics into US sports.
One man dismayed at the step is two-time World Series winner Wells, who has said he won’t be tuning in so long as the MLB remains at the mercy of pressure from woke forces.
“To me, how do you change the games, the dynamics, and hurt a city like Atlanta that really needs some income in that situation?” Wells said this week on Fox News Radio’s ‘The Brian Kilmeade Show’.
Wells also had choice words for sportswear giant Nike and their sponsorship of NFL outcast Colin Kaepernick, whose ‘take a knee’ protests have swept across the US sporting landscape in recent years.
“If I was playing right now, I would not wear that Nike,” said the 57-year-old. “I would rip it off. I would cut a hole in my jersey, and not have Nike on anything, and if I got suspended, so be it.”
Wells is far from the only one to find the MLB’s political posturing a major turn-off.
Former President Donald Trump has urged a boycott of the league while the Atlanta Braves – who were due to host the All-Star game at their Truist Park home – expressed their disappointment that “businesses, employees and fans in Georgia are the victims of this decision.”
The All-Star game will now be played at the Coors Field home of the Colorado Rockies.
