Woke Sports Media Owe Atlanta Braves And Georgia An Apology For Pushing False Narrative About State’s Voting Laws

The woke media rejoiced when the MLB moved the location of the All-Star game from Atlanta in 2021. Now they need to apologize.

Major League Baseball announced that the 2025 All-Star Game will take place in Atlanta, GA. It’s a course correction from the nonsensical, illogical decision to move the game out of the state because of Georgia’s “restrictive” voting laws in 2021.

League commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Thursday, awkwardly and quietly admitting he was wrong to cave to left-wing pressure two years ago.

As OutKick’s Ian Miller pointed out, Manfred should write a lengthy apology to the Atlanta Braves and their fans. But he’s not the only one who should be trying to backtrack their claims either.

The Voting Laws Georgia Passed Helped Protect Election Integrity, And Did Not Restrict Black Citizens

Before looking at who said what two years ago, we need to understand the context of the times.

Manfred made the decision in April of 2021, just five months after the most contentious presidential election in history. Countless Americans doubted the integrity of the election, so Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wanted to make sure that didn’t happen during elections in the Peach State. As such, he passed Senate Bill 202 to protect elections.

Here are some bullet point about what the bill included as future guidelines for elections.

Nothing about this bill was restrictive, yet President Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams said the bill reeked of “voter suppression,” and characterized it as modern day “Jim Crow.” They claimed it suppressed Black people’s ability to vote within the state, which (like most things they say) was as accurate as an Ángel Hernández strike call.

As such, Manfred pulled the game out of Atlanta and moved it to Denver, CO. But New York Times author Jim Rickards accurately pointed out that this was an incredibly damaging move for the Black community in Atlanta.

I'd like for Manfred to make this move make sense. But even he probably knows he can't.

Multiple Prominent Sports Figures Helped Push This Incorrect Narrative

You’d expect senseless rhetoric from the likes of those two, since they’ve completely lost their minds. But former players, sports personalities, and reporters alike jumped on the race-obsessed bandwagon in the aftermath.

Former MLB legend Reggie Jackson (a.k.a., “Mr. October”), said he was proud of Manfred's course of action.

“The stand that Major League Baseball makes, to me, is very powerful and the first time that they’ve really stepped up since I can remember,” Jackson said.

Now Jackson was one of the best baseball players ever. He was brilliant at the plate and in clutch situations. But I’m afraid that’s where his excellence ends.

“Pardon The Interruption” commentator Micahel Wilbon rejoiced when Manfred switched the location for the Midsummer Classic.

“My reaction is not just good, but great. Many in the state of Georgia have decided that people who look like me black and brown people, shouldn't vote. And if you’re gonna vote, we’re going to make it as difficult as we can for you to vote.”

Man, I get it, Wilbon. Extending the early voting period and installing convenient absentee ballot mailboxes in each country certainly reeks of communist-level voter suppression. Move over Sherlock Holmes, there’s a new super-sleuth in town!

Unsurprisingly, Wilbon has yet to comment on the 2025 announcement. And he probably won’t.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today got equally as vocal regarding his supreme pleasure about Manfred’s decision. He even went as far to say that it was one of the most seminal moments in baseball history.

“Major League Baseball, in its boldest move since integrating its sport in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, announced Friday that Atlanta will be stripped of hosting the 2021 All-Star Game,” Nightingale wrote.

That’s just a tad dramatic, don’t you think? But he went on.

“You can’t preach about appealing to a diverse audience, and stay silent when there are political issues that impact that very audience,” Nightingale said.

I think Nightengale had the same level of understanding of SB 202 as Wilbon did. Which is to say, of course, that he had none.

Nevertheless, he fantasized of a day in the future when people would recall that day as historic.

“This date, April 2, 2021, perhaps will resonate in baseball history,” he concluded.

The date that’s truly going to resonate in baseball history is November 2, 2021. That’s when the Braves served up some perfectly poetic justice by winning the World Series despite getting stiffed from the idiotic likes of Manfred (who was appropriately booed during the trophy presentation)

When Nightengale found out about the 2025 decision, he also blandly reported the announcement.

No dramatic column, no hopefully anticipation of whether fans will remember November 16, 2023. Just a silent admission that he was wrong to rejoice two years ago.

Members Of The Woke Media Were Dead Wrong In Their Assessment Of SB 202

Why are these guys silent, you may ask? Well, for one, it’s human nature to not own up to your mistakes.

But the most damning thing to their narrative is the voter turnout in Georgia since SB 202 got passed. In 2022, the Peach State saw several voter turnout records get shattered by the number of Georgians showing up for a variety of elections. 

But how can that be possible? Weren’t the laws supposed to be super restrictive? That’s what woke “experts” said, so it must be true!

Not according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“Georgia is the bellwether state, and because of that Georgia voters play a key role in choosing our nation’s course,” Raffensperger said. “It’s easy to cast your vote in Georgia, and voters have the confidence that their vote will count” (italics mine).

Additionally, 0 percent of black voters in Georgia reported having a bad experience in the state’s elections in 2022. It’s almost like this narrative was a load of bull junk from the beginning. 

But the thing about progressives and the woke media is that they’re fine with spewing nonsense. All they care about is getting what they want. Pushing these narratives is easy, because it doesn’t require you to be intellectually honest. All it takes is for you to be as loud and obnoxious as possible until you get your way, even if they're dead wrong. 

So don’t expect Manfred, Jackson, Wilbon, Nightengale, or anyone who pushed this narrative to own up to their mistakes, since progressive often don’t. But that doesn’t mean apologies aren’t in order.