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Yes, the All-Star Game is coming to Denver.
On April 2, Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred announced that the 2021 All-Star Game would no longer take place in Atlanta. That’s because Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an electoral law on the last day of March that lawmakers passed in direct response to all rumors of electoral fraud in that state – though none of those rumors were supported by a shred of Evidence (much less a hanging Chad).
Georgia’s law is one of the most draconian in the country – opponents argue that it disenfranchises colored people by introducing new restrictions on postal ballots and voter registration – and the reaction has been just as drastic. In addition to MLB’s move, other big outfits are pulling big events out of the state, especially Atlanta.
But the loss of the All-Star Game is particularly painful. When Atlanta hosted the event in 2000, it received an economic boost of $ 49 million, according to the Baseball Almanac. This year’s game should earn the city an additional $ 100 million.
Now all that money is going to Mile High City. MLB will announce today that Coors Field will be the replacement location for this year’s All-Star Game, the date to be set. The ballpark has only hosted an all-star game once: in 1995, when the ballpark was just three years old.
Not only is it Denver turn, but it has an ironic bonus in bringing the game to Mile High City.
EXPAND
Home to Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, just blocks from Coors Field.
Patricia Calhoun
Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver-based company that has been the focus of most unsubstantiated election fraud rumors across the country, especially Georgia, is headquartered just blocks from Coors Field (not that employees work in that building these days). Moving the game here is a political home run for free and fair elections and for the Denver economy.
Colorado’s politicians have welcomed the move that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms accepted with resignation in this tweet: “Just as elections have consequences, so do the actions of those elected. Unfortunately, the removal of the @MLB All Star game from GA is likely the first of many dominoes to fall until the unnecessary barriers that limit access to the ballot box are removed. “
As the same politicians from Colorado Bottoms have said, she is right: after Amendment 2, a measure against gay rights, was passed in 1992, Colorado was declared a hate state and boycotted by businesses, events and tourists. That changed slowly but definitely, and the US Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 1996. Today Colorado has the country’s first openly gay governor – and Jared Polis is a huge baseball fan and promises to “burn the phones”. “To bring the All-Star Game to Denver.
Now the MLB has responded.
“Colorado set the gold standard for making elections fair, safe, and accessible, and the MLB recognized that effort by moving the 2021 All-Star Game to Denver,” said Senator John Hickenlooper, who makes many beers for baseball fans who dropped by the Wynkoop Brewing Company after the 1998 All-Star Game. “Our democracy is always strengthened as more people vote. As President Reagan said, ‘Suffrage is the crown jewel of American freedoms, and we will not lose its shine . ‘”
A footnote: will the 2021 All-Star Game be received with the same excitement as the 1998 edition? Hopes for the Colorado Rockies were certainly higher then and the Coors Field area was really starting to get busy. One of the biggest souvenirs of the day was Glory, an all-star beanie baby that goes on sale online today for between $ 2,000 (very popular) and $ 20,000 (pristine). In response to the hype of the time, Westword made good use of its fame: we blew it up in an early web stunt that was (barely) captured in the video above.
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Patricia Calhoun co-founded Westword in 1977; She has been an editor since then. She is a regular at the weekly CPT12 roundtable Colorado Inside Out, played a true journalist in John Sayles’ Silver City, once interviewed President Bill Clinton in flip-flops, and received numerous national awards for her columns and features.
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