MLB Shows How Social Engineers Are Ruining Sports

[UPDATE: Since publication of this article MLB has moved the All-Star Game and the MLB Draft out of Georgia. The move came after state legislators approved a new election bill that mandates all Georgia voters— even mail-in voters— must present a valid ID. MLB’s move came after pressure from major sponsors such as Delta, Coca Cola and ESPN.]

Amazing to see that, during NCAA @marchmadness, coaches are still doing in-the-grill coaching of their student athletes. The arms waving and face contorted á la Woody Hayes is a throwback to a time when coaching meant barkng like a rabid dog at kids so the alumni, bettors who wagered on your team and college presidents would think you’re committed to winning. 

Or should be committed. Can’t imagine top recruits wanting to subject themselves to a televised verbal assault in this day and age. Anyone familiar with leadership will tell you that talented players already know what they’ve done wrong while easy riders will just shut down even more in the face of a fit. (Former BMO CEO Tony Comper has a timely seminar on this aspect of coaching and leadership in his new book Personal Account)

And yet, as March Madness shows, the NCAA — the governing body for collegiate athletics in America— has become an enforcer of the new Woke narratives on race, gender and trans reality.

To appease progressive schools administrators, sponsors and its considerable population of black athletes, the NCAA has been using extortion on states and cities that aren’t Woke enough for them. Threatening to cancel high-profile sports the NCAA uses its diktats on the progressive worldview to agitate alumni and sponsors into accepting BLM, antifa and the Nancy Pelosi catechism. That includes trans rights.

A perfect example came when the state legislature in South Dakota saw governor Kristi Noem veto its bill to disqualify biological males from competing in girls’ sports. Understand that Noem is a darling of the right, mentioned in talk as a presidential candidate in 2024. No appeaser. Till now.

When the NCAA threatened to make SD a non-state for university sports, Noem collapsed (likely influenced by SD school administrators and alumni groups afraid of losing tournaments and TV money). She went on TV to mumble about lawsuits she can’t win etc. She’s right. For a small state, an NCAA fatwa is a death sentence for sports. But her political hopes are dashed.

Where does the NCAA get off telling elected officials how they should vote? Or leaning on corporations to stop working with schools that are not “safe spaces”? This hard line on conservatives while simultaneously playing footsie with Chinese running shoe makers is chilling. Seize and appease. 

It’s just a continuation of the politicization of sport we’ve seen in the few years since Colin Kaepernick, Nike’s millionaire prophet of racist sport, bent his knee to draw attention to the dozen or so unarmed blacks killed each year by cops— while drawing attention away from the 7000-plus blacks who murder other blacks in the same year.

We wrote about the now-familiar media hustle last August when sexual-assault artist Jacob Blake was paralyzed by police bullets in Wisconsin after defying a restraining order, brandishing a knife and trying to make an Amber Alert getaway in someone else’s car with his kids .

“When the media first alerted us to Jacob Blake he was the hero of a drama played out in once-sleepy Kenosha, Wisconsin. Initial reports described him as a father of three who was playing “peacemaker” in a domestic dispute when he was shot seven times in front of his children by racist police. His fiancée said he was gunned down “for nothing”. There was a very brief snippet of video used to support this story.

“Instantly the forces of Black Lives Matter sprang to action. Using their crafted narrative of (to quote Michelle Obama) “a never-ending list of innocent people of colour” gunned down by police, they alerted their captive networks to exploit the moment.

“Gullible professional sports leagues and athletes gladly complied, shutting down games and boycotting practices in solidarity with the stricken Blake who, the media told us, asked his father from his hospital bed, “Why did they shoot me, Daddy?” NBA star LeBron James (who is black) to NFL QB Matthew Stafford (white) decried the alleged racism and endless brutality against blacks. 

“Too bad. In their zeal they ignored a few nagging questions about Mr. Blake that might well have saved them their credibility with fans. Which today lies in rubble. (Warning: graphic details) According to a (2020) victim report, Blake entered his girlfriend’s residence at 6 AM on May 3, digitally penetrated her against her will as she lay in bed with one of her children, sniffed his finger and said, “Smells like you’ve been with other men”. He then stole her car keys and fled the scene. 

The distraught woman said that Blake— who already had disorderly conduct arrests involving pointing guns— beat her up every six months or so “when he drinks heavily”. Charges were later dropped when— as often happens in sexual assault cases— the woman declined to go forward with the case (she’s now being represented by Blake’s own lawyer).

“He was at it again when the 911 call came in last week as Blake defied a restraining order at this woman’s home. A sexual abuser. A violent punk. A gun waver. That’s the upstanding citizen the NFL decided, in haste, to lionize. As did the NBA, MLB and, eventually, the NHL. (Is “Smells like you’ve been with other men” LeBron’s next NIKE ad campaign?) To celebrate this creep downtown Kenosha was burned, businesses destroyed, at least two people killed…”

Blake remains one of those BLM icons named on helmets, jerseys and running shoes of pro athletes. But no one in corporate America notices the contradiction so long as  you wear the right sweater or play for the right team in DC. What was once American sport is becoming East Germany with its own thought police. Just ask the athletes who competed against the DDR’s engineered athletes how that felt.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx