Wiedmer: Hadn't Major League Baseball done enough to Atlanta before Sunday night?

Philadelphia Phillies' Alec Bohm (28) beats the tag from Atlanta Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud (16) to score the winning run on a Didi Gregorius sacrifice fly in the ninth inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 11, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Philadelphia Phillies' Alec Bohm (28) beats the tag from Atlanta Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud (16) to score the winning run on a Didi Gregorius sacrifice fly in the ninth inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 11, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

What's Major League Baseball got against the Big Peach these days?

Wasn't it enough that MLB took this summer's All-Star game from the city of Atlanta as a rebuke to the state's controversial new voting laws? Especially when President Biden's home state of Delaware and one of the most liberal states in the country, New York, have basically the same voting laws as Georgia?

Sure, it made for some sensational headlines and probably gave a much needed boost to CNN's plummeting ratings for a day or two, but even Biden has since seemed to hint that his early enthusiasm for yanking the game from Atlanta may have been a bit premature.

But if that wasn't enough - and costing Atlanta and its surrounding suburbs as much as $100 million for moving the All-Star game to Denver would seem way more than enough punishment to last at least a year or two - Sunday night at Truist Park brought the Video Replay Crime of the Century during the ninth inning of the Braves' 7-6 loss to Philadelphia.

Or as Braves starter Drew Smyly said with anything but a smile after watching five angles of the bang-bang play at home plate: "For MLB not to overturn that, it's embarrassing. Why even have replay if you won't overturn that?"

But do I think the Phillies' Alec Bohm was out at the plate in the ninth inning as Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud tagged him following a two-hop throw from left field by Marcell Ozuna? I didn't until about the third replay angle I saw. Then I thought his foot never touched the plate.

As time has passed, I've felt somewhat vindicated in that opinion by Tweets from established and respected major league stars Mike Trout and Justin Turner, who both ripped the replay booth's decision to stick with the original safe call by plate umpire Lance Barrett.

Of course, there is also this quote from Phillies skipper Joe Girardi, who said of the call: "It was a narrow one, and it was by the skin of the big toe that we scored. It looked like his big toe kind of hit the corner of the plate when we saw all the angles."

Kind. Of. Hit. The. Corner.

Not exactly filled with certainty, huh?

The fans were not only filled with certainty but over-the-top anger, throwing objects onto the field and shouting things that shouldn't be shouted at any sporting event. Not since that Union Army pyromaniac general William Tecumseh Sherman burned the city to the ground more than 150 years ago has so much hurt and anger swiftly engulfed the community former Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen once dubbed, "The city too busy to hate."

photo The Associated Press / Workers load an All-Star sign onto a trailer after it was removed from Truist Park in Atlanta earlier this week after Major League Baseball removed the game from the city after misinterpreting the state's new voter laws.

Of course, that Atlanta had never heard of MLB commissioner Rob Manfred or instant replay in baseball.

It's certainly enough to question the use of instant replay if it ends up like this.

But to return to voting laws and rights, who would vote on the future of replay? The owners? The coaches? The players? The fans? Would they need a valid ID to vote? Could they vote online? By mail? If it took place at every professional and Power Five conference arena and stadium, who should be allowed to provide food and water for those standing in line?

And let's face it. Everything is being replayed today, whether it be an appeal in a court of law, the court of public opinion, the replay booth, a run-off election. We're so divided on every front, on every issue, that a 51-percent majority becomes a landslide.

It was all enough to make you wonder if Manfred wasn't returning home to New York from the Masters - where he surely renounced his membership at Augusta National over his opposition to the same Georgia voting laws that caused him to yank the All-Star Game - and decided he hadn't punished the Big Peach enough. So once that call went to replay, he texted the replay official to rule Bohm safe.

Not saying that happened - especially the part about him renouncing his Augusta National membership - but MLB certainly has shown more than a small amount of hate toward the City Too Busy To Hate the last couple of weeks.

In truth, the blown replay will blow over. It's a 162-game season. It's technically possible, but highly improbable that Sunday's loss will cost the Braves a playoff spot.

But the lasting impact of the loss of the All-Star game is a different matter. A lot of that $100 million would have helped lower income and fixed income folks - many of them Black - who depend on money earned during the summers working part-time jobs at or near Truist Park.

Even if the new voting laws adversely affect Blacks more than others - and that remains more theory than fact - Atlanta is more than 50 percent Black, Denver not quite 10 percent Black. Pulling the All-Star game didn't hurt suburban whites in the Big Peach who would have sunk a good chunk of money into those All-Star festivities not reserved for corporate sponsors nearly as much as it hurt urban Blacks who hoped and needed to work those events that week.

Even President Biden admitted last week after earlier supporting MLB's move without reservation: "When they, in fact, move out of Georgia, the people who need the help the most - people who are making hourly wages - sometimes get hurt the most."

Assuming Manfred and MLB don't reverse their decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, the next best thing to repair the Peach State's hurt feelings and pocketbook might be for Augusta National to announce this week that, upon further review, it's voting Manfred out as a member.

It may not bring back the All-Star Game, but it might teach the Commish that Georgians don't need a New York lawyer telling them how to run their state.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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