Atlanta appears to be on the verge of winning the World Series, which is bad enough on its own. But the big news last night was Donald Trump showing up at the game to do the racist tomahawk chop (and the asshole couldn’t even get the beat right…):
As optimists over here at Undrafted, I’m going to suggest that some good might come out of this. Right now, the chop is seen by a lot of people as mildly offensive and probably out of date, but ultimately harmless. We can debate whether such a view is reasonable, but if the chop becomes associated with Trump and starts to be seen as a symbol of creeping ethno-fascism, then the team and the league might finally try to put a stop to it. Even if only a small number of people see it that way, Manfred and Co. will not the culture war flaring up at every Braves game. Not out of any desire to do the right thing, but just to avoid turning off potential fans with further controversy. I’m not necessarily predicting such an outcome—I just don’t think there’s any other way the franchise or league takes steps to stop this ridiculous racist display.
Anyway, here’s a rundown of everything from Undrafted this month:
-“Socialist Playoff Preview! (American League and National League Editions)”: Our attempt to forecast baseball’s postseason for leftists did not go well—every team we warned would be a victory for capital advanced. But hopefully it was still worth listening to!
-How the Other Teams Integrated, Part Seven: 1956-1959: I’m planning to revisit this topic with some kind of big picture analysis of what lessons can be learned from the desegregation process, but this was the conclusion of the chronological portion, covering the last three baseball teams to integrate: Philadelphia, Detroit, and Boston.
-Sending the Runner is Pro-Labor: A recurring bugaboo here at Undrafted is focusing on strategic mistakes in sports, as if the players themselves are merely cogs following some rote, predetermined plan agreed upon by upper management. That’s actually been a recurring theme this postseason, and it started with the backlash to Phil Nevin’s decision to send Aaron Judge.
-Losing the Locker Room: It feels so quaint that this piece on an NFL coach losing the locker room by alienating all his players was inspired by Urban Meyer and not Jon Gruden…
-What Is To Be Done About Kyrie Irving?: One of my many attempts to work through the Kyrie Irving vaccine debate, driven by the fact that I still like Irving despite all of his bullshit.
-Root for the Dodgers: My attempt to make the case that leftists should root for the Los Angeles Dodgers. (The Dodgers were promptly eliminated.)
-“Has Baseball’s Postseason Been Good for the Left?”: The answer to this is obviously no, but listen to James and I work it out! We also discussed the integration series…
-Don’t Think For Yourself: Yet another Irving/vaccine piece. Eventually I will stop writing about this, but I am not sure exactly when…