ATLANTA — While Major League Baseball likes to frame itself as a pleasant diversion from society’s woes, political realities frequently puncture the game’s bubble.
That point was illustrated in multiple fashions Tuesday during press conferences with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Players’ Association executive director Tony Clark.
Perhaps the most immediate day-to-day reality is the Department of Homeland Security’s aggressive actions apprehending people of Latin American descent on U.S. soil. MLB’s significant bloc of Latino players have been put on alert, Clark said.
The message: Carry your papers, always.
“It is a concern,” Clark says of the seemingly chaotic sweeps conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, one of which ended with DHS vans attempting to stage activities in Dodger Stadium parking lots. “We’re trying to put them in the best position possible to navigate the atmosphere that we are in with regards to immigration.
“We told them to carry their documentation wherever they go. We ensure the lines of communication are open so that if they’re having an issue or a family member is having an issue, how best can we help support that.”
There were 216 players from Latin American countries on opening-day rosters, with 100 from the Dominican Republic and 63 from Venezuela, comprising 27.7% of all major leaguers. Players must secure visas before the start of every season, a process that can sometimes delay arrivals to spring training.
As such, the union has immigration counselors and attorneys on staff.
“To provide provide support in a way that we have in the past – but not to the extent we do now, in order to assure guys are in the best position possible to come to the ballpark and do their jobs,” says Clark. “It is complicated. It is challenging on multiple levels. But we continue to communicate to our guys, whether on the minor league level or major league level, this how best to protect yourself in the nearest term, by having appropriate documentation.”
Manfred said the league reached out to the Trump administration and received assurances there would be “for our players going back and forth, say, between the US and Canada. They told us that would happen and that’s happened. Beyond that, it’s all speculation.”
Given the visa status of MLB players, Manfred says the prospect of disruption “is speculation at this point. We’ve seen no evidence of that.”
Manfred spoke from a top floor meeting room of a corporate building overlooking Atlanta’s Battery and Truist Park. The sprawling complex was supposed to host the 2021 All-Star Game, but Manfred moved the game after the state of Georgia passed voting laws widely viewed as discriminatory.
He said then that moving the game was “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport. Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Yet in November 2023, he awarded the 2025 game to Atlanta, even as the voting laws the league found distasteful had not changed.
With game day at hand, Manfred was asked again: How were “baseball’s values as a sport” in alignment with Georgia in 2025 when they weren’t in 2021?
“I think the reason to come back here is self-revealing,” Manfred said, atop a perch that looks down upon Punch Bowl Social, Shake Shack and other options that eventually lead a visitor into Truist Park.
“Walk around here and see the level of interest, the level of excitement, the great facility, the support this market has given to the Atlanta Braves and baseball generally – that’s a real good reason to come back here.”
While Manfred remains cagey on the calculus that drove this Midsummer Classic back to Atlanta, another action earlier this year – the scrubbing of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from web pages touting MLB’s Diversity Pipeline – reflected a form of political pragmatism.
Manfred removed the All-Star Game from Atlanta days after President Joe Biden suggested that was an appropriate punitive measure. The scrubbing of DEI mentions from the league’s official web site came after executive orders from the Trump administration seeking to end DEI in public and private sectors.
“Sometimes you have to look at how the world is changing around you and readjust to where you are,” he says. “There were certain aspects of some of our programs that were very explicitly race- and gender-based.
“We know, because there were public comments to that effect, that people in Washington were aware of them. We felt it was important to recast our programs in a way to make sure we could continue on with our programs, continue to pursue the values we have always adhered to without tripping what could be legal problems that would interfere with that process.
“That’s my judgment at the end of the day. I think I made the right one.”