MLB’s sudden political awakening is transparent nonsense

Companies across the country are realizing that having had their money fund politicians who attempt to engage in a coup is bad for business, so for the past week, many have been cutting off their donations. Most notably, Hallmark asked lead insurrectionist senator Josh Hawley to return the company’s donations to him.

Now, is it fair to ask why Hallmark was giving Josh Hawley money in the first place? Sure. It’s not like it’s a news flash that the Missouri fascist is a total shithead. But he finally went so far as to make being associated with him toxic in the marketplace, so Hallmark is out.

Major League Baseball is latching onto this trend of corporate responsibility, too.

Don’t be fooled. This is completely meaningless. Major League Baseball is not disassociating itself from seditionists and racists, but from “all political contributions.” Well, according to opensecrets.org, the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball Political Action Committee gave $66,000 to Democrats in the 2020 election cycle and $46,000 to Republicans. In fact, in all but two of the election cycles since 2002, MLB’s political arm has directed more money to Democrats than to the GOP.

MLB’s political spending serves the purpose of advancing the league’s goals in Washington, like keeping its antitrust exemption in place and being able to pay minor league players less than minimum wage.

The league suspending political spending only means that the league itself isn’t spending. It means nothing about megadonors like GOP funder and Giants owner Charles Johnson, who gave money to some of the worst of the worst people in this mess, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Reps. Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and Jim Jordan. The league can’t stop Johnson from spending his money, and apparently, neither can good sense.

It’s good PR for MLB to get its name out there as doing something. But that’s all it is, as much of a cosmetic move as annually celebrating Jackie Robinson and hoping that players wearing the No. 42 for a day will distract everyone from the massive race issues that the sport is generally clueless about addressing.