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I'm really tempted to write a blog post about La Russa and Justin Turner that basically suggests that Major League Baseball just doesn't care, about safety, about race, about fans, about anything. It's not quite NFL bad, but its damn close.
The way they handled the pandemic was stupid. They had two teams sit out for weeks because they didn't control stuff. Players were selfish and reckless. Before Turner you had Cleveland's Zach Plesac hanging out with friends at bars. They demoted him for a little bit, that's it.
They have had a lukewarm celebration of the Negro Leagues centennial. I credit the attention and the awareness to the NLBM more than MLB. They could do way more to embrace the history. It's all individual or team based at this point. They don't care.
Unlike the NFL, the MLB rarely if ever shows a united front. Its economic model is based on team revenue not league revenue. They don't want to work together to grow the game or become more inclusive. They constantly fight with each other. La Russa is part of this old boys club.
The old boys club where you play by 'unwritten rules' which are quite similar to 'gentleman's agreements' and you flex your own view of masculinity and selfish privilege while claiming it was colorblind hard work. I sometimes wonder if baseball culture is more toxic than the NFL
because these hierarchies continue to exist. They rely on a minority labor but in a different way. MLB uses Latinx/Hispanic players who escape poverty, many coming to a new country with limited language abilities. MLB to this day does little to help with that (i.e. translators)
This is a much more complicated form of the athletic plantation where exploitation is easier, at least initially, and the culture is embedded through rewards for silence. It allows people like La Russa to get rich and shut down dissent. He is right to be scared of activism.
The kind of collective action and consciousness seen in the NBA or in some circles of the NFL would destroy baseball. Maybe this is why baseball pays so much more. Keep them happy so they don't ask for real change or action.
I am getting a bit off topic, and I am a baseball fan, but the sport really doesn't care about changing its culture. It thrives on importing talent that it can exploit without having to invest in community. All they need are Latin American academies. It's gross.
So La Russa doesn't care. The MLB doesn't care about Covid. It just wants to keep the revenues coming in. Changing the culture and embracing social justice initiatives it views as a threat to its bottom line and middle age white fans.
In summary, MLB doesn't care about Black and Brown people. It barely cares about its fans. The whole system is built on greed, exploitation, and not rocking the boat. It's what is wrong with much of America. And La Russa and Turner the face of that. Pure and simple selfishness.
